Teenagers, another 'deviant' population that serves as a folk menace to bring in tighter security, is apparently being targeted under the Identity Card Act 2006 for using fake ID to buy alcohol. So a traditional rite of passage becomes a 'terrorism' issue.
So it's interesting, that given that the ID card system is nowhere nearly in place (although its being built up from several existing databases which are currently in operation) and that the cards themselves are still a long way off, the elements of the Act that make using false identity documentation illegal are being strongly enforced.
and a very honest policeman sums up much of the effects of anti-terror legislation with:
"The Act was brought out for terrorism but it suits us very nicely"
Hang on. The idea that the identity card act would stop terrorism was largely abandoned officially by the government in face of arguments to the contrary. But it seems to dwell on in some diffuse sense that it must be about stopping terrorism, right? There's an interesting dynamic, by which an argument is officially discarded, but still seems to permeate the discursive field - almost like a silent statement.
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