British Retreat on "National" identity card system - 16-10-96

 The plans have attracted considerable debate in the United Kingdom with the erosion of Civil Liberties advanced as a strong argument against the proposed system. The Celtic League, one of a small number of organisations, that actually submitted a response to the United Kingdom Home Affairs Committee advanced a much more fundamental case to support the libertarian argument.

 We reminded the British government that substantial groups of people presently identified as "British" within the United Kingdom have a distinct cultural identity and would resent the imposition of any system that detracted from this. We advanced that the scheme as proposed,although initially on a voluntary basis, would once introduced acquire a momentum of compulsion. We advised that in Northern Ireland the nationalist/republican community would be sure to see the British national identity system as an attack on their cultural identity and, whilst this was perhaps predicted by the British, they should anticipate that the same level of opposition would also manifest itself in Scotland, Wales and Cornwall.

 There seems little doubt that had the British progressed the proposals a strident campaign of protest would have developed and when on the 8th of August 1995 the Celtic League wrote to the ID Green Paper Unit enclosing our submission "Whose National Identity?". We concluded our submission by promising to mobilise a campaign of opposition. It's now unnecessary as the British have retreated on the issue and fortunately common sense has prevailed.

 J.B. Moffatt

 As an addendum to the question of national identity, consternation was caused in the Manx General Election of November 1996 when, under new Legislation, candidates were required to declare their "nationailty". The Manx Attourney General, Michael Kerruish, declared that "Manx" was not acceptable; Manx candidates (the majority) were forced by a law devised and enacted by the Manx government to declare themselves as "British" - whatever that is.