Tyranny of the Month: Digital ID
"I am not a number! I am a free man!" said The Prisoner. "That's what you think sunshine..." replies this government. Today, we are witnessing the replacement of the presumption of liberty.
In case you missed it, Rt Hon Steve Baker FRSA will be hosting a live Question and Answer session here on Voices for a Free Future for paid subscribers in two weeks, 18:30 GMT on Thursday the 4th of December. Find out how to submit a question here.
Fighting for a Free Future is pleased to continue its new monthly series by the Rt Hon Steve Baker, Tyranny of the Month.
A. J. P. Taylor’s English History, 1914 - 1945, famously opens:
Until August 1914 a sensible, law-abiding Englishman could pass through life and hardly notice the existence of the state, beyond the post office and the policeman. He could live where he liked and as he liked. He had no official number or identity card. He could travel abroad or leave his country for ever without a passport of any sort. He could buy goods from any country in the world on the same terms as he bought goods at home. … Since 1911, it helped to insure certain classes of workers against sickness and unemployment. This tendency towards more state action was increasing. Expenditure on the social services had roughly doubled since the Liberals took office in 1905. Still, broadly speaking, the state acted only to help those who could not help themselves. It left the adult citizen alone.
How far we have fallen! Imagine, for a moment, if a person were to fall asleep in 1914 and wake up today in 2025: in a country rife with division and at its heart an ever-more powerful state which has injected itself into every component of their life; an economy minutely controlled by technocratic regulation but which feigns liberalism; a national life where the individual is not seen as sovereign, but as a problematic pawn to be carefully controlled…
What might the man from 1914 say? We believe this person’s perspective is not only valuable, but sorely missing in modern discourse. This is why we are introducing Tyranny of the Month, a new monthly series from Voices for a Free Future.
Once upon a time, if you wanted to prove who you were, you could simply, well, be yourself. Extraordinary idea, I realise. You could walk into an employer’s office, shake their hand like a civilised person and get on with earning an honest living. The state would kindly refrain from demanding a government-issued barcode to verify your existence. We were, after all, sovereign human beings and not packets of meat on a supermarket shelf.
In times since, further measures were introduced to ensure law abiding employers did not employ those they ought not to. Less reputable employers would inevitably opt-out of those mandatory systems, to borrow the language of the Government.
Fast forward to September 2025, and the Prime Minister has announced that by 2029, every British citizen and legal resident will require a mandatory digital ID – lovingly dubbed the “BritCard” – stored on their smartphone. In Sir Keir Starmer’s own remarkably reassuring words: “You will not be able to work in the United Kingdom if you do not have a digital ID. It’s as simple as that.”
Simple indeed.
In 1914, one required precisely nothing from the state to prove one’s right to work. Now, we have been whipped to the other side of the spectrum with stunning vicissitude: we will need a government-approved digital credential, complete with biometric security, stored on a device that can track our every movement. And this passes for freedom.
The stated justification is, naturally, tackling illegal immigration – that perennial excuse for expanding state power. Apparently, this digital surveillance apparatus will somehow prevent small boat crossings, despite the rather inconvenient fact that those undertaking such journeys have demonstrated themselves to be no sticklers for the letter of the law. People already evading legal requirements will continue to do so and simply recede further into the shadows rather than politely registering with the authorities. That one’s a non-starter.
But details, details. The important thing is that the entire law-abiding population must now trudge through digital checkpoints to go about our everyday lives, proving our right to exist in our own country. The Government’s measure of success will no doubt be how many law abiding citizens kowtow to this latest flight of executive fancy.
The scheme promises to be “free.” Quite aside from the fact that nothing provided by the Government can ever be “free,” this statement hides another of the programme’s insidious elements; not only will the taxpayer be forced to use it, but fund it - alongside its inevitable overspends, scandals and inquiries.
It will contain your name, date of birth, photograph, nationality and residency status, just like India’s Aadhaar system, which the Prime Minister praised as a “massive success” during his recent trip to Mumbai. Never mind that India’s system has suffered catastrophic data breaches affecting up to 85% of its population, with personal details sold on the dark web. Never mind that it’s created a surveillance architecture with minimal legal protections. What could possibly go wrong with replicating it here?
