Compulsory ID in United Kingdom
How is compulsory ID supposed to stop illegal immigration?
The Times newspaper ran a “shocking” story on Friday that compulsory digital ID needs to be introduced in the U.K. in order to tackle the terrible illegal immigration problem1. Recently the boat crossings figure reached 1,100 illegal migrants in a single day. There were an estimated 0.8 million to 1.2 million illegal migrants in the U.K. in 2017, including visa overstays. By now that number will be much, much higher2.
A number of “conspiracy theorists” smiled wryly as we could see this proposal coming from a mile off.
The U.K. political class presents compulsory digital ID as the modern-day version of snake oil, the universal cure for all of society’s woes. The only problem is to get the proletariat to put on their electronic leg irons thus making society safe and effective!
The Times article was based upon a report by Labour Together3, a Leftist think tank previously managed by Morgan McSweeney who is now Downing Street Chief of Staff. The report speaks glowingly of the support levels for this initiative and the tremendous efficiencies that will be unlocked. In truth the State is rectifying its own spectacular failure to secure the U.K. border by imposing enormous liberty-crushing burdens on 68 million innocent U.K. citizens. My own suggestion would be that the government does its job and secures the borders in the way that the majority of citizens want and have already paid for.
The Labour Together proposal would require 68 million U.K. citizens plus legal immigrants to have a smartphone enabled ID and to present that ID every time they sought employment at any of the U.K.’s five and a half million businesses. They would also be required to present that certificate any time they wanted to enter into a rental agreement in any of the U.K’s five and a half million rental dwellings. Accordingly, eleven million businesses and dwellings would be required to download a verifying app to check each digital ID presented.
This will allegedly remove the “pull” for around 40,000 illegal immigrants arriving via small boat crossings and presumably discourage a large number of visa overstays by making it difficult to access employment and accommodation.
The People are already paying around £ 1.2 billion per year for Border Force’s eleven thousand four hundred staff who are supposed to stop illegal migrants entering. In addition to these costs, a significant amount is being spent on Royal Navy patrols and other costs. Despite all of these tremendous burdens on the taxpayer, the State is now considering imposing an additional burden in the form of a “papieren bitte” regime in order to compensate for the government’s own failures.
The real problem is that we know that the political class has little serious interest in limiting immigration, this is particularly true of the Left which is heavily involved in lawfare designed to keep illegal immigrants in the U.K. They have also scuppered previous efforts designed to prevent illegal immigration. The chief immigration officer for ports, Kevin Saunders, stated that Starmer’s initiative to “smash the gangs” would achieve almost nothing.
Parts of the Left even want to do away with borders altogether4, so I am more than a little sceptical that Labour Together has any genuine interest in reducing illegal immigration.
The document talks about the importance of trust and the need to convince people that BritCard will not “enable government surveillance or intrusion”. The BritCard is an extension of the vaccine passport introduced by the fake-Conservatives, which was used specifically to intrude on and coerce the population into taking the COVID “vaccine”. It would be extremely naïve to imagine that compulsory digital ID will be used for the purposes advertised. It is likely that this type of digital ID would form the corner stone of a mass surveillance and control operation as illustrated in this WEF diagram.
I agree with Peter Hitchen’s assessment of government that “It is more of an obdurate, glutinous stupidocracy, which intelligent people find intolerable while the rest mutter ‘mustn’t grumble’ as they absorb the latest humiliation. But we must try to oppose it. What we do here and now will matter somewhere else at some other time.”5
Let’s not absorb the next humiliation.
In terms of practical steps, Together have launched a tool to help people write to their MPs on this topic6 and doubtless the Heritage Party and David Kurten will again be manning the barricades for liberty.
Let me have your comments below.
https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2019/11/13/four-countries-account-for-the-majority-of-europes-unauthorized-immigrant-population/
https://www.labourtogether.uk/all-reports/britcard
The Laura Perrins interview – Peter Hitchens - The Conservative Woman
https://together.eaction.org.uk/digitalid
Totally agree. What else can any sane person say. These ID's are controls on the populace.
There is no obligation for any citizen to own a smartphone or carry a smart phone. How can they refuse me anything if I do not have a smartphone with apps?