Government moots ID card links for new UK voter database

Via Samizdata and Tim, by way of the Torygraph, I get to The Register and then on to the Govts consultancy documents, about which El Reg says:

The Government is moving ahead with plans to establish a centralised national register of voters, together with central checking and verification of the data held on electoral registers.

So, we're to get a compulsory ID system, linked to a National Identity Register, upon which the Electoral Register will be cross referenced to?

Great. As one who signed up to the first Refuse pledge (Refuse 2 is currently still open to signatories until the end of today), they now want to deny all of us who do not wish to be registered and categorised the right to vote as well? Wonderful. If you're not in favour of ID cards, if they get them through, you won't be able to vote against them either.

NB; unlike many, I was never completely opposed to some kind of ID scheme, as long as it wasn't using huge biometrics and wasn't linked to a national database. The National Identity Register is what scares me. Germany issues a passport and a card version of the ID page. Useful, and you can use it as a passport most of the time. But Tony Blair and Charles Clarke don't want a simple bit of card that's voluntary and possibly useful. They want to know who we are, where we live, what we look like and where we vote.

Let's work together and get them out. After all, don't you think Blair looks tired?

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