Tony Blair launches new drive for biometric digital identity card

Tony Blair launches new drive for biometric digital identity card

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is once again promoting a controversial plan to give every UK citizen a digital identity card. This would involve using new biometric technology to store passports, driving licences, tax records, qualifications and their right to work status.

Blair had previously tried to introduce ID cards when he was prime minister.

Tony Blair and former Conservative MP William Hague have said a major transformation of government in terms of technology is necessary to keep pace with an ever-changing world.

However, there was a backlash to their demands, with Sir Jake Berry calling it a “grisly government plan to follow you from the cradle to the grave”.

Blair and Hague revealed their conspiracy in an article for The Times, in which they said that “politics must change radically because the world is changing radically.

“We are living through the technological revolution of the 21st century, which in terms of its implications is as huge as the industrial revolution of the 19th century.

The duo stated that current politicians “are in danger of waging the battle of the 20th century on the margins of tax-and-spend politics when it comes to how to use this new revolution to reinvent the state and public services.”

The duo called for digital identity cards for every citizen – they also called for “a national health infrastructure that uses data to improve care and reduce costs, as well as sovereign AI systems supported by supercomputing capabilities”.

In an interview with BBC Radio 4, Blair pointed out that countries “as small as Estonia and as big as India” are switching to digital identity cards.

“If you look at the biometric technology that gives you digital identification today, it can overcome a lot of these problems,” Blair said.

Big Brother Watch criticized Blair for pushing for a digital identity system.

Big Brother Watch director Silkie Carlo said: “Sir Tony and Lord Hague are absolutely right about the need for the UK to take the lead in technological innovation, but that means protecting human rights and privacy, not reviving failed proposals for an intrusive system mass digital identity and the state of the database.”



Carlo added: “A sprawling digital identity system of the type described by Sir Tony and Lord Hague is completely retrograde and would be one of the biggest attacks on privacy ever seen in the UK. The public has consistently opposed mandatory ID systems, and there is absolutely nothing to suggest that the public now wants or supports such a digital ID system.

Blair recently called on global organizations such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Economic Forum (WEF) to encourage national governments to introduce a “digital infrastructure” that tracks who has been vaccinated and who has not.

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