Guy Herbert of No"ID, critical of ABTA. Campaign group NO2ID accused the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) of 'acting as a shill for a government agency' by promoting the ID cards scheme. In an open letter to Mark Tanzer, Chief Executive of ABTA, Guy Herbert, the General Secretary of NO2ID,
says that ABTA's position is bad for travellers and will ultimately hurt the travel industry and its reputation. This at a time when travel agents are facing hard times as holidaymakers cut back spending.
The cause of the row is a series of articles in the travel press this week in which an ABTA spokesman is quoted suggesting that successful introduction of ID cards would encourage travel in Europe by being cheaper and easier than a passport. NO2ID says the opposite is the case, that UK ID cards are not simple identity documents, but involve a complicated and oppressive permanent surveillance. They say that in
fact Home Office plans (from 2011) to make people register on a database for life when they renew their passport will put many people off travelling altogether.
This winter NO2ID is highlighting the Home Office’s attempt to force people to accept ID registration as a consequence of having a passport in a series of press advertisements headlined: 'How your passport could own you'.
Guy Herbert's letter calls on ABTA to fight for the interests of travellers and adopt the same sort of principled opposition to the scheme that the aviation industry showed when it wrote to then Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith in summer 2008.
Mr Herbert added:
'It seems mad for ABTA to embarrass its members like this when the travel industry is suffering so much from the recession. If they want people to travel more they should be opposing the Home Office making the British passport into an instrument of surveillance.'
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