George Orwell Pub, New Brighton

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While on holiday, my sister messaged me to tell me that this pub had changed its name from the James Atherton to the George Orwell, in protest at Kier Starmer’s plan to introduce mandatory digital ID cards for all UK citizens. See this article on the BBC website (note, the pub is in New Brighton and not Wallasey, well done).

Big Brother Watch posted this article on its website, explaining the issues and potential problems.

It seems that when Kier Starmer got in to power, one of the things he said he would never do is introduce digital IDs. He’s now reversed that position. Yet another Labour U-turn. There was no mention of this in their election manifesto. It would seem he’s not even bothering to wait for the findings of the parliamentary Home Affairs Committee’s ongoing enquiry into digital ID systems.

Immigration and Employment Fraud

It seems he’s hoping to deter illegal immigration and employment fraud. Not convinced. We already have laws that say it is illegal to employ people who are not UK citizens. Some employers ignore this, the same employers will almost certainly ignore this new digital ID. I don’t think it’ll deter the illegal boat people.

A Honeypot for Hackers

We have identity theft, but the thief needs to get a lot of information about you, from multiple sources. With a digital ID all that information will be one place. The digital ID database will be a honeypot for hackers, both criminal and nation state.

The government is telling us that Estonia’s system is a good one. Back in 2021 a hacker managed to steal just over 286,000 photos from their database!

Mission Creep

At first government is just trying to stop illegal immigration and employment fraud.

But once the system has been set up it can be used for other things. Walking along the street a policeman stops you, ‘papers please’. I think I read somewhere that they might want details of our bank accounts, I’m almost certain I was mistaken (I probably read it in a tabloid newspaper). But, in the future, who knows.

It needs to be stopped.

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