Yes, I know what you mean, but this is not happening in isolation. This is happening in context with a bunch of other stuff - some of it is badly thought out Tory policies which are being enacted by the current government, and some of it is newly invented policies from the current government.

So if we think about it combined with their current crackdown on peace and environmental protest (potentially on its way to being outlawed entirely), enforced ID to access websites and (imminently) requirement to give the government access to your bank account to receive any benefits (including, of course, child benefit and disability benefits)… and suggestions about replacing all train tickets with GPS tracking your ID and location… these could all add up very quickly into a scenario as described. If they can explain how these definitely won’t happen, maybe we’re fine?

Also, agreed on the ‘sensible implementation/concrete proposals’ bit, but that’s exactly what they’re not doing, and there’s no suggestion that that’s been done in the past with anything recently, and no suggestion it will be done for this.

Are they consulting the EFF and similar? Are they consulting University Professors who are experts in their fields? Or are they consulting right-wing American surveillance companies?

There’s no sensible assessment of how this would work, with thought, research, expert opinions etc - like the “ID for websites” thing - it was just pushed through by people who didn’t understand how it would work.

I think this diagram explains it a bit clearer:

Basically, the most likely outcome is sadly that it will be shoddily implemented by morons and criminals, to make some right-wing twats more rich and powerful.

Truthfully, I hope I am over-reacting.