Citywide 'citizen cards' to hit London

London is to shortly introduce a transport smartcard system and boroughs in the city are looking to use it to develop the first stage of a London-wide "citizen" card. While citizens in Asian cities have adopted smartcards for a wide range of uses such as transport ticketing and paying for a coffee of cup, European cities have been slower to introduce such initiatives. London appears to be seeking to change that situation.

By the end of June or early July, Transport for London (TfL) expects to introduce credit card sized smartcards for adults travelling on the underground and buses across the city in a STG1.2 billion project. Commuters will be able to use this card in replace of monthly and annual tickets. TfL's 80,000 tube and bus employees have been testing the card since October of last year.

According to Transport for London, the card will benefit it and passengers because it will reduce the amount of time people have to queue to buy a ticket and to get through ticketing barriers. Cardholders will simply swipe their card through a reader to gain access to the relevant forms of transport, said TfL.

It is envisaged that Transport for London's Oyster card will also be used by the city's borough to "bolt-on" additional services.

According to Mick Davies, a strategy consultant for London Connects, which is the agency responsible for e-Government delivery in London, the roll-out of TfL's smartcard will act as an impetus for London boroughs.

"We estimate that there will be around two millions of these cards being used by spring 2004 and the idea now is to look at what applications boroughs can add to these cards," said Davies.

A London Connects document envisages the card being used as an electronics purse for things such as parking, library services and access to leisure facilities, as well as an entry token providing a means of establishing the holder's rights to public and private services.

"It will make access to services easier for cardholders most in need of them. It will reduce the requirement for needy citizens to repeatedly prove that they are who they say they are and it will remove the stigma associated with means-tested services such as school dinners," said the document.

Currently, 30 London boroughs are working together so that the smartcards can be used across London and are not just limited to particular areas. It is envisaged that these "citizen smartcards" will be introduced in some boroughs by the first quarter of 2004, however this will depend on the requisite funding of around STG1 million being raised. It is thought that introducing the system across the whole of London will cost upwards of STG50 million.

It is also planned that the pan-London smartcard will be rolled into the UK's national smart card project, which recently received parliamentary approval. However, London Connects admitted this will be quite a task as the Transport for London smartcard uses a different standard to the one that will be used in the national card.

Seoul, Hong Kong, and Singapore are just some of the Asian cities that have introduced smartcards that also function as electronic purses for their public transport systems. In Hong Kong, for instance, over 9 million people have an Octopus smart card.

Plans to introduce a similar smartcard for Dublin's transport system appear to have been much delayed. The Government's New Connections report said such a system was to be introduced by the end of 2003. However, in November, Transport Minister, Seamus Brennan, TD, said integrated ticketing for bus and rail services would be introduced in 2004, but remarked that transport smartcards were a "longer-term matter."

"Cashless Society", here we come!

How long will it be, do you suppose, before these cards are transformed into an electromagnetic scannable tattoo somewhere on the "Citizen's" body.

I'd venture to guess that it would be the back of the hand or the forehead.

And without your "Mark", you do not work for hire, buy, sell, or transact any business whatsoever.

Eventually, all of your property would be forfiet, and you would have to resort to doing things in order to survive that would be likely to land you in trouble with the Law, and suitably incarcerated. I can even imagine, without too much of a stretch having seen what Iraq has been through for the past 25 years or so (and might not be completely out of yet) that any tenaciously recalcitrant "Citizen" who obstinately refused thier "Mark" for whatever reason might simply be done away with.

Actually, this seemingly "paranoid" speculation is not my idea at all.
I read about it in an old Book.

...Called "Revelation".

Specifically; Chapter XIII; Verses 16-18.

It's not "Speculation" after all; It's Prophecy.

Coming to a World near us... sooner than we might think, actually.

Seoul, Hong Kong, and Singapore are just some of the Asian cities that have introduced smartcards that also function as electronic purses for their public transport systems.

A classic case of lying by indirection. I have one of these "smart cards" in my wallet, courtesy of the Singapore Land Transport Authority. It has many features, but the best feature is the one it doesn't have: it contains no means of identification.

It can be bought anonymously, you can add cash anonymously, and when you use it the servers are memoryless - the only record of your journey is on the card itself.

The London "citizen card" is the exact opposite: it is an identity card that can track your movements. It is surveillance by stealth, in the guise of a friendly little helper. Britons, get one at your peril.

Well, since the good, honest, working class British Cit... errr.. Subjects have been effectively and systematically disarmed and whipped into surrendering their primal, God-given right of self-defense by any means, then we can safely assume that there isn't much of anything that they can do about it, now is there?

There are various theological perspectives on "Eschatology", or the study of Prophetic "End Times", but one area no one can seem to aggree on is just where America fits in with all this. "Armageddon" is certainly in the Middle East, but whether the US will have anything to do with it, or if we even will exist by that time in History, we really can't tell.

My take on it is that the primary, if not exclusive geographical area concerned in this prophecy will be the ressurected Roman Empire, which just coincidentally (?) happens to match the proposed EU nearly to a "T".

It would stand to reason, then, that the primary States of the EU would start softening thier Sheeple up and getting them used to the idea of a cashless economy where every move was under the scrutiny of a central authority. Incrementally programming the masses into a sense of total dependancy upon said authority / State would also be a reasonable prepatory program.

Most of the components prerequisite to a fulfillment of these Prophecies have already fallen into place, many of them since 1948. All that remains is the establishment of an all-powerfull (as far as the World is concerned) irresistable State entity and a ruthless, charismatic individual to lead it.

EU? What do you think?

If you have not done so already, might I suggest reading the Prophecy, the News (reputable if you can find it) and History (Un-politically-Corrected for Forced Public Government Socialist Indoctrination Center / School consumption) and look for patterns developing between them all.

Then see if you don't feel a certain sense of imminence - as I do.

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