http://economist.com/world/europe/displayStory.cfm?story_id=4134025 Magic plastic Jun 30th 2005 From The Economist print edition TO BOOSTERS, they promise to ease everything from race relations to opening a bank account. To critics, they are a costly affront to free-born Englishmen, a looming technological disaster and a political millstone—plastic equivalents of the poll tax, which tipped Margaret Thatcher out of power 15 years ago. This week's preliminary vote in the House of Commons on a bill to establish a national identity card means it is only a matter of time before Britons find out who is right. If the government's plans stay on track, Britons will, within three years, begin to receive cards containing personal details, together with a digital photograph, fingerprints and an iris scan. A nation that has not possessed identity cards since 1952 will, in a step, acquire the world's most complex system. At the heart of the scheme is a national identity register, which will record basic personal details: name, sex, date and place of birth, address, nationality, immigration status and the numbers of documents such as driver's licences and passports. [...remainder snipped...] _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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