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One of the ways in which EU governments manage pressures of Freedom of Movement are systems of universal citizen registration and ID cards. A framework through which access to social services could be managed. Remainers and Brexiters declared this impossible in the UK. Now... https://twitter.com/hhesterm/status/1391772398282854401
One of several things that convinced me that UK political culture was less and less suited to the demands of EU membership were the visceral and at times circular debates with Brexiters and more so Remainers over ID cards and registration systems.
If even prominent figures who claimed to be pro-Europeans were not willing to make the UK state more European so it interfaces effectively with the systems of the European Union, then how was EU membership supposed to be sustainable as European integration intensified?
What does it say when some of the most fervent standard bearers of Remainer liberalism denounce ID cards and citizens registration as symbols of tyranny when most EU states as functioning democracies use them as basic systems to manage the challenges of government?
A move to update UK systems of government under Labour or Con/LD could have ensured that any forms of government monitoring of citizen data and ID cards played out in a legally transparent process under tight parliamentary scrutiny.
We now end up with a Right wing government gaming the system in ways designed to suppress the opposition's vote, but that will probably shwack many elderly voters too.
If you don't modernise state institutions, don't be surprised if others after you twist them to their advantage
If you don't modernise state institutions, don't be surprised if others after you twist them to their advantage
