RICHARD BURT JOINS WITH 'NO2ID'

8.23.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 8th Nov 2007

West Worcestershire's Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate has pledged his full support to campaign with a county group, NO2ID, against the introduction of compulsory identity cards within the UK.

At a meeting, Richard Burt outlined the case against ID cards, and pledged to do all he can to stop their introduction in Worcestershire.

Richard said:

"The campaign against compulsory ID cards runs to the heart of today's political debate. It is no longer a choice between left and right in government, but between authoritarian and liberal values.

"As a liberal the defence of civil liberties is in my DNA, and the proposed introduction of ID cards is the latest blow in a decade-long assault on British justice and humanity.

"Curtailing the right to jury trial. Fingerprinting children in schools. Child curfew zones. The biggest DNA database in the world, and now, identity cards. Nowhere else in the western world are civil liberties being swept away so carelessly.

"If Government presses ahead with its plans, British citizens will be required to give up a thousand years of freedom by surrendering the last vestiges of individual privacy on demand to the state.

"The Government says we will be trading a piece of liberty for our security. I wish it were that simple, but it isn't. Because the liberty they are asking us to sacrifice isn't mine. It isn't that of politicians, officials or the police. It is the liberty of the weak, sacrificed for the security of the strong.

"The financial cost of introducing ID cards is also way, way too high. Latest estimates put the price at £6billion - that's the equivalent of our entire expenditure on the Iraq War.

"We could build 200 new hospitals or put an extra 10,000 police on the beat and still have money to spare. There has yet to be a major government IT programme that did not overspend massively on budgets.

"ID cards do not work. They did not prevent the terror bombings in Madrid, and there is no evidence to suggest they will make any significant contribution to the reduction of crime, illegal immigration or terrorism here.

"We face a momentous challenge: To safeguard our society from new threats, but to do so by cherishing not trampling on the very values and virtues which some seek to destroy. Not by taking away our historic freedoms but by enlarging all our freedom. Not by pandering to the powerful but by defending the weak.

"I have offered my full support to the Worcestershire NO2ID group and hope that the groundswell of public opinion will bring Ministers to their senses."