Tony Blair Believes He Knows What You Think
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair believes he knows what you think. Or perhaps he believes you are stupid. Britons will willingly sacrifice privacy for efficiency he says, and that efficiency includes not only digital ID “cards” but facial recognition. The latter exists already and has been used widely but mostly covertly by the police.
What does Mr Blair’s efficiency entail, precisely? Well, he claims further that it could be used to “bring order to illegal immigration” and to “stop populists”.
Why should he or anyone want to stop populism? That is of course a rhetorical question. More to the point, what does he mean by bringing order to illegal immigration? The vast majority of the public want to stop illegal immigration, period. The British Government could do that in an instant but the people running it do not want to, that is the prosaic truth.
The reality is that digital ID means digital tyranny. National government, local government and all manner of agencies – private as well as public – hold enormous amounts of information on you. Much of that is non-controversial and even essential. To take one example, if you are admitted to hospital or are being treated by your local doctors’ surgery, the relevant staff have access to your medical records. This can include allergies, conditions like haemophilia and so on. Ignorance of some medical conditions by the treating physician or pharmacist can lead to the death of the patient, but this information should be restricted on a need to know basis. Of course, if you want to go on Facebook and broadcast it to the world, that is down to you, but medical privacy and other matters such as business confidentiality, journalistic or legal professional privilege, are no business of anyone without the relevant authorisation.
Police officers and others are regularly disciplined, sacked or even prosecuted for abusing their powers by accessing confidential or secret information and disclosing it to unauthorised people. Digital ID would put all your personal information – including incorrect information – on-line for all manner of bureaucrats and others to access.
The photograph below shows two Jews in Nazi Germany where most – but not all – were obliged to wear a yellow star on their clothing.
This is something that still causes outrage today with left wing groups, yet the very same people have absolutely no objection to individuals being in effect forced to carry such ID on them. The next step will be for a micro-chip to be implanted under your skin to monitor your every move, your every utterance, and to fine you any time you step out of line. Before you laugh at that suggestion, you should note that the technology to bring this about is already in place. The only things lacking are the will to carry it out and the pretext on which to do so.
Tony Blair worked 10 years on a peace plan for Northern Ireland that worked. I remember going back to no barbed wire, no bombs that killed my friends both Catholics and Protestant and being able to cross borders without fear. Anyone who grew up in Northern Ireland will remember that. For that I shall always remember him. His wife also changed laws in countries that protected women and children in dire situations. Whatever else happened in the world I will not forget the relief I felt for my family and relatives in what had been a very uncertain and frightening situation for decades. A bomb blew a hole in the road in front of the school bus that deafened all the kids for a week and a landrover full of young soldiers was scatters in the fields with fingers and body parts being found for weeks. We missed bombs by minutes every other day and much of the Troubles never reached the news.