On September 25th Keir Starmer announced that the UK Government will be introducing mandatory digital ID for all adult British citizens. Already this has been met with immense hostility across Britain and its constituent nations, with a petition now at 1.7 million signatures calling for the Digital IDs not to be introduced.
The SSY ardently opposes the introduction of these IDs. The stated intention of further enforcing border controls through the use of the ID raises several concerns and its potential threats to civil liberties are clear. Beyond being a means of addressing the waves of anti-migrant sentiment that Starmer’s government have been desperate to appease by incorporating into its agenda, this policy represents a culmination and expansion of Starmer’s authoritarianism. An authoritarianism built upon the increased severity with which the border is constructed and enforced. It serves to expand the border regime into every corner of public life, from the NHS, to your GP, to your workplace and even further beyond.
It is for the time being unknown how these IDs will be implemented and what sort of data they will be connected to, however, the use of British citizenship as a means of surveillance undeniably lays the foundation for a system with a far greater ability to monitor and regulate against what they deem to be “undesirable” behavior.
Such a system functions to limit mobility both within and outside the country, activity on social media, and regulate public space in such a manner so as to ensure that individuals have as little anonymity as possible when engaging in any form of political action. Those hit hardest by this policy will be the most impoverished and marginalized populations, with the state given even greater ability to map out and track demographics, their policing of communities can only become harsher. Trans people will be more excluded from public spaces as the ID could be used to enforce sex-based segregation. The welfare and health care system upon which these communities depend can be used to monitor them, and in turn conditions for access made more punitive.
It is obvious that this goes far beyond the strengthening of border control, but serves to further reinforce the crackdown on civil dissent and opposition to British foreign policy, the restrictions on access to public speech on the internet, and exerting a greater control over the population than was previously possible without the direct use of force. An expansion of the power to surveil like this is nothing new, but it is a turning point in how much power the state is capable of exercising over political opposition.
For this reason we call upon the Scottish government to strongly oppose the implementation of this policy and for our comrades on the Scottish left to mobilize against this existential threat to our remaining civil liberties and autonomy. Such a blatant attempt to silence and control us cannot stand and, with the threat of a potential Reform government on the horizon, we cannot tolerate such a powerful tool for persecution falling into the hands of the far-right.
Featured Image Credit: UK Parliament
