[continued from previous message] 
  
 terminals with access to the NIR will mean that people's privacy will almost 
 certainly be breached illegally. 
  
 The ID card bill has become law. 'Enrolment facilities' are being built and 
 Courtney is seeking the best way of charging the private sector for checks 
 against the database. We are going ahead with this thing despite ministerial 
 admissions that the scheme will do nothing to stop illegal immigration or 
 terrorism, and is unlikely to deter criminal gangs which have already 
 compromised the chip and pin security. The option now remaining is 
 large-scale public protest. We need a national debate on the running of 
 official databases and the handling of personal information, for let's not 
 forget that privacy is dear to us. The Information Commissioner's report 
 makes clear that protecting people's personal information ranks third in the 
 list of the public's social concerns, alongside the NHS. Concern in this 
 area is growing, the report says, which is something that David Cameron 
 should note. 
  
 In the meantime, I find myself wishing a hearty damnation to Courtney and 
 her business plans, to the unified database of 'transformational 
 government', to the incompetence and arrogance of the Home Office, to any 
 bureaucrat who seeks to define an individual's identity with compulsory 
 biometric measurement backed up by threats. If one thing has become clear in 
 the last few weeks, it is that the government is not fit to be trusted with 
 either setting up the National Identity Register or running it. 
  
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