When a lost non-verbal teenager ends up in an immigration centre, it’s clear citizenship has become a privilege, not a right
Have you checked your ID privilege lately? Because in recent days I’ve observed with unprecedented clarity that it’s becoming a phenomenon in Britain. There are two types of citizen in this country: those who feel compelled to carry proof that their presence is legal. And those secure enough, entitled even, to barely give it a thought.
Until recently, I have always been in the second category. It’s cultural. ID cards are totally un-British – as I discovered when I first started writing about civil liberties for the Guardian 15 years ago. Government proposals to introduce them back then stirred a deep well of Magna Carta-philia and a libertarian distrust of positive law. British people don’t expect to have to prove their identity unless collecting a parcel or checking in for a flight.
Afua Hirsch is a writer, broadcaster, and former barrister
