"The travel plans and personal details of every holidaymaker, business traveller and day-tripper who leaves Britain are to be tracked by the Government... Anyone departing the UK by land, sea or air will have their trip recorded and stored on a database for a decade.
Passengers leaving every international sea port, station or airport will have to supply detailed personal information as well as their travel plans. So-called "booze cruisers" who cross the Channel for a couple of hours to stock up on wine, beer and cigarettes will be subject to the rules.
Anyone departing the UK by land, sea or air will have their trip recorded and stored on a database for a decade."
The news that really got me riled this morning was this:
"(the)rules which will require the provision of travellers' personal information such as passport and credit card details, home and email addresses and exact travel plans"
Some thoughts: When we go away I tell hardly anyone; the neighbours who keep an eye on the house, parents and a few clients, we do not advertise the fact that we are going away. We do not put our home address on our luggage labels, just surname and a mobile phone number. Now I will be required to enter all this information (and more) online into a "secure" Government database, that seems a bright move. Who will have access to this database? No really who will have access to it? With this Labour governments' record on data security I have major doubts as to its access security. Why should I put my house and possessions at risk because this Labour government have finally realised that they have no border controls worth speaking of.
Why do the Labour government want my credit card details? Do they only want the details of the card we paid for the holiday with or all of our credit cards? Do they want all Debit Card details as well? Do they also require the PINs for each of these cards? How about my online banking account details and passcodes?
Why do they need my email address? Which email address do they want? Do they want the one that I booked the holiday under, not my main one as I don't want to be spammed? Do they want every email address I have? Will they also want SMTP/POP3 passwords so they can check my emails?
The Labour government want to have details of our exact travel plans? What if we don't have "exact" travel plans? What if we have booked a flight to Pisa and a hire-car for two weeks and plan to meander through Tuscany and Umbria for two weeks, staying wherever takes our fancy? Will we not be allowed to go unless we have a booking for every night of the holiday? Will we be allowed to leave the Country but have to amend our filed holiday plans every day as our plans change? What if we have booked to stay in a particular hotel or villa and then find that it is horrible and so move to another hotel or villa, will this not be allowed or will we have to ask permission from the Labour government before we make such changes to our filed itinerary? What if our holiday plans change but we cannot alter our filed itinerary as there is no internet access where we are staying? What if the airline suffers a delay that means we have to spend a night in a transit hotel, will that need logging?
Some more thoughts: This Labour government has a history of passing legislation purportedly for one reason but leaving the system open to additional functionality, so what mission-creep could be added to this one? It would make a fine starting point for a travel rationing system; if they are logging all travel plans, then how long before you get the message "I am sorry but you have exceeded your travel miles ration, you do not have permission to travel unless you pay an "eco-surcharge" - click "OK" and we will deduct the charge from the credit card details that we store for you". The system would also make a nice research tool for HM Revenue and Customs - Mr Jones, we note that you have had five holidays to Florida over the last three years and always stay at the same holiday villa. How can you afford such a holiday on the income you have declared on your tax returns? Do you have any financial interest in this villa?
This Labour government database is being introduced under the pretext of fighting terrorism and crime, they tend to be, but its real purpose will only be seen some time down the road. I think it was Cecil Rhodes who said that "To be born English is to have won first prize in the lottery of life." I don't think that many of us would agree with that any more. The English are over-taxed, over-regulated, subject to endless surveillance and State control.
UPDATE:
The best time to introduce this sort of database would be when there will be minimal activity so February or October/November; but this is a Labour Government database so it is being introduced over the Easter weekend. Do you think this Labour government are taking the piss now.
UPDATE 2:
The Telegraph also has this quote:
"The e-Borders scheme has already screened over 82m passengers travelling to Britain, leading to more than 2,900 arrests, for crimes including murder, drug dealing and sex offences. e-borders helps the police catch criminals attempt to escape justice."
So an enormously expensive and intrusive database is being implemented partly because of the success so far of e-Borders in finding that around 0.003% of tracked journeys lead to arrest.
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