The British government has announced it will introduce digital IDs by the end of this parliament, even though there has been no public debate or parliamentary vote. Labour might not have consulted the British people, but it has certainly consulted the Tony Blair Institute which seems to be behind every evil thing these days.
The government, and its propagandists like Lewis Goodall, insist digital ID is only for proving your identity to employers and landlords, but will magically help poor people. Labour’s few remaining supporters will yell “conspiracy theorist” if you dare point out the dangers of digital ID. So please, don’t take those dangers from a “conspiracy theorist” like me, take them from the Tony Blair Institute.
The TBI (not traumatic brain injury, although it feels like one) is quite open about what it sees as the “benefits” of digital IDs. Here are a few quotes from an article on the TBI website that was written by Tony Blair himself:
I make you this confident prediction: in the not too distant future, British people will all have their own unique digital identifier, and will make most transactions through their phone, as citizens with government and as customers with firms.
Blair is talking about linking the digital ID to your purchases, something us conspiracy theorists have warned about.
It’s not just the TBI talking like this. The EU and World Economic Forum have been talking for years about how they would like to log everyone’s transactions. That’s why they’re so keen on digital currencies (which go hand in hand with digital IDs). They’ve even talked of giving every item you own a “digital token” so the government knows all of your possessions. Any possession without a digital token would be classed as contraband. That’s the world neoliberals want to take us into, and they are getting us there, step-by-step.
To sell his nightmarish vision, Tony Blair tries to convince us digital IDs will somehow make the NHS more efficient and functional, like it used to be before we privatised huge swathes of it.
Our taxes are high; our spending and levels of public debt are high; and our service outcomes are poor. So, we spend more on the NHS than ever before, with more staff than ever before – and the service is coming apart at the seams.
That is why politics is being disrupted.
Blair is offering a solution that won’t work to a problem that he created as a trojan horse for authoritarian control. Absurdly, he goes on:
Any politician today who is promising management of the status quo and not fundamental change of it will lose.
Blair’s plans are not about overturning the status quo, they are about cementing it. He talks repeatedly in his article about how politics is being “disrupted”, by which he means the public is incredibly dissatisfied, constantly complaining on social media, protesting in the streets, and rejecting neoliberalism.
Ludicrously, Blair suggests lack of digital IDs is the real reason governments (he means neoliberals) are falling and the public is dissatisfied.
This is why governments across Europe are falling. It explains everything from the splintering of the vote here in the UK at the last election to the triumph of the maverick and experimental new president of Argentina.
Blair insists digital IDs are a way of managing splintering votes, rather than say meeting people’s material needs and ending corruption. Digital IDs are a method to monitor and control us, and ensure the corruption continues.
Terrifyingly, Blair talks about how digital IDs could contain your DNA and also link to facial recognition cameras:
If we used the potential of facial recognition, data and DNA, we would cut crime rates by not small but game-changing margins.
Facial recognition might make law enforcement slightly easier, but tying it to digital ID could make dissent near-impossible. George Orwell wrote a novel explaining why this sort of thing is a terrible idea, and it was not supposed to be an instruction manual.
Blair unveils more of his nightmarish vision for digital IDs:
Imagine that all your health information was in one place: easy, with your permission, for anyone anywhere in the health service to see. That your passport, driving licence, anything you need to prove your identity, were in one simple digital wallet, unique to you. That you could purchase and pay for any goods or services using your digital ID.
Okay, Tony, but now imagine all of that data was obtained by hackers. No thanks…
Blair brags in his article about how the economy functioned better when he was in charge. This was a time when digital IDs did not exist, yet he suggests the only way to get the economy going like that again is through digital IDs???
Blair makes no mention of how he built an economy on fresh air and it was always leading to an almighty crash. He talks like digital IDs are a magic wand and will stabilise everything forever. Perhaps the scariest part of Blair’s article comes from this passage:
Think about how we live and interact with each other – how we use Amazon to shop; mobile phones for banking; Google Maps for directions; apps to watch TV, consume news, and book trains, flights, holidays and entertainment. And they all use our data to personalise their service.
Why is TikTok so successful? Because its algorithms establish your personal preferences so quickly and satisfy them with their content. How do they do that? By accumulating your data and using the services of a huge number of computer engineers to make those algorithms so effective.
Yes, Blair wants to tie the digital ID to every app and build a centralised database that tracks your preferences, and ultimately knows everything about you. Blair is forced to concede there are potential dangers here. His attempt to reassure you is to say “the risks should not blind us to the opportunities”. Problem is, the risks are truly immense and the opportunities are not for us.
If you have a digital ID tied to your spending ability, it can be turned off at the push of a button. If you think that would never happen, it already has in places such as Canada where they froze the bank accounts of protesting truckers.
Now imagine what else could be tied to your digital ID. Moving into a new home? Guess what? Your landlord has installed a digital key. Next thing, digital keys are mandatory in cars for “security purposes”. Want to get on that bus or train? Not until you’ve scanned your digital ID. Need a prescription? I’m sorry to say your digital ID has been suspended. Trying to access the internet? Sorry, the BritCard system is facing technical issues, please try again later.
Governments love to seize more power and they continuously use crises as their excuse. Those crises are usually manufactured. Take the “small boats crisis” that digital IDs will do nothing to address, just like they will do nothing to address NHS waiting times. When the government uses absurd justifications for a policy, it is not giving you the real justification.
Once the innocuous digital ID grows into this all-encompassing data-harvesting machine, it becomes the most powerful tool for totalitarian control in human history. It does not matter if the government that introduces it has good intentions. Any future government can use it for sinister purposes, and there are certainly sinister governments out there…
Just look at how the Israeli government has monitored everything Palestinians have done for decades. Look at how they’ve seized control of TikTok and turned it into a propaganda tool. Look at how our government has assisted Israel’s government throughout this genocide. Look at how they’ve abused counter-terrorism legislation to arrest old ladies, wheelchair users, and most recently, the head of a political party: George Galloway.
We know that governments will abuse power, and we know that when one government seizes a piece of power, the next government doesn’t hand it back. It seizes a little more and the next one seizes a little more. Before you know it, the government has a database with your internet browsing history, location data, purchase history, bank statements, personal contacts, social media posts, even your private messages, and it knows more about you than you know about yourself, all in the name of “national security”.
You will be forced to use the government’s spy app for everything you do, and they can suspend that app whenever you upset them. Inevitable data leaks mean you could be blackmailed or publicly humiliated or placed in physical danger. Why would we allow ourselves to go down that path?
An informed public would never agree to digital ID. Don’t let them exploit your ignorance…
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'Starmer's Spy App' seems a suitable and accurate name for this extraordinary intrusion. He really does seem to have it in for the British people.
Authoritarian moves by this government and Kier Starmer should be resisted. We already have 3 or more fascist leaning old men in charge of the world (Trump, Putiñ, Xi,...) let's not add anyone else!