12 April 2006 – Kenny MacAskill MSP (SNP)
Mr MacAskill would be happy to work to achieve a cross-party consensus in the Scottish Parliament opposed to the ID card.
Mr MacAskill had recently returned from the US, where he said illegal immigration had been largely unaffected by increased vigilance at airports and border controls, including compulsory fingerprinting and iris scanning.
He supported use of a simple cross-border ID card, for example to allow freedom of movement around the EU under the Schengen agreement, and he had been in situations where it would have been convenient to have had a formal photo ID.
Opposition
However he was opposed to the government proposals on three main grounds:
- Economic: the system would be very expensive with no discernible benefits.
- Security: such a system did not work in the US for immigration and the 9/11 and the 7/7 terrorists were already in the respective countries, most of them legally.
- Civil liberties: the system gave the state greater opportunity to pry into the life of citizens.
Scottish dimension
The Scottish Parliament had had no say in the Westminster Act. It remained to be seen to what extent the First Minister would resist attempts to impose the act on devolved responsibilities.
For example ID cards had implications for justice, which was a devolved responsibility. There were many anomalies such as Holyrood having responsibility for health but not for veterinary matters.
Campaign focus
Mr MacAskill had been active in opposition to the Poll Tax. He said it had been important to focus on one point of opposition: non-payment had been chosen as opposed to non-registration.
NO2ID should choose one particular ground on which to fight. Would it be best to fail to register, or to go through the registration process but then destroy the ID card or disable the chip in a microwave?
Citizenship
The ID card changed the fundamental relationship of the citizen and the state. He would be happy to work to achieve a cross-party consensus in the Scottish Parliament opposed to the ID card.
Discussion
There followed about 60 minutes of wide-ranging discussion. Points raised included:
- The need to have a negative term analogous to 'poll tax' for 'community charge'.
- The extent to which Holyrood will be forced to follow Westminster.
- The need for written constitution to safeguard civil liberties.
- Linking ID cards to passports.
- Politicians' lack of knowledge of technology.
- The Scottish National Entitlement card.
- A constitutional crisis if SNP had a majority in Holyrood and refused to follow Westminster on ID cards, when a referendum could be a solution.
- Emphasising costs (taxation and fee) would be a good way to engage the interest of the public, concentrating on alternative uses to which the resources could be put, for example improving NHS dental services.
- The effects of errors on ID cards.
- ID cards different from poll tax in that that was not sold as a solution to problems; also ID cards were to have less direct financial impact on individuals.
- The solution to both terrorism and benefit fraud is to have better intelligence, not use ID cards.