Compulsory ID cards are wrong, ineffective, Orwellian, and thoroughly un-British

Responding to the reports that the shadow Immigration Minister, Labour MP Stephen Kinnock has called for the introduction of ID Cards, the Executive Director of the Open Rights Group, Jim Killock, said:

“ID Cards were a good part of Labour’s decline and defeat in 2010.

“Compulsory ID Cards are wrong, ineffective, Orwellian, and thoroughly un-British. If they were suggested it would be five minutes before the Home Office demanded using them as a tool in the techno-surveillance state they are eagerly building as we speak.

“We agree with Shadow Home Office Minister Yvette Cooper who knows how a coalition of Civil Liberties organisations made this policy a thorn in the side of the Blair and Brown governments. Yvette Cooper – a veteran of those two governments – is right in rejecting this suggestion from her junior minister.”