(Geddit? More on – “Moron”? God, I crack me up…)
Following yesterday’s post, there have been a few more responses to the government’s attempts to peer into every aspect of our lives. This will, after all, be dragging on for ages…
DoctorVee reckons I’ve lost all sense of proportion and got a few things wrong, while The Yorkshire Ranter confirms my suspicions that I don’t in a piece that looks into the practicalities of the things a bit more.
In the real world, Labour are soaring ahead in the polls despite (because of?) all this – although Dead Men Left notes that poll support for ID cards is misleading; stripped of its “war on terror” rhetoric, and with the cost of the scheme laid out, it disappears entirely.
Meanwhile, to keep loyalists onside, the rumours start that the Tories may drop their support for ID cards after the election – Guido notes that nearly half the parliamentary Conservative party abstained… Our own blogging Tory, Boris, was one of those who had more pressing engagements – he promises an explanation on Thursday. And during the confusion, UKIP again try to gain more Tory votes.
Where next? Well, if it carries on like this, somewhere warm and sunny overseas is sounding increasingly appealing… As for the kerfuffle over ID – God alone knows. Although I’m increasingly beginning to suspect that the government is suggesting the worst so that we’ll all be massively relieved when these things are finally introduced in a watered-down version.
And for those who aren’t convinced by any of the anti-ID arguments, my main problem with the thing is that I know how crap I am at remembering things. I’ve lost ten cigarette lighters in the last two months – those only cost 50p to replace; no matter how much ID cards will be, I know I’ll be losing the bloody things all the time and object to the introduction of what is – for me – effectively a tax on the absent-minded.
The fact that the government will have a handy database of most of the contents of that mind, as well as the ability to retrace my steps for me to discover the last time I used the thing, just freaks me out.