back to article Blunkett and ex-CPS chief turn on Home Office

David Blunkett, who as Home Secretary led the government's push for compulsory ID cards, will tomorrow call for the scheme to be curtailed, according to a report. Instead he will propose that only foreigners be made to hold an ID card. UK nationals should only be required to hold a passport, Blunkett will argue. He will make …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ursine defecation proceeds in sylvan regions

    In other news, Tony Blair will demand prosecution of the war criminals who attacked Iraq. And Gordon Brown will lay into those responsible for the excessive deregulation of the last ten years. (Oh wait, that already happened).

    A week is a long time in politics, isn't it? In other words, politicians think we are so dumb we can't remember anything for more than a week.

  2. Nomen Publicus

    Worms turn, politicians ...

    In further news, the shower of shit that rained onto No 10 this morning is reported to come from a flock of flying pigs.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Backbench hot air

    What a shame the c*nt never said a word of this (in fact much the opposite!) when he had a position to really do something.

  4. Snake Plissken

    Only one way to describe this

    The hypocritical *bastard*.

  5. John Bailey
    Alert

    Bit out of character..

    After such a change in his long professed beliefs, I was half expecting him to finish by saying " Oh.. and I'm not actually blind"

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What a shower of cunts

    Our political system is badly broken. It has no place for commitment to long term ideals, plans or opinions. As proven here, those against such things to the best in our system.

    We lurch from one faff to the next on 4 or 8 year cycles.

    Civilisation? One day, maybe.

  7. Ted Bovis
    Black Helicopters

    it's f***ing Blunkett, for f**k's sake!

    What a lovely idea. Blunkett's realised that all the auto-drivel spouted by Home Office nonsense-bot Meg Hillier is not helping the already moribund ID cards 'service'. So he's come up with an interesting plan - let's get rid of the actual cards (which nobody has anyway) and bolt all the nasty database stuff onto the passport (which 80% of the population has) instead. That way our caring information-sharing government can say "We're getting rid of ID cards; now you're free to vote for us again" - and then essentially designate the passport as an ID card (which is allowed under the Identity Cards Act). At a stroke, 80% of the population will have an ID card, cunningly disguised as a passport.

    It's f***ing Blunkett, for f**k's sake!

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    About time, too

    Blunkett was the proponent of this whole system and single-handedly organised the Home Office into the Orwellian ministry it is now. Jack Straw, his predecessor, was a bit of a fascist but Blunkett went further - he made sure that ID cards hit the top of the pile, time and again. So why now is he rescinding his support?

    If you'll remember, David Blunkett sits on the board of Entrust, the American company that won the tender for the infrastructure of the ID cards scheme, and the manufacture of the cards themselves. That is, he did - but on Entrust's website he's just not listed as being on the board. So maybe his vested interest in the tagging and tracking of us all has expired - or maybe the scheme to tag all the kiddies (apparently this circumvents child abuse and paedophiles) will pay off when, in 18 years time, the register is extended to adults too.

    Much as surveillance is an underlying concept of New Labour, the failure of the authorities to keep our data safe has meant that support for privatising data handling, and putting the responsibility for our private, personal and financial data into the hands of negligent corporations, is dying out. No-one seems to want to support the government packet-sniffing on our internet activities, when this is the modus operandi of albeit more overtly criminal organisations. They are using intimidation to legitimise covert mass surveillance, which is futile - if I was planning a terrorist attack, I wouldn't communicate in open view. So the surveillance, again, (sorry to be a bore) only affects us that have 'nothing to hide, nothing to fear'.

    Perhaps Blunkett and his Nu Labour successors will stick to realistic aims, instead of trying to ban the internet, tag our kids, and shut us up.

  9. Tony

    I have a better idea

    'Let's stop filling our prisons with junkies, inadequates and the mentally damaged'

    I have a better idea... Lets stop filling our government with junkies, inadequates and the mentally damaged.

  10. James Pickett

    Shame

    "How apposite in 2009 to have, instead, a few more laws to confront the clever people who have done their best to steal our economy."

    Well, that lets Dubya off the hook...

  11. Steven Walker
    Alien

    Sir Humphrey and the other lizard people

    Why do politicians speak and think differently before and after high office but do the opposite when they are in a position to actually do something? I remember when Blunkett and most of the labour party were left of centre libertarians. Now it is Jacqui Smith who is running around tmpersonationg a semi-trained rotweiler.

    Could it be Sir Humphrey in the background setting the agenda? These billion pound IT schemes are just the sort of thing to give their departments kudos.

  12. Tony

    All becomes clear

    "Oh. Now I understand Sadie! You meant one bark for 'yes', two barks for 'no' and three barks for 'You are turning the country into a fascist state that Stalin would be proud of'....."

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    Pay attention, Britards!

