Report to the People
28th February 2005
Convenience on the Cards
Being the egalitarian place that it is,
the Scottish Parliament likes to give everyone a turn.
Which is why, last Thursday, the Green Party got to call a debate on ID
cards. (Don’t ask me what this
had to do with the environment. I
sat through most of it and am still no clearer.)
Judging
by their speeches, some MSPs seem to be believe that ID cards, rather than
international terrorism, are the real threat to our way of life.
The
polls, however, suggest that 80% of the public are in favour of the cards. Not
only because, in my view, they could make us safer, but because they could make
our daily lives easier.
Think
about the NHS as an example.
When
I was at Robert Gordon University the other week, top researchers showed me some
amazing innovations which could, say, better manage bed allocations or help
doctors work out the best combination of drugs for cancer patients.
But, with paper records – which too often get mislaid – these ideas
won’t get out of the lab.
If
you could simply present a card which would confirm your identity and allow the
NHS staff to instantly call up your medical history and the precise treatment
you required, imagine how much quicker you could be treated and how much more
efficiently the NHS would run.
Back to Current Reports to the People
[ HOME ] [ News ] [ Report to the People ] [ Interact ] [ Links ] [ E-Mail ]
[ Copyright ] [ Directgov ] [ Scottish Parliament ]