Tony Blair Calls For Digital IDs For All On Smartphones To Mitigate Public Services, Calls Them ‘The Great Enabler’
“This great enabler is digital identity. Not just a new piece of identity, but a new system for managing the information we share with government that is suited to the way we live our lives today."
The following report was first published on June 18th, 2023, on winepressnews.com.
Former British Prime Minister and globalist Tony Blair has issued a grand recommendation for the U.K., that citizens adopt a digital ID framework stored on their smartphones to better streamline public services, in what he and his organization are calling “the great enabler.”
On June 15th the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change published a white paper titled, “The Great Enabler: Transforming the Future of Britain’s Public Services Through Digital Identity;” which is part of the group’s broader “Future of Britain” initiative that “sets out a policy agenda for a new era of invention and innovation, based on radical-but-practical ideas and genuine reforms that embrace the tech revolution,” which in turn will help to make the U.K. “greener, healthier, [and] more prosperous.”
In January Tony Blair and a guest of other panelists at the annual World Economic Forum summit meeting in Davos, Switzerland, discussed the “100 Days to Outrace the Next Pandemic,” where Blair advocated for a “national digital infrastructure” that could work in tandem with future vaccination campaigns,’ The WinePress reported.
“I think there is a huge impetus now for a national digital infrastructure. Digitalization in healthcare I think is one of the great game changers. We should be helping countries to develop a national digital infrastructure, which they will need with these new vaccines.
“I just want to emphasize how important I think that is. In the end, you need the data, you need to know who’s been vaccinated and who hasn’t been. So of the vaccines that will come on down the line will be multiple shots, so you got to have […] a proper digital infrastructure, and many countries don’t have that.”
Apart of this so-called great enabling plan, the TB Institute suggests that the current setup does not “require reform” but simply a modernized “transformation,” citing long waits to receive passports and gain asylum. Blair and company I sure a digital ID system will remedy this.
The group wrote in their paper:
“This great enabler is digital identity. Not just a new piece of identity, but a new system for managing the information we share with government that is suited to the way we live our lives today. It is a digital wallet for every individual that gives them access to their documents (for example, driving license) and control of their data.
“The new ecosystem should make life easier for people and allow them to use their digital identity in many different contexts – not only to log in to government services but also to access commercial goods and services. This could enable them to prove they have a driving license when renting a car or verify their age online. It should also be accessible to everyone, regardless of whether they own a smartphone.”
Additionally, in a statement to Metro, Mr. Blair again summarized what this system entails and why the U.K. Parliament needs to seriously consider this.
“The ID is a simple identifier on your phone, accessed using biometrics. It’s unique to you, and enables you to interact with the government system through one portal.
“It allows you to get all the data you need about yourself in one place.
“The vast majority of people will use it through a phone, and that’s the best way to do it.
The TB Institute contends that since there is a whole host of methods to register and sign into accounts and profiles, and since most people don’t know how secure it is and who holds onto it, public or private, the masses don’t have full control and assurance as to how their data is being kept and transferred. Whereas a new digital ID ecosystem, they say, “would give people control of their data, make it easier and quicker to prove their eligibility for needed services and, in turn, allow those services to be personalized to individual needs.”
They say it would need to have two core elements: “A single digital wallet,” and “Multiple secure, verifiable digital credentials, such as a digital driving license, that would be stored in and accessed via this wallet.” Blair’s group says a digital ID would bring “Speed and efficiency, Personalization, and Public services and government fit for the 21st century.”
The TB Institute adds:
“Digital infrastructure designed in this way would empower individuals to securely prove their identity, granularly manage the sharing – or not – of their own data and seamlessly access all their public services. This would be more secure and more convenient: no more putting your passport in the post to renew it or taking your driving license on a night out to prove your age.”
The group expresses that this ID would replace “paper-based systems” and “could choose to share certain information with different parts of government to make it easier and quicker to access the services they need.”
“Digital identity would become the foundation of interactions with public services,” Blair and friends claim, adding that if paired with “generative AI, this can be taken to a new level.”
The group provided an additional list of examples such an ID system would prove useful:
When a baby is born, the family could choose to allow the hospital to share that information with the Department for Work and Pensions so they could access child benefit automatically.
An individual seeking asylum in the UK could apply at an embassy overseas and – if approved – use a secure temporary digital identity for travel. This removes the need to make a perilous cross-Channel boat crossing.
