Seriously. They’ve got some pretty damned serious issues. I thought that, since Tony was on his way out, we might just get some decent policy decisions being made. But to my utter delight, this morning the BBC is reporting that Gordon Brown is pushing ahead with pay-as-you-go road pricing schemes, and is putting forward a bill that would make schemes by councils compatible with one another.

Oh, and the Home Office is also suggesting that civil servants should be made to report any potential offenders they come across:

Mr King suggests two new agencies be created - one to collate reports on potential offenders, the other on potential victims.

Here’s an idea - let’s call this lovely agency the Stasi, rename the country and put a massive wall in between us and the rest of the world. Surely something like this can’t have happened before and been bad? …oh wait.

During a recent petition for the Government to drop this particularly expensive and idiotic scheme, a mere 1,811,257 signatures were collated. That’s what I’d call a significant response, and to have such strong opinions ignored by the cabinet is totally out of order. Frankly, I found the Prime Minister’s response to the petition utterly patronising.

But all of this is really just the tip of the iceberg. The ID card scheme is simply a way of sneaking in the National Identity Database through the back door: this will collate all of your records into one place, including fingerprints/DNA, NHS medical records, your vehicle information, Inland Revenue details, and up to 100 categories of information currently outlined.

Coupled with the road pricing scheme which will allow 24-hour-a-day tracking of movements by car, it’s the perfect tool for surveillance of the population. I’m sick to the teeth of this idiocy. If there’s one thing that anyone should remember, it’s that absolute power corrupts absolutely. And the potential for abuse here is so great that it will be too hard for some to resist.

Besides all of this, the ID card scheme is predicted to be £1bn over-budget over the next 12 years within 6 months of it starting up. Given their past history when it comes to large-scale IT projects, I only expect this to increase. But apparently, that’s no issue at all:

However, the Cabinet Office downplayed the news, saying it spent £12.4bn per year on IT projects and adding that £1bn over five years is a small percentage of the total.

Gee, when you say it like that, it doesn’t sou… no, that’s still a sodload of money. I just can’t believe that all of this cash is being wasted so badly on things that we don’t need. Here’s a crazy idea: instead of spending ridiculous quantities on stupid IT schemes which provide little or no benefit for the public, how about putting some money into building a decent rail network and improving public transport, or paying for more police on the street?

We need a common sense injection, and quickly. Anyone that’s interested in this - and that should be everyone, by the way - should check out NO2ID. If things continue to go the way they’re going, then I will leave the country. But hopefully, we can get things back as they should be before that happens. Rant over - for now.

6:27 pm | Posted in Politics, Ranting