Control, Control, Control

Not content with wanting to fingerprint everyone in the UK, Charles Clarke is now pressing to fingerprint everyone in Europe who already carries an identity card.

The home secretary, Charles Clarke, is to press today's emergency European counter-terrorism summit to adopt a plan to compulsorily fingerprint all EU citizens who already carry identity cards.

On top of that, he wants to read all of our emails and know every person we phone.

The scheme is a crucial part of a 10-point anti-terrorism package that includes the retention of email and phone records for up to three years which Mr Clarke will propose when he chairs the emergency summit called in the wake of the London bombings.

This is not new. New Labour introduced the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) giving them the right to force your ISP to intercept all of your emails and monitor all of your internet usage. This badly thought out legislation (it's New Labour... go figure) also has provisions to impose a 2 year prison sentence on anyone who refuses to reveal a decryption key for encoded information. So assuming you do have some dodgy encrypted information that would get you banged up for 10 years, all you have to do is sit tight and refuse to hand over the key.

The RIP act was an Orwellian stepping stone. It is worth noting that this act was passed in 2000, proving that New Labour's lust for Stalinist style control of it's citizens predates our post 9/11 terrorist fearing lifestyle. A useful overview of RIP can be found here.

The Guardian article goes on to say:

"Identity cards are valid travel documents. We cannot afford to have them be a weak link in international travel," a Home Office spokesman said, confirming the plan.

"A really significant amount of travel within Europe is done not on a passport but on an identity card which is just a piece of cardboard with a photograph attached. It is a weak link. We need to have a common standard."

The attacks of 7th July in London were committed by home grown terrorists. Clarke has already conceded that ID cards would not have stopped those attacks. So why does he feel the urge to extend his Orwellian nightmare into the rest of the EU?

I swear he won't be content until he has microchipped every single one of us.

In all honesty, I fear New Labour's lust for control more that I fear being blown up on the tube.

Filed under: London Bombing, Politics, New Labour Spin