Employers, landlords and immigration authorities could check instantly and securely whether someone had the right to live or work in the UK.
A student with our digital identity who shared data with a national education system could create a bespoke learning experience using artificial intelligence (AI).
A visitor to A&E could register their arrival with a tap of their phone, link to a recent call with 111 and avoid the need to reshare information.
Health-record data could be used to generate insights that could inform preventative treatment for certain demographics.
Granular real-time data could be used to monitor how schools perform, replacing infrequent, high-stakes Ofsted inspections.
Enabling workers to prove their right to work easily and instantly, and processing asylum claims more quickly, would help bring an end to the UK’s low-paid, exploitative informal labour market.
Furthermore, the group goes on to detail some of the deeper specifics of its use in things like education, healthcare, immigration, and welfare.
For schoolwork, for example, “a complete picture of each student’s lifelong learning journey could be built up,” in tandem with AI as well, along with helping to manage special courses and services, plus school meal programs. Teachers could also use the information to offer tailored support and curriculum, providing a detailed record of learning, notating strengths and weaknesses.
As for healthcare services, “A health account, containing an individual’s full medical history, would empower people to take control of their health and vastly improve the quality and use of health-care data,” the Institute adds, providing a slew of records and other important data that would normally be a pile of paperwork. Though not explicitly mentioned in the paper, it would seem plausible this ID would be used to store vaccine records and passports, per Blair’s aforementioned ambitions he stated at the WEF.
They later add that many Brits became familiar with using an app courtesy of the NHS during the last several years of Covid pandemonium, so “people have seen how easy using technology can be and know that its use in health can save time, improve back-office efficiency and provide insights to improve public health,” the group argues.
As concerning immigration and asylum seekers, the group says how a digital ID will alleviate these problems and save the country money:
“A digital-identity system could deter people from making dangerous small-boat crossings by enhancing identity-verification capabilities and promoting compliance with immigration regulations.
“By incorporating biometric data and digital authentication measures, authorities in both the public and private sectors could accurately establish individuals’ identities and make it harder for undocumented immigrants to disappear into the underground economy, renting and working illegally.
“Linking digital identity to various government systems could deter individuals from unlawfully extending their stay in the country.”
Former U.S. President Donald Trump offered up a similar proposal during his 2016 campaign, to launch a “global tracking system” in order to wrangle the Southern Border debacle.
The digital ID would also be helped to better facilitate welfare and social security payments. Currently more cities in the U.K. are trialing universal basic income payments; as a food bank chain in London are now rolling out biometric facial recognition for recipients to obtain food and goods.
SEE: Sweden To Rollout Digital ID With BankID, Scanning QR Codes For Clearance
In conclusion, the Tony Blair Institute writes:
“The technology already exists to make all this possible. Until now, a lack of political courage has held us back. The time has come to invest in a proper digital-identity system so that the UK can modernize public services and give people the personalized health care and education they deserve. The public knows this; now politicians need to catch up.”
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
You may recall that earlier this year when Blair was chatting with Oracle’s Larry Ellison, about collecting people’s personal biometric data to train AI, and Blair gushed about how this would connect to digital IDs.
As optimistic as Mr. Blair may make it sound, he concedes in both the paper and his interview with Metro that most people are not really all that interested, and that governments on different sides are not jumping to fund its creation. Therefore, people will be forced to like it and made to use it.
We’ve already seen this just in the last week with the YouTube drama that requires users to provide their legal ID or biometrics if the AI screening thinks the account holder is underage. This can be remedied by building a search history that is not childish, but for the obvious reasons people - us included - are not happy about this in the slightest bit.
Then have you Donald Duck who recently boasted about introducing digital IDs for healthcare… the same thing Blair and the WEF says are necessary. Oh, but I thought he was anti-globalist draining the swamp?
Nevertheless, in places such as the United States a manufactured crisis will need to be created to force compliance, knowingly or unknowingly. Economic crash, “cyberattack,” whatever, will need to occur to force the change. Digital IDs are imperative to the new tokenized financial system and thus must be pushed and accepted at all costs. Compliance may be slow, but we know that most will comply eventually.
Jeremiah 5:26 For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men.
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Tony Blair, what is he? We have all seen how Great Britain has gone the drain, and a Sister writes and tells me how bad it is over there frequently, their police are a joke.
The great enslaver would be more appropriate.
The "great enabler" is we want to know everything about everyone, so we can control everyone for your safety, of course.