Take one British appeal court judge with time on his hands, add a police force that already has the largest DNA database in Europe, mix in some American-style biometric coercion and, finally, invite an excited media to listen to some far-fetched idea that surely, surely could never come true. What do you get? Another wedge hammered into the already widening cracks of our human rights.
I cannot be certain, but this story sounds like something that the current UK government – and certainly the US, Russian, Indian and Chinese governments – would be more than happy to get into the open. It is a simple form of haggling: get an authority figure to make a controversial statement, with an idea that is going to be initially rejected, and then just stand back and wait.
After a while people will have ostensibly forgotten that someone suggested an entire country’s population, along with every single visitor to that country, would have to have their DNA forcibly removed and stored. But then someone, in a couple of years time, comes along with the idea that anyone wishing to take out life insurance or perhaps have a driving licence would have to submit a DNA sample for “legal” reasons. That amounts to almost the entire population of the country, but it’s “voluntary”, so how many people will really object to this uncontentious piece of legislation?