26 November 2008 – Lord George Foulkes MSP (Labour)
Lord George Foulkes was introduced as having the rare distinction of having been MP, MSP and member of the House of Lords.
He was currently a candidate for rectorship of Edinburgh University, having been President of the Students' Representative Council when he was studying psychology there.
He wrote a weekly column on football for the Edinburgh Evening News and was a former chairman of Hearts football club.
Topical
He began by saying that ID cards were a reserved rather than a devolved matter and that the group should therefore invite MPs to speak. Friday evenings would be most appropriate.
This was a topical subject, having been debated in the Scottish Parliament on 19 November and with the first ID cards having been issued on the day immediately prior to the meeting.
When the project was first mooted in 2001 a prime target had been to combat terrorism. He thought that this aspect had been oversold.
Supporter
ID cards were in the 2005 Labour manifesto and polls then showed that 80% of the population were in favour. That figure had dropped slightly but a majority were still in favour. Some people would be happy to carry a card at all times.
He then gave ten reasons why ID cards were a good thing:
- Providing everyone with means to confirm identity
- Providing proof of eligibility to benefits
- Giving access to services
- Preventing ID fraud
- Giving young people proof of age
- Providing immigrants with proof of status
- Providing ID for travel on airlines
- Helping prevent illegal employment
- Enhancing community pride
- Giving proof of identity for voting
Misunderstanding
He had served on a European Commission on Human Rights. There were no human rights issues with ID cards.
Criticism of ID cards was based on misunderstanding. Also other political parties were against ID cards purely to make political capital.
Sensitive information
It was not true that there would be sensitive information on the card. There would be a photograph, date and place of birth etc, exactly as on the current passport but with the addition of two fingerprints.
There would be no medical or religious information and no information on pensions, driving licence or tax.
He himself had been to the Forensic Science Laboratory and was confident that fingerprinting was a secure and foolproof method of identification.
There would be an Identity Commissioner who would closely monitor the system and would report annually to Parliament.
Countering objections
He had served on the Intelligence and Security Commission and said again that combating terrorism had been oversold as a benefit of ID cards.
The cost had been mentioned many times, but 70% of the cost would be incurred anyway because of the need to improve passports to meet international requirements.
Hacking had also been mentioned. The system would have the highest possible anti-forgery features.
Discussion
He closed by repeating that objections were based on misunderstandings and by other political parties simply making political capital. The people wanted ID cards as soon as possible.
There followed an hour of discussion. As far as we know, this meeting was the first in Scotland at which a Labour politician had been prepared to debate in public about ID cards.
The whole evening had been conducted in a wholly amicable and constructive fashion, and so it was good-humouredly suggested that Labour politicians should not fear attending similar such meetings in the future!