Corruption and ID Cards

No political system is perfect and we all need to be vigilant against corruption. Our political leaders and politicians also need to be aware of what they do and who they associate with will come under scrutiny. Therefore, when the Sunday Times exposed that members of the House of Lords (the UK Senate equivalent) were working in the pay of business, and willing to take payments to change legislation, should not be that surprising. As there will always be a few that is the words of one of these rouges, bend the rules.

In Britain though, a local councillor has more scrutiny than do the lords. As simply the Piers of the realm were assumed to be honourable people not tainted by avarice. Well considering that there was the scandal of people buying their peerages, although not proven, well they have to make their money back in some way. There was also the example of this in the US where the Governor was trying to sell the senate seat of the New President. The difference though between the two systems is quite striking. In the US the Governor has been removed. Here there are no punishments available for these corrupt lords. Well I suppose that they could be stopped from sleeping in the House? Or have no one listen to them when they try and speak? While that may sound like a joke, it really is only sanctions like that that are possible.

However, as disgusting as this corruption is there was an aspect of the story that none of the mainstream media have picked up on. One of the Lords, who works for the Credit Reference agency Experian, was able to amend legislation in the companies favour regarding cross referencing personal data. Now as under Data Protection legislation companies and even the government cannot use data collected for one purpose for another. However, Experian is the business that is contracted to deliver the National ID cards in this country.

Therefore, this business has a unique exemption from data protection laws, and thus privacy laws and via this the government has gained access to information on all of us that no government should ever have.

I don’t understand why any democratic government needs access to all this information on us? This is the sort of state activity that repressive governments do. The same states that we rightly criticise. Also no company or business should ever have an exemption to the laws that all of us have to follow.

The trouble is if governments give themselves excessive powers, they are always reluctant to relinquish them. In the US the people do have a written constitution that protects citizens from its government. Here in Britain we are subjects not citizens, and while we do not seem to have a government that appears to repressing our freedoms or rights, we all need to remain vigilant.

One last aspect of this situation that the public needs to be aware of, Experian the Credit Reference agency are offering a free credit report. Here this is something you normally have to pay a fee to see. Even when I first saw that they were doing this I wondered how or why they would do this as it would be costing them money. Now I understand why they are doing this, as by applying for these Credit Reports we are all giving this company and by default the government, the data needed to make the ID cards work. It was for this that exemption to the Data Protection Act was needed.