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28th January 2008

Tories Say NO To ID Cards

West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine Conservatives were out in force at the weekend gathering signatures on a nationwide petition opposing the introduction of compulsory identity cards.

Conservative leader David Cameron has spearheaded a campaign of opposition at Westminster but asked party activists to engage with the public on a day of action to raise awareness and gauge opinion on this controversial subject. 

North East MSP Alex Johnstone, who will also be the party's local candidate in the forthcoming Westminster general election, spent Saturday on the streets of Westhill, Banchory and Stonehaven finding out what people really think.

Speaking afterwards he said, "While my own position on the introduction of compulsory identity cards is motivated by my opposition to the principle, I have not been surprised to find many who believe that if you have 'nothing to hide you have nothing to fear'.

I have found many more people however, who  oppose them for practical reasons, mostly because they simply do not trust the government with their personal  information.

"The people I met on the streets of Banchory and Westhill believe that they will be expensive and time consuming to obtain.  Neither do they believe that they will have any effect on fraud or terrorism, believing in fact that having all your information on a single card will make us more vulnerable to card cloning and identity theft.

"Worse still everyone is well aware of the number of high profile cases in recent months where secure information held by the government has been lost or stolen and used for illegal purposes.  The introduction of a compulsory ID card scheme would simply open the door to this fast growing arm of the criminal economy".