Identity Documents Bill

Debate between Lord Selsdon and Viscount Slim

Monday 18th October 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord Selsdon]

My Lords, I am honoured to follow my noble friend Lord Stoddart of Swindon. I apologise to him again, because the last time this issue was raised, I called him “Lord Swinton” by mistake. Along with my noble friend Lord Phillips of Sudbury, we have all spoken on identity cards enough to bore the pants off a wild boar.

This is a difficult subject for me because I have always had a crisis of identity. I do not oppose the Bill, but it is not past perfect, perfect or even future perfect. That is because the first thing you need for identity is a name, and as the prayer book says, “What are your name or names? Nomen or nomine”. For those of your Lordships who have heard me bang on about this before, the question is this: ask yourself what is your name, and then ask what is your full name, and then ask what is your legal name. Of course, as noble Lords know, you do not have a legal name because you have the right to call yourself what you like. Some of us have suffered from being put into your Lordships’ House at an early stage. I found that instead of being Malcolm Mitchell-Thomson, I became the right honourable Sir Malcolm McEacharn Mitchell-Thomson, Baronet of Polmood in the County of Peebles and Baron Selsdon in the County of Croydon.

In my travels over the years—and I have travelled much—this has led to me sometimes being registered by the first two words in my passport or birth certificate when I have tried to prove who I am. Those words may be “the right”. In the continent of Europe you take the surname or last name first and then the Christian name, so I have been Monsieur or Herr “right the”. As your Lordships know, “The” is a well-known Vietnamese