Spot the difference

The BBC:

Home Office minister Tony McNulty said a national database was not a “silver bullet” and it would raise practical as well as civil liberties issues.

“How to maintain the security of a database with 4.5m people on it is one thing,” he said.

“Doing that for 60m people is another.”

How odd that this reasoning applies to a National DNA Database but not the biometric (not to mention biographic) elements of the National Identity Register!

In another BBC article,

Mr Davis added: “The simple truth is that fingerprinting has been around a long time. There’s never been a call for a fingerprinting database.

Oh, really?

The same argument applies that we are criminalising the whole population… DNA is an incredibly intrusive thing.”

Elsewhere, James Hammerton has updated his briefing document on the National Identity scheme, including an excellent summary of the issues relating to liberty and privacy.