UK Government says “no u” to “NO2ID”

“Sleepwalking into a surveillance society” - I really hate that line, it’s one of those trite phrases that seems to have permeated the collective consciousness, especially on the letters pages of British newspapers, like “I’m not racist but…” and “Some of my best friends are black…”. That said, I’m disgusted by the way the majority of this country seems to be oblivious to the little changes here and there that are curtailing our civil liberties.

The Labour Government has been pushing ID cards for a few years now and despite more and more people turning against the scheme (and particularly the National Identity Register), it seems that the Government is trying to push the scheme on the public via clandestine methods.

Yes I know it’s news from January but it really seems to be coming into force through more and more underhanded means. I was asked for identification when buying some alcohol in Tesco a few weeks ago. Now normally I should be flattered but realistically there’s no way I look 21, let alone under 18. The fact that I was wearing a double-breasted pinstripe suit, hat, braces etc. seemed to make it more laughable as how many under-age drinkers do you see dolled up in £400 suits? Funnier still was that the irony was lost on the cashier for denying alcohol to someone dressed in Prohibition-era clothing.

The attack on under-age drinking just seems to be another way to coerce the general public into accepting ID cards via forcing the necessity to carry some form of identification for simple tasks. Binge drinking, like knife crime, is one of the current folk devils being used to sell more copies of the Daily Mail and make Middle England afraid that everyone under the age of 20 is drunk, drugged up and carrying a knife or gun. As such, this is the perfect way to encourage people to carry some form of identification under the belief that it will assuage the moral panic that is making some supermarkets question anyone who looks under the age of 30 to prove that they are in fact over the age of 18.

I hate the direction this country seems to be heading. As much as I hate the ex-pats that write letters to the Daily Telegraph from their Little England resorts on the Costa Del Sol, I’m putting serious thought into emigration, depending on the outcome of the increasingly definite win for the Conservatives at the next General Election.