Hello, and welcome to those who’ve joined our mailing list since the last Bulletin. As those of you who read our website or Substack will know, things have started to get busy!
What’s been going on?
The Government finally got round to writing things down and, after months of delays and a few set-backs, launched its consultation on the digital ID cards scheme.
The documents it published and the statements Ministers made try to reposition digital ID as “fixing the public services”, but as anyone can see – if they manage to plough through all 91 pages of the consultation document (including 12 pages of questions, many of which are designed to distract from or evade key issues) – they are trying to sell their vision of ‘government by app’, while saying as little as they can about the consequences and what that will mean in practice.
We published an instant response, and are putting out further commentary and analysis as we are able. (NO2ID is still operating on small donations; any help you can give is much appreciated.)
Meanwhile, and though it was for reasons other than the National Digital ID Programme itself, the first Cabinet Office ID Minister has been forced to resign. That Josh Simons’ fall was due to his actions while he led Labour Together, which (later) published the BritCard proposal – singing from the hymn sheet of the Blair government-in-exile, which spookily foreshadows Mr Starmer’s every shift on digital ID policy – is worthy of note.
And that his replacement, James Frith, has said he thinks New Labour “should have gone further and faster” doesn’t necessarily bode well…