Pocketed! Angela is Britain’s first ID card holder – you have to laugh or weep
Article published: Monday, December 7th 2009
This is how Angela Epstein concludes her report from Manchester on becoming the first person to be issued with a UK ID card:
I lo
ved seeing my name, face and the words British citizen on this tiny piece of plastic. That’s who I am, and why shouldn’t anyone know?
As I’ve said before I understand why people have their reservations, but I personally can’t see what there is to lose if you’re a law abiding citizen with nothing to hide. And if it’s another weapon in the fight against identity fraud, illegal workers and terrorism, then that can only be for the good.
Slipping it into my purse and slinking off into the gloom of an icy winter afternoon, I felt like I was pocketing a piece of history.
“Pocketing” may be the word. As a journalist invited to write about being issued the first card, she was paid to write about it. In her column she says:
The Tories have pledged to junk them if they win. And when I had a shmooze with home office minister Meg Hillier on Monday she wouldn’t say whether I’d get my 30 quid back if that happened.
A good point! But did she charge the £30 to expenses just in case!
One of the funniest parts of her description is:
let me tell you what I actually had to do to get one…. Actually it nearly didn’t happen. Thanks to a small burn on my index finger (roast potatoes can be lethal) the plaster I was wearing scuppered my prints, foxed the scanner and baffled the interviewing officer at Manchester’s Passport and Identity Service in Piccadilly. But we put our heads together and agreed that removing it (the plaster, not the finger) would resolve the situation.
Perhaps they will have to ban the roasting of potatoes before they make ID cards compulsory.
This article was first published by Anthony Barnett, and openDemocracy.net under a Creative Commons licence.
More: Manchester
Comments
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What a completely vacuous idiot she really is.
Comment by dave on December 8, 2009 at 11:29 am -
It’s difficult to credit how people like this get weekly platforms in papers such as the MEN.
I don’t think it’s being overly melodramatic to argue that should a totalitarian government ever assume control then they’ll find everything they require already in place.
Angela – you’re extraordinarily naive to think there won’t be slippage on this and that the goalposts won’t be shifted very quickly indeed.
You may have nothing to hide today but tomorrow may be a different story.
We need to reject the ID card spin come together to protect the freedoms and liberties for which this country used to be famous.
Comment by John on December 9, 2009 at 4:45 pm
The comments are closed.
