Freedom is slavery

That's it, then.

I emailed my MP the other day. He's Labour, and a craven line-toer to boot.

"One does not examine legislation in the light of the benefits it will convey if properly administered, but in the light of the wrongs it would do and the harms it would cause if improperly administered," wrote Lyndon Johnson.

This is an approach that this government has signally failed to take with a great deal of its legislation, not the least example of which is the current ID cards farrago. It has blundered on and dismissively waved off every objection to this legislation, fatuously convinced that nothing can go wrong; that for once the monolithic state computer system will work even remotely as it's supposed to; that for once criminal opportunists will, with civic-minded fairness, pass up the gaping opportunity presented for fraud by an incompetently administered database such as the one proposed will inevitably be.

I draw your attention to sections 2.4, 2.5, 2.6 and 2.7 of this report:

http://www.eurim.org.uk/activities/pi/060112pireport.pdf

Good intentions do not on their own make good law, and this law will be in the highest degree odious. I urge you to vote against it.

I received the most vapid possible reply, including a mis-spelling of the name with which I'd signed my email:

Thank for your e mail. I understand you view but disagree with the assessment of benefit/diadvantages and I will be supporting the Bill when it returns, sorry to disappoint you,

No, I couldn't believe you can get elected to the House of Commons with that standard of written English either. Still, he just got made Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the ridiculous ODPM (where his relative linguistic skills are probably in great demand), so you can't blame his sense of preservation for being more attuned to his cushy gig than his country's freedoms. Stands to reason, really.