To the Government’s dismay, Big Brother Watch, that troublesome organisation insisting on quaint notions like privacy and civil liberties, has been making rather a nuisance of itself. They’ve published a report titled “Checkpoint Britain,” gathered over 175,000 signatures on their own petition, and on 12 November, marched to Downing Street to hand-deliver your message to the Prime Minister. Nearly three million people have signed the parliamentary petition demanding the government abandon these plans – which is to be debated in Parliament on 8 December.
While by no means a majority of the populace, a significant portion of the country up in arms is a sign the Government should be wary of new fangled dystopian instruments. Silkie Carlo, Director of Big Brother Watch, observed that “Keir Starmer has already lost the public’s trust on digital IDs,” noting how government documents emerged revealing sprawling uses for digital IDs in our everyday lives (possibly even for children!) mere hours after the Prime Minister sold the scheme as narrowly focused on illegal working. Rebecca Vincent, Interim Director, warned that we are “sleepwalking into a dystopian nightmare where the entire population will be forced through myriad digital checkpoints.” I can’t help but agree.
Yet, as ever, the government presses on regardless. Digital ID wasn’t in Labour’s manifesto. There’s been no proper public consultation. Parliament wasn’t given a chance to weigh in before the announcement. It begs the question: why even bother with democratic niceties for other things when you can simply decree that every adult must register with a state-controlled ID system?
The consultation launching “later this year” will presumably determine whether elderly people without smartphones, homeless individuals without reliable internet, and other inconvenient citizens can be accommodated. Perhaps with face-to-face support, or maybe just a patronising leaflet. There is still much debate about whether or not having a block in your pocket that gives you instant access to the entirety of mankind’s collective knowledge and every other person who lives on the earth is a good thing for civilization. The Government has helpfully interceded: now if you don’t have a smartphone, you will live the rest of your life workless and destitute.
But perhaps I’m over-egging the pudding: Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has helpfully clarified that while digital ID is mandatory, using it is “entirely their choice.” Good grief, Orwell would have struggled to improve upon that phrasing.
What we’re witnessing is the replacement of the presumption of liberty with the requirement to prove permission.
Our relationship with the state is being fundamentally reversed: instead of the state having to justify its intrusion into our lives, we must now justify the qualifications which allow us to exist under the state. In 1914, you were presumed to have the right to work, to move freely, to go about your business unmolested. By 2029, you’ll need a government app to prove you’re allowed to earn a living, and in time, Lord knows what else.
Digital ID represents a honeypot for hackers and foreign dictators, creating a centralised treasure trove of personal data. One cannot conceive of a more attractive target for nefarious actors. It’s a multibillion-pound waste during a cost of living crisis. It will disproportionately burden those with reduced access to online services, people who are already burdened quite enough. And, in case it needed saying, it does not have a snowball’s chance in hell of stopping illegal immigration.
With all this clearly understood, we are left with no conclusion than that the Government is quite content indeed with the notion that Digital ID will simply get the ball rolling on turning Britain into a “papers, please” society.
Another month passes, and the needless burdens forced on the lives of ordinary people compound. Much heroic work is underway to raise awareness of this awful idea, mobilise opposition, and put mandatory digital ID back into the ‘Rubbish Ideas Bin’ where it belongs. But, it seems, that for every tinpot tyranny put down in the modern United Kingdom, two more will spring up to take its place.
That’s why we should be fighting for a free future. Join the campaign against digital ID here.
Further watching
I am not a number! I am a free man!
“The Prisoner” was a British television series that followed a former secret agent abducted after resigning from his job and taken to a mysterious, picturesque Village that served as a bizarre prison. The residents, all identified only by numbers, were a mix of captives and guards, making it impossible to know whom to trust. The protagonist, assigned the designation Number Six, resisted attempts by the Village authorities to extract information about his resignation and engaged in a constant battle of wits to preserve his freedom and identity.
The show’s themes revolve around individuality, surveillance and the struggle against authoritarian power. It ended weakly but it is nevertheless a cult favourite for our times. Watch it here.