Digital ID leads way in eroding freedom to sinister degree

THIS Labour government seems hellbent on rewiring the UK in such a way that it'll soon be unrecog-nisable.

- Duncan Barkes

Big Brother is coming for us, as depicted in George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984

Announcements for compulsory digital ID, an increased use of facial-recognition technology, cancelled elections and the slashing of trials by jury will leave Britons poorer when it comes to privacy, democracy and justice.

The sum of all these changes will be a country where ministers, should they wish, have the tools at its disposal to govern in the most authoritarian of ways.

As with all politicians who end up in power and are desperate to cling on for as long as they can, changes are sugarcoated to suggest they are being introduced for the good of the UK and to benefit us all.

But stitch them together, and we end up with a bleak and frightening picture where the rights and liberties of the individual are seriously eroded.

Keir Starmer’s announcement of digital IDs was initially outlined as a way of tackling illegal migration and to ensure that those who should not be in this country would be unable to work. However, various Labour ministers and MPs soon went off script to suggest that it could also be used to access public and financial services.

You do not have to take too many more steps before you can see how digital ID could be used as a tool of suppression by any government.