The UK government, led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, is intensifying its push for a digital identity system, with the launch of the Office for Digital Identities and Attributes and its Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework (“DIATF”).
The government and media are promoting digital identity as a convenient and efficient solution, with Tony Blair and other proponents touting its potential benefits, but ignoring concerns about privacy and potential risks.
The digital ID system could lead to increased surveillance and control and is likely to be tied to Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), which would require a government-backed digital identity system.
Just Like Clockwork, the Propaganda Push for Digital ID Kicks Into Gear in the UK
By Nick Corbishley
After avoiding the issue for years, the legacy media are now trying to manufacture public complacency and consent for the government’s digital identity – and by extension, CBDC – agenda.
On 5 July, the day Keir Starmer became UK prime minister, we wagered that a Starmer government would intensify the push to roll out a digital identity system in the UK – a country that has, until now, resisted all recent attempts to introduce an identity card system, including, most notably, by Starmer’s backroom consultant and mentor, Tony Blair.
Unfortunately, that prediction has proven to be pretty much on the money. Since taking office, the Starmer government has:
- Launched the new Office for Digital Identities and Attributes, with the task of overseeing the country’s digital ID market. As of 28 October, almost 50 organisations with DIATF-certified services had been added to the office’s register.
- Pledged to roll out a digital ID card for army veterans. As in the US, the UK government is also looking to launch a digital driving license by next year.
- Announced plans to introduce digital ID legislation for age verification purposes, meaning that young people will soon be able to use digital ID wallets on their phones to prove they are over 18 when visiting pubs, restaurants and shops.
Now, the propaganda is kicking into gear, and the main selling points, as always, are speed and convenience:
In its first commercial, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology chose a British pub as the venue to showcase the, ahem, benefits of digital identity. In Greece, the government is trying to push the EU’s digital identity wallet on the public by making it obligatory to access sports stadiums. In Spain, the government is trying to make it a prerequisite for accessing online porn while Australia has just passed a law making it necessary for all Australians to verify their age (presumably with its fledgling digital ID) to access social media.
As we have noted in previous articles, digital identity programmes, and the central bank digital currencies (“CBDCs”) with which they are inseparably tied, are among the most important questions today’s societies could possibly grapple with since they threaten to transform our societies and lives beyond recognition, granting governments and their corporate partners much more granular control over our lives – precisely at a time when democracy is on the decline across the West, authoritarianism is on the rise and public trust in government is sinking to record lows.
Given what is at stake, digital public infrastructure such as digital IDs and CBDCs should be under discussion in every parliament of every land, and every dinner table in every country in the world. That is finally beginning to happen in the UK, but if early signs are any indication it is likely to be less an open debate than a barrage of propagandistic talking points. In the past three weeks alone, there have been gushing articles, op-eds and editorials on the potential wonders of digital identity in the Daily Mail, the Times of London, the Financial Times and Sky News.
In an op-ed for the Daily Mail, Tony Blair, with characteristic zeal for digital public infrastructure (“DPI”), touts digital identity as a cure-all for just about everything, from bringing down NHS waiting lists to tracking illegal immigrants, to cutting benefit fraud and resolving the UK government’s fiscal crisis:
Around the world, governments are moving in this direction. Of the 45 governments we work with, I would estimate that three-quarters of them are embracing some form of Digital ID. The President of the World Bank, Ajay Banga, has said it is a top priority for the Bank’s work with leaders. But this is only one part of the immense, seismic change which this technological revolution will bring.
It is transforming drug discovery, with a whole raft of new treatments which will give us the chance to shift our healthcare system radically to prevention of disease rather than cure. If we used the potential of facial recognition, data and DNA, we would cut crime rates by not small but game-changing margins. There are interactive education apps now available which could provide personal tutoring for pupils.
But we need the right digital infrastructure to access all of this. And a Digital ID is an essential part of it.
In its article, ‘Why Britain Needs a Digital ID System’, published last week, the Financial Times concludes that “if Britain wants a truly modern state,” digital identity is “an idea whose time has come.” The article cites estimates from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (who else?) that a digital identity system could boost public finances by about £2 billion a year, “mostly by reducing benefits fraud and improving tax collection, on top of broader economic gains”:
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