A mandatory digital identification process to access basic services won’t end well in Scotland, this much is guaranteed. In particular, it won’t end well for older people and women.
The reason we know this is that in countries where a form of digital identification has already been rolled out the results have been catastrophic, e.g. “Uganda’s Nation Digital ID Has Led To The wholesale Exclusion Of Women and Older Person”. This is the sub-heading of the report ‘Chased Away and Left to Die’ published in June 2021 by the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice.
The reality of the human suffering which is experienced by people who are eligible for benefits or services, but can’t claim them, is quite different from how digital verification is being sold to the public.
An NHS inaccessible at the point of need
A mandatory digital verification will undoubtedly lead to NHS refusal to treat people who are eligible to receive free health care at the point of need. The NHS will morph into a ‘inaccessible at the point of need’ health care service which is a far cry from what is was set up to do. Denying benefits to people who are for whatever reason unable to complete a digital verification process, will become the norm.
System glitches ten years after digital verification introduced in India
Apart from not everyone having access to technology to complete a digital identification process, or being too ill or mentally incapable to do so, errors also occur in computerised systems. In India for example, citizens eligible for food rations and pensions are left to starve due to “authentication errors” ten years after it’s introduction. Here is a heart-breaking quote from this article published 22 December 2024:
“Oram passed away in July at her house in Mayabahal village, a few weeks after The Wire last contacted her family. In the last 16 months of her life, she was denied both food rations and pensions after her biometric authentication failed.”
Short warning video
Almost three years ago, Sovereignty’s Deputy Leader, Moira Brown published a warning video that the Scottish Government was quietly wasting £83.5million on IT systems doomed to fail the people of Scotland.
The warning video includes these wise words from journalist Peter Hitchens,
“The arguments for it are extraordinarily feeble…The state wants to reverse the proper relationship between the individual and the government so that the government is above our heads rather than under our feet and once that happens you can say goodbye to being free in any realistic term.”
Postcard Campaign
The postcard below, which was designed by Moira, was delivered to thousands of households across Scotland in the hope occupants would sign it and sent it to their MSP.
This promotional video was made at the start of the postcard campaign to encourage others to come forward to help deliver postcards. This led to a very successful campaign which informed at least some of the Scottish electorate as to what MSPs are, without our knowledge or approval, spending finite taxpayers money on to exclude people from receiving benefits, health care and to curb our freedoms.
Please heed George Orwell’s final warning:
“The moral to be drawn from this dangerous, nightmare situation is a simple one – don’t let it happen!”
Campaign Action
If your household didn’t receive a postcard, please write to your MSP now to inform them you don’t agree with excluding people from services to which they are eligible by introducing a mandatory digital verification process!
And while you’re at it, please join Sovereignty, a party that will never consent to Digital ID.
Cover photo by Ross Sneddon on Unsplash