    Such soft talk from the Blunkett is designed for consumption by a bunch of easily satisfied Labour voters who had flirted with the idea of not voting Labour at the next election. (Not that they'd vote for anyone else, being mostly like a bunch of sulking football supporters whose team is busy losing matches.)

    On the basis of a softer message, such people will feel reassured that they aren't selling everybody out, purely on the say-so of someone they voted for last time, and as they vote the government in for another term, in will roll the full-strength "terror" legislation of choice supposedly with the mandate of the electorate.

    Oh, and don't forget to vote in the European elections this year. Not only will your votes actually count, you can even vote for the people who might end up protecting your freedoms.

  14. Rick Byers
    Unhappy

    Only Following Orders, Guv

    Excellent, so the 'Only following orders' excuse is still valid then???

    Will someone in this shower of muppets please stand up and take responsibility for something????

  15. P. Lee
    Thumb Down

    @Ted

    Agree. A passport should only be needed to request passage in foreign countries, not your own. Why would it suddenly become "required"?

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hold on a moment

    This is Mr 'I want the UK to be a prison without walls' Blunkett changing his mind..

    I'm not so sure.

    UK nationals should carry a passport only!?!?!

    Is this before or after the inclusion of that damn biometric information?!

    And foreign nationals have to have ID cards.

    Right because their passports dont have biometrics and you want them dont you Blunkett!! Come on come clean!

    The only reason hes done this is he already has his way and you biometric info is already tagged somewhere in the system. All he needs is a little function creep and hes sorted (oh wait I think he already has it)

    Its a pointeless comment appealing to the current public opinion while doing nothing to stem the pointless culling of all personal data by the state

    Zieg heil!!!

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    No ID, just a passport

    "UK nationals should only be required to hold a passport, Blunkett will argue."

    What, to travel around their own bloody country? Next it'll be internal travel authorisations.

    There are none so blind as those who will not... oh.

  18. ElFatbob

    Sir Ken for PM

    "Forget the paranoiac paraphernalia of national databases, identity cards and all the other liberty-sapping addictions of the Home Office. Forget the rhetoric and do something useful," he wrote.

    "Let's have fewer terrorism acts, fewer laws attacking our right to speak frankly and freely. Let's stop filling our prisons with junkies, inadequates and the mentally damaged. How apposite in 2009 to have, instead, a few more laws to confront the clever people who have done their best to steal our economy."

    Sounds like the basis of policy i could actually vote for.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    Point missed

    You have missed the point completely.

    Registering on the Identity Database is going to be a condition of getting a passport. So if passports become compulsory, then registering on the Identity Database becomes compulsory. And the National Identity Scheme is accelerated, not stopped.

    Forget about the ID Card itself. The Home Office don't give a monkeys whether you get an ID Card or not. All they care about is that you register on the database. Then they can link every strand of your life together with one unique number, and track you every time you are checked against the register (card or no card).

  20. Chris Williams (Written by Reg staff)

    Re: Point missed

    Think we spotted that Rob.

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/23/blunkett_id_speech/

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    looks like

    the blind bastard has got something _else_ to hide.

    mind you, the stupid prat probably still envisages an army of bureaucrats fucking us about and wanting dna, fingerprints etc etc

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Oh FFS!

    It's Monday morning and I must have fallen down a rabbit hole somewhere where David Blunkett is the guardian of our liberties.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Re: Point missed

    Hi Chris - Well, feeling like an idiot I re-read the piece. But I must admit, I didn't see the part where you "spotted that". Am I suffering from reading difficulties today, or did the part you're referring to not make the final edition?

  24. Jimmy

    For what we are about to receive........

    ........may we be truly watchful. Two-time loser Blunkett has popped up over the radar horizon during the past few weeks, giving several interviews to the media in an attempt to resurrect his political credibility. Whether his new-found respect for the rights of UK citizens is a true conversion on the road to Damascus or just a typical load of New Labour bullshit only time will tell. But you can be sure that it wouldn't be happening unless he had received the nod from Brown himself.

    Meanwhile, back at the ranch house the Wacky one is being dissed and set up for a fall by the party spin machine. Is there any connection between the resurrection of Blunkett and the imminent demise of Jacqui? Do bears shit in the woods?

    One of Blunkett's more sceptical interviewers can be found over here:

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/feb/14/david-blunkett-politics

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Halo

    At last......

    a Labour Party member has found a brain !. Maybe he can breed them and given one to Brown and his fellow cohorts. As for the ID suggestion, yes good Idea ,give them to the potential terror....I mean citizens from abrioad.

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @ Tom Welsh

    Thanks for that, Tom, absolutely made my day.

  27. goggyturk

    Opportunity for Clarkson

    Disability - check

    Regional accent - check

    Labour Politician - check

    However, I don't think the phrase 'English Cretin' will go down too well with the Daily Fail readers that seem to hang on his every word. Regardless of what phrase precedes it...

