Maybe you would have a problem if you were conversant with the atmosphere in this country.

 

 

 

I agree with Geraint. Here in the Netherlands (supposedly a liberal country) everyone is obliged to carry ID cards. I can't understand the fuss that is being made in the UK, but then I have been out of the country for 12 years and have lost some of my island mentality.
I have absolutely no problem with being required to have my card with me at all times. I would also have no problem with being asked by a policeman to produce an ID card as being a law-abiding citizen I would have nothing to hide.


Sarah Humphrey, Documentalist
Director General's Cabinet, Records Management/DG-CR
European Space Agency
European Space Research and Technology Centre
Noordwijk, Netherlands

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"jones, geraint" <[log in to unmask]> Sent by: Chartered Library and Information Professionals <[log in to unmask]> 19/05/2004 13:57 Please respond to Chartered Library and Information Professionals

To:        [log in to unmask]         cc:                 Subject:        Re: ID Cards, the National Identity Register and Data Protection

I would have no problem with carrying an ID card.  I would have no problem with a compusory  system.  The benefits are many and varied.  There's a lot of truth in the old chestnut of 'if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear'.  I appreciate that there are possible dangers and that there are Civil Liberties issues but I believe that the personal benefits to me and the benefits to society at large outweigh these as long as we live in a democracy.  If the 'living in a democracy' situation ever changes, ID cards will be the least of our worries.

I do have some concerns.  I would object to a system (which some European countries have) in which a police officer can just walk up to you in the street and demand to see an ID card for no reason or 'on suspicion'.  Something would have to be written into 'Judge's Rules', PACE or whichever regulations govern police procedures these days.  A crime would have to have been just committed in the immediate vicinity, which someone may possibly have either perpetrated or been a witness to, or a police officer may see someone climbing into or out of a window etc.before he would be able to ask to see an ID card.

I also agree with Amanda that having the system administered by a private company is an absolute no-no. I am not currently honing my breath holding techniques in the expectation that this, or any other government, will be learning any lessons about anything - the tame security firm they use up here in Scotland wrongly released another criminal yesterday!

Geraint Jones,
School Librarian.
Argyll.