A proposal that all Britons carry identity cards has sparked off a debate that is polarising attitudes towards privacy and immigration, reports Mukul Devichand from London Mrs Malik is furious. "ID cards?" says the veiled 42-year-old, out shopping on Saturday afternoon with her children in central London's Oxford Street. "They'll cause nothing but misunderstanding between different cultures." Not so, according to British Home Secretary David Blunkett. The government claims to be completely neutral over the new idea and is inviting six months of public debate over its proposals for a national identity register. Still, the minister has made no attempt to disguise his own enthusiasm for the scheme. "Entitlement cards," he told reporters -- the government is not calling them ID cards because they will be used to access welfare services -- "could be an important tool in cracking down on illegal immigration and illegal workers, reducing the UK's pull-factor for people-trafficking gangs". Mrs Malik is not convinced. A civic-centre worker of Pakistani origin, she thinks ID cards are nothing short of an excuse for racism. "They're using efficiency as a front," she says. "ID cards are really about targeting Asians and other immigrants in this country. It will just give them an excuse to stop Asians in the street and harass them when they access health services." But wouldn't ID cards speed up access to public services? "It won't help, it will just make life more difficult -- especially for Muslims. "They'll just ID anyone with a headscarf or a beard," chimes in Mrs Malik's teenage daughter, also veiled. Not all Britons -- including those from ethnic minorities -- agree with Mrs Malik, however. Andrew Hylton, 21, a fashionably attired man of African origin waiting for his girlfriend to emerge from a boutique, told Al-Ahram Weekly: "ID cards will be useful and with all the terrorism going on, they're exactly what's needed -- and it'll help to finally sort out the immigration problem." But isn't he afraid of being harassed for his ID card because of his race? "No," he says dismissively. "All that will die down soon enough." Though only a week old, the debate over identity cards is already exposing how polarised British views on immigration and freedom really are. The country's New Labour government is more than aware of the divisive nature of the issue. It first raised the idea just after 11 September but immediately shelved it for fear of offending Britain's Muslims at such a sensitive time. Moreover, liberal newspapers have spent the past few months slating Blair's government for attacking civil liberties in the name of immigration policy and for adopting authoritarian attitudes without first submitting to democratic debate. All of which serves to explain why Blunkett is being forced into a softly-softly approach on ID cards. Indeed, the home secretary -- usually quick to steamroller his policies through parliament -- sounded almost apologetic when he introduced the government's consultation paper. "We will not proceed without consulting widely and considering all the views expressed very carefully. I want to see a far-reaching and meaningful public debate on the issue," Blunkett said. The paper the home secretary has submitted considers various ID card schemes, including cards with the holder's fingerprint and retinal pattern digitally stored on them. But there are also less draconian options, such as a voluntary scheme and programmes that would ban the police from stopping and searching people. Nevertheless, civil rights groups have not been convinced by Blunkett's show of turning over a new leaf. Together with a handful of renegade backbench New Labour MPs, they are already trying to convince the public to reject the card idea. "The government is taking euphemism to extremes," John Wadham, director of UK rights group Liberty, told the Weekly. "This plan exposes the fact that the government doesn't trust its citizens. It wants 60 million of us to register our identity so it can check up on us, monitor our movements and decide whether we are entitled to the services we have already paid our taxes for." As the debate heats up, much will depend on what ordinary middle- class white Britons make of the identity card idea. There is a widely held perception among policy- makers and think-tanks that the white population, which still forms the overwhelming majority of Britain's racial makeup, is fed up with what it sees as illegal immigration and false asylum applicants. This silent majority is precisely the group that New Labour is trying to appeal to with the new move -- but analysts are divided over whether the scheme will work or not. Out on Oxford Street, London's shopping hub, it seems that white Britain supports extra controls on asylum seekers but remains suspicious of the government's deeper motives. "It wouldn't worry me if I had an ID card, I don't care about invasion of privacy. And as for immigrants, if they're meant to be here they'd have an ID -- so they'd have no problem," said Ian Blackman, a 55-year-old careers advisor. "But still, I don't see why they'd be useful," he continued. "Blunkett's using immigration as an excuse but there's something more to it." Some have already been persuaded of the scheme's merits. "If you've got nothing to hide, what's the problem?" asked Liz Price, an accounts clerk in her 40s. "I trust the government," she added cautiously, before her husband Steve -- a graphic designer -- interrupted her, saying: "They won't be targeting ethnic minorities, its just troublemakers they'll go after." The fear that government may abuse the extra power seems to run deep in the British psyche, however. "Identity cards are a very good idea provided they don't go over the top," said Michael Nelman, a 62- year-old quality control advisor at an engineering plant. "It will stop immigrant labour being exploited illegally by businessmen. But the government should only hold the bare minimum of information on us. I fear abuse." Outside Britain, many will be scratching their heads at quite why identity cards are such a big deal. The idea of an internal passport has long been accepted across the Middle East and Africa, despite its apparent abuse in Israel and South Africa under apartheid. Moreover, cards are common in continental Europe where EU nationals use them to roam across the continent instead of using a passport. The UK, however, still clings to an Anglo-Saxon conception of freedom whereby citizens must be safeguarded from their government rather than protected by it. Lidia Roncoroni, a 25-year-old Italian student sitting outside Oxford Circus underground station casually smoking a cigarette, seemed bemused that ID cards should be debated at all. "They are good because they confirm who you are," she said simply. "The British are a bit crazy, I think."
