In February of 2023, former Labour and Conservative Party leaders, Tony Blair and William Hague, called for the rollout of digital identification (“ID”) as part of a “fundamental reshaping of the state around technology.”
He also established the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, with teams in more than 30 countries around the world, working to “support governments.” Blair’s Institute is an Associate Partner of WEF. The description for the institute on WEF’s website states: “It works with political leaders and governments worldwide on strategy, policy and delivery – with technology as an enabler of all three.”
Digital ID is nothing new. Blair tried to introduce it during his time as Prime Minister but was blocked by parliament. As it was back then, it is still controversial today. Its critics are concerned that it would represent a breach of civil liberties, an offensive intrusion by the Big State.
Silkie Carlo, director of the campaign group Big Brother Watch, said the “sprawling digital identity system” proposed by the pair “would be one of the biggest assaults on privacy ever seen in the UK”.
“Sir Tony and Lord Hague are absolutely right about the need for the UK to take leadership in technological innovation, but this means protecting people’s rights and privacy, not reviving failed proposals for an intrusive mass digital identity system and a database state,” Carlo said.
Not to be deterred by public opinion or the resistance to mass surveillance and control, in June Blair’s Institute for Global Change released a second report: ‘The Great Enabler: Transforming the Future of Britain’s Public Services Through Digital Identity’. The report heralds digital ID as the “great enabler”:
“It is the great enabler of modern government and has been within leaders’ reach for some time, but until now politics has stood in its way.”
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