Debate contribution: Digital ID Scheme
Debate contribution by Mr Gerry Carroll on .
- MLA
- Mr Gerry Carroll
- Party at the time
- People Before Profit Alliance
- Date
- 29 September 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Matter of the Day
- Heading
- Digital ID Scheme
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5138718
Read the official Assembly record
Text
It is worth emphasising that this terrible idea has its origins in the days of Tony Blair and his Government, who began a serious crackdown on civil liberties 20 or so years ago. Keir Starmer — a willing follower and student of Blairism and Tony Blair — has taken his warped ideas of restricting people's rights to another level and different terrain. It should be opposed outright. If the Government in Britain want to plough ahead with it, I strongly encourage people here and in Britain to oppose it and not to take part in the proposed scheme. Some of this is about Labour trying to show that it is tough on migration and asylum seekers. It shows how little a clue Keir Starmer or even Morgan McSweeney have about immigration. The latter is being accused of not declaring £700,000 of public money that was gained by his Labour Together group, which, allegedly, came up with this bonkers policy. The proposal is not fully about immigration; it is about a huge expansion of the digital infrastructure for a surveillance state, for which a huge corporate organisation is likely to be paid. This is a state that already clamps down, spies on and arrests campaigners and activists. The scheme will create even more barriers to public life for racialised minorities and those who are already digitally excluded. During a cost-of-living crisis, ongoing genocide in Gaza, climate breakdown and rampant homelessness, this is the last thing that the Government should plough ahead with. Members have said that the scheme is very un-British. There is a rich history in Britain of challenging monarchy and aristocracy, with the Chartist movement fighting for votes for working-class people. However, the scheme is very "British Government", who, in the past, have always talked about decency and democracy but have clamped down on activism and campaigning left, right and centre. There are huge questions about who will administer the scheme. Will it be, as has been suggested, Fujitsu, a company that has gained hundreds of millions of pounds in public money despite being mired in scandal? Will it be Palantir, with which the British Government already have a cosy relationship and which has been accused of all sorts of horrible things? The scheme should be opposed and challenged. If the Government try to plough ahead with it, I encourage people to resist taking part.
396 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.16 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- No identity-based framing was identified (0.81).
- Subject area: Immigration, asylum, race, ethnicity and Travellers.
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.14 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.07 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.03 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.17 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.19 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.55 | No |
| Overall judgement | 0.16 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 0.81 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.01 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.12 |
| Adopts it | 0.06 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Immigration, asylum, race, ethnicity and Travellers | 0.98 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.01 |
| Another identity-related subject | 0.01 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:17 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
Disagree with this assessment?
Classifications can be challenged. A person reads every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.