What if the government passed an unwise, unnecessary law — and we all ignored it? That's the idea behind the growing opposition to the national ID cards that all Brits are supposed to carry in a few years.
Hundreds of thousands of people are set to defy the government by refusing to carry ID cards, despite the risk of imprisonment. Campaigners say that a network of anti-ID card groups, ranging from hackers to anarchists, plans a series of assaults in the coming months to try to block the scheme. A £1 million fund is being raised to help pay legal fees if, as expected, prosecutions are brought once the cards become compulsory, probably in 2010. ... The Home Office estimates that around 17 per cent of adults - up to four million people - oppose the cards. A recent ICM poll, commissioned by No2ID, found that 43 per cent believe they are a 'bad' or 'very bad' idea. 'Whichever poll you believe,' says Phil Booth, head of No2ID, 'there are millions who just won't do it.'
And I'll bet most of them are neither "hackers" nor "anarchists."
Anyway, would that such civil disobedience got a little traction here in the U.S.A., where Congress recently passed the stomach-droppingly awful Real ID Act while everyone (that is, everyone but you, dear reader) was busy discussing Tom Cruise's nuptials and the deeper meaning of Michael Jackson's pajama pants.
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