BBC's "The Long view" on ID cards

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Brian Randell <Brian.Randell () newcastle ac uk>
Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2005 10:45:05 +0000
To: <dave () farber net>
Subject: BBC's "The Long view" on ID cards

Dave:

There has just been an excellent programme on BBC Radio 4 in their
series "The Long View", which each week discusses some current topic,
in the light of history. This latest one was on ID cards. From the
programme's web-page:

"London, 1950 and wartime Identity Cards are still in force. When
Clarence Willcock refuses to present his card to a police officer, it
leads to a test case in the High Court. The judges ponder whether ID
cards are an unnecessary intrusion into private life or a useful
weapon in combatting crime. Jonathan Freedland is joined by Shami
Chakrabarti of Liberty, Martin Linton MP - who developed the protype
of the new biometric cards - and Peter Byrne, alias PC Andy Crawford
in Dixon of Dock Green, to debate ID Cards in 1950's Britain and
today. "

A recording of the broadcast is available for a week on the BBC
web-site, reachable from:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/longview/longview.shtml

One notable quote that it includes, in fact from a 1939 speech by
Winston Churchill is the following:

"Perhaps it might seem a paradox that a war undertaken in the name of
liberty and right should require as a necessary part of its processes
the surrender for the time being of so many dearly valued liberties
and rights. We are sure that these liberties will be in hands which
will not abuse them, which will cherish and guard them, and we should
look forward to the day, surely and confidently we  look forward to
the day, when our liberties and rights will be restored to us and
when we will be able to share them with the peoples to whom such
blessings are unknown."

Would that our present leaders spoke (believably) in such terms!

cheers

Brian



-- 
School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne,
NE1 7RU, UK
EMAIL = Brian.Randell () ncl ac uk   PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
FAX = +44 191 222 8232  URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/~brian.randell/

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