Anti-ID rants have been a bit lacking here for a few weeks, so I thought I’d better do some web searching about the current state of the inexorable march of ID. I found this excellent quote on http:\/\/www.no2id.net\/<\/a> :<\/p>\n “I’ve read Orwell’s ‘1984’ – I don’t want my kids to live in it.” Andy..<\/p>\n There is an interesting article on the excellent no2id.net site that refers to the plan to merge the Office of National Statistics’ Citizen Information Project with the iD database, at even greater expense but allegedly saving millions after 2021. (Hmm. If anyone knows of a database that has stayed in the same format on the same hardware for more than 5 years, please tell me. Not to mention, if anyone has the capacity to calculate costs in a decade and a half’s time)<\/p>\n The same article links to an article in the Times that refers to a plan to add medical information to the ID database, allegedly to save lives in emergency situations while at the same time helping to prevent people without valid cards from accessing NHS resources. It brings up a quite disturbing image of doctors turning away sick and injured people who haven’t got the right ID.<\/p>\n And, I don’t know about you, but I find the idea of plague carriers remaining untreated personally threatening. In “The Gift Relationship,” Richard Titmuss argued years ago that Britishtransfusion service blood was far safer than US blood because it was donated out of altruism rather than a need for money. i.e Altruism in health care is more profitable for public health than selfishness.<\/p>\n I think this principle can be extended to the illegal immigrants gaining access to the NHS. I would much rather pay my NHS contribution and accept that the occasional person who hasn’t paid gets treated than rigorously exclude everyone who hasn’t paid their stamp and risk dying of TB or AIDS.<\/p>\n I am totally distressed to see that David Cameron said on May 3 that he would stop the ID fiasco. http:\/\/www.no2id.net\/news\/newsblog\/index.php<\/a> Distressed because it’s dispiriting to see that I am agreeing with a Tory leader on an issue of public security for the first time in my life. Old age is creeping up on me it appears.<\/p>\n