Doublethink

Today is the 60th anniversary of the publication of George Orwell's 1984.

The former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said:

The National Identity Register will hold a small amount of personal biographic details separately from biometric fingerprints and photographs...

However, NO2ID tells us that the National Identity database:

would grow year on year until eventually the government has a file(and card) on every person in the UK. The file (and card) could contain or link to financial history, health background, religion, ethnicity, criminal convictions, purchase history, physical whereabouts of the 'target citizen, political profile etc. etc. Each passing year will hear a call for more data to be added to the system in the name of "anti-fraud" "anti-terrorism" "protecting children" "anti tax-evasion" or any one of a number of similar reasons.

Remember that clause 152 (to allow information sharing of your personal information) of the recent Coroners and Justice bill was only defeated by a campaign by civil libertarians and NO2ID.

Ms Smith continued that it would be:

incredibly difficult for anyone to steal or exploit another's identity.

Whereas NO2ID tells us that the scheme:

will create a huge underground lucrative trade in fake ID estimated to be worth billions.

Now who is using doublethink?

Doublethink:The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them....To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient