More and more people are disagreeing with elements of the government line on ID cards. UK.gov are guestimating that it’ll take a mere ?5,800,000,000 to introduce these wonderful pieces of plastic, at a cost of ?93 per person.
The LSE disagrees. They think it’ll be ?18,000,000,000. Or ?300 per person. Not much of a difference there, is there. Only a 300% discrepancy, which is actually not that bad for government figures.
But what’s got me really chuffed is that they mention me in the article.
The LSE study also raised the issue of people who are against ID cards, called “refuseniks”. It said: “The costs of handling this group will be substantial”.
Hmm. refusenik. Now, what could they possibly mean?
1 entry found for refuseniks.
re?fuse?nik
n.A Soviet citizen, usually Jewish, denied permission to emigrate.
Well, I’m not Jewish, I’m not looking to emigrate, but we’re heading more and more towards a soviet mindset.
The term refusenik was generalised beyond it’s original meaning years ago (as you know all too well). Try Googling the term or see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refusenik
Yes, but I liked the tie in with totalitarian stateness. Anyway, the term is a little out of place here. Perhaps “lovers of freedom” would be a better term. Although I’m pretty sure that, in short order, the government will prefer the terms “malcontent” and, eventually, “the accused”.
[…] More ID card wonderfulness Some time ago, the LSE put out a wee report, which questioned some of the figures that were being bandied about by uk.gov about ID cards. Speci […]