Identity

10/19/2005

For those of you in search of nature notes we swing to a wet day with an unusual gusty north wind, and as I gaze from the drawing room windows, I first of all see the welcome sight of Field Fayres in the Holly trees. The visitors seem to have a strange effect on our resident Blackbirds who have been elusive for months, but now appear in profusion, I hurry to hang plenty of apples about the place as the Blackbirds adore them, and hope that Glen Trollaigh can support this unusually large population over the winter months. I toil at my desk listening to Radio Scotland and amongst a lot of tabloid drivel; they do spend a little time on the question of identity cards. I must say that I am ambivalent towards such proposals that seem to be uncosted and so far from introduction that I will probably never have the need for one. I am concerned that an executive who admits that 30% of motor vehicles on our roads, so closely policed and controlled by legislation, operate without paying road tax or insurance, cannot really be competent enough to handle an inclusive personal identity system. Let us face it the criminals, twisters and terrorists from whom we will allegedly be protected by the proposals will be more than one step ahead with forged identity documentation. Why must government always threaten rather than reward? Rather than penalise folk without identity cards, why not reward those with the cards? If you can produce the right card with your tax return, you get a 10% tax discount; if your motor has all the right bits of bumf, you get a discount on your road tax etc. A similar suggestion today was that those with wind farms in their back gardens should get free electricity, how very sensible and a reasonable proposal that would substantially reduce much of the protest against the expansion of this dubious alternative energy source, and a good counterbalance to any potential reduction in property value. In the countryside, we do see an example of the “carrot” approach to identity legislation with livestock and plant passports, where if all the amazingly complex paperwork is in order the land manager receives a cash payment. And of course the question of the accuracy of bio-metric measurement of bald headed, brown eyed males will be resolved at a stroke by painfully sticking large numbered yellow tags in each of their ears when only a few weeks old. Yours Aye, Archie, The Baron Trollaigh.