"Progressive." What does it mean? The only discernible meaning is "not conservative" or "not reactionary"... negative definitions. The "p" word is a lazy word, so give it up. It will force you to say what you really mean. We need real politics not empty slogans.
It doesn't even mean that now.
The Guardian tells us that Downing Street is exploring options for ‘progressive’ UK digital IDs contained in a paper from the think-tank Labour Together:
The paper has been handed to the No 10 policy unit to flesh out proposals for a BritCard, which would be a mandatory digital credential that Labour Together claims could help avoid another Windrush scandal.
But it said it would also help reduce vast numbers of visa overstayers, saying half of those whose asylum claims were turned down over the past 14 years were likely still to be in the UK.
Conservatives will love this, convinced as they are that immigration statistics are a huge underestimate of the reality.
And how will the government avoid another Windrush scandal when it starts issuing the cards? What that scandal showed is that many British citizens lack the documentation to prove their status to the satisfaction of government.
As someone with pink skin (and therefore unlikely to be faced with a demand for “my papers” or to have my Right To Be Here challenged), I guess I shouldn’t be having a view on this, but here goes.
ReplyDeleteIt would, I think, be helpful if you could fairly easily and inexpensively obtain something that confirmed both your identity and your right to be in the country. Part of the Windrush scandal was that some safely anonymous civil servant decided to demand four separate pieces of written evidence for each calendar year a person had been in the UK, and the minister to whom that proposal was offered didn’t say “Don’t be ridiculous” but “What a good idea”. I’ve lived in the UK all my 74 years, as did both my parents before me, but I couldn’t come within a country mile of satisfying such a wicked test.
Why “mandatory”? Doesn’t that immediately lead to Your skin is brown>You cannot produce this specific evidence to me>Therefore your presence here is illegitimate?
And why the assumption that everyone, including a refugee attempting to exist on £49.18 a week, will have a smartphone?