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    @ Chris Williams

    It needs to pointed out in fifty foot high letters so that there's no chance of any possible misunderstanding! This bastard's still trying to fuck us. This on the same day that the Guardian reports the police are worried about mass riots during the summer.

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Rob findlay

    I am confused by this part of your statement..

    <quote>

    and track you every time you are checked against the register (card or no card).

    </quote>

    How are they going to track you if you have no card?

    How are they going to check you against the register, with no card?

    Please can you clarify this.

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    @wayne tavitt

    "the blind bastard"

    This is a bit harsh for someone who sacrificed their sight during those early iris scanning experiments.

  31. John Smith Gold badge
    Joke

    Data sharing clause stuffed in Coroners bill was benign

    Jack Straw just wants to help people..

    "People" being ministers who want to copy any data their department holds to any other depart or company they want without the annoying delays of getting a relevant law passed. In fact without needing any kind of parliamentary approval.

    How kind of him.

  32. Phil Hare

    @ Tony 12:31 GMT

    "...a fascist state that Stalin would be proud of."

    I can't see Stalin ever being proud of a fascist state, but I get your point.

  33. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Aimee

    Aimee - Think about how you access your bank account. You can already do banking transactions without your bank card (in your branch, on the phone, or on the internet).

    In exactly the same way you will be able to transact with the Identity Database without using your ID Card. You'll have a PIN number and password, and for face-to-face transactions you could use your fingerprints. This means that, even if you have no card, you can say who you claim to be and then provide evidence. When a physical document is required, then other documents such as your passport will be accepted instead of an ID Card.

    (A big difference between the identity scheme and your bank, though, is that if your bank card number is abused then the bank cancels it immediately and issues you with a new one. If your national identity number or copies of your fingerprints start being abused by criminals, how will you repair your identity? Soon, somebody may be about to find out that it isn't easy.)

  34. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Serving Suggestion

    'Let's stop filling our prisons with junkies, inadequates and the mentally damaged'

    I have a better idea: lets start filling our prisons with these two-faced criminal fuckwits we laughingly refer to government ministers.

    Then move on into the sunlight uplands ...

  35. Anonymous Coward
    Go

    The government we deserve?

    Of course - they could follow the usual trend where advice is "unsolicited" and just destroy the reputation of the expert in question:

    Drugs - "look at the statistics" is greeted with scorn and you are villified in the press

    WMD - well you end up dead for that one, after you've been villified in the press

    CEO of a major company? - villified for saying the UK economy is on the skids. (close the curtains on the train comrade - then we can pronounce that the train is moving!)

    Senior member of a trade union? Villified for suggesting that a car plant (I wonder if it's the one closed for 1/3rd of the YEAR) might run out of cash and have to close.

    Ex head of MI5 who claims that the threat of terrorism is grossly overpublicised to pass onerous legislation - shouted down.

    Under this sickening administration an expert is only an expert for as long as he agrees with the government.

    I wonder if we'll see wholesale changes to history to show Blunkett as a traitor and enemy of the state he once acted as such a favoured mouthpiece for?

    Don't ever lose sight of the fact they want us branded, in fear and controlled.

    Go? I wish they would. bLIAR has ruined this country, and now brown is just pissing on the corpse.

  36. RW
    Boffin

    @ Steven Walker

    Quoth he: Why do politicians speak and think differently before and after high office but do the opposite when they are in a position to actually do something?

    It's a common problem, not just in politics. When I was still working, I always wondered why many of the senior managers acted like demented gargoyles at work; surely to heavens they didn't act that way at home?

    It was like they unzipped their thorax, removed their heart, and put it on the bedroom dresser before leaving for work in the morning.

    After years of sparring with those assholes and wondering, I finally concluded that it was a version of Parkinson's law in effect: they'd risen above their level of competence, didn't have a clue how to behave, so they used the best model close to hand: the behavior of a Mafia don.

    Either that or they had wives they'd terrorized into submission, just as they tried to terrorize their employees.

    Along with the bankers, the financial traders, all Republicans, the NuLabour party, lawyers and assorted other groups of social undesirables, liars, and bullshit artists, the gargoyle crowd needs to be given a one-way ticket to the 200 mile limit.

  37. Chris Williams (Written by Reg staff)

    Re: Point missed

    Sorry Rob, wrong link. I was trying to point you to this commentary: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/23/blunkett_id_switch/

    Best,

    - Chris

  38. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    @Chris Williams

    Ah yes. You have indeed, and I am sorry I doubted the esteemed Reg!

  39. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ken McD for PM

    Rare to see so prominent a public figure become so useful.

    Blunkett, however, can shut the f**k up.

  40. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    @ Snake Plissken

    Snake Plissken ? I thought you were dead.

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