Chris Patten on ID Cards
I've always had the greatest respect for Lord Patten, former Governor of Hong Kong and European Commissioner. I first visited Hong Kong for the handover to China, and moved there soon afterwards, and never heard a bad word said about the man the locals affectionally referred to as 'fatty Pang' (although many had plenty to say about what they saw as a betrayal by the Thatcher government in returning the New Territories - and hence the colony - to China).
With this in mind, I was excited to hear Lord Patten's thoughts about the UK Identity Cards programme in the closing keynote of the RSA Europe conference. He started by explaining that he doesn't have a hangup with the concept of ID Cards from a civil liberties perspective; and that this puts him at odds with many in a country where it is normal for a red-blooded Englishman (sic) to oppose state intervention, speed bumps and cameras, and support overcooked beef, overcooked vegetables and cricket.
He went on to explain that his hangup arises from the way in which they were introduced, which 'smacks of the worst sort of Blunkett Pavloviism'. In his opinion, they won't make Britain's borders more secure in the short term - although it is possible that there may be longer-term benefits - and for this reason the government 'oversold a perfectly reasonable obligation on the citizen'. The government 'tries to have it both ways - they say it will be voluntary - sort of'. Referring to the stated arguments in favour of the scheme as 'poppycock', Mr Patten went on to explain that a stronger international framework - for example for the return of illegal migrants - is needed before the benefits are reaped, and that until then we can expect to see the police continuing to turn a blind eye to ID Cards usage because of the problems in processing illegal immigrants.
3:19:19 PM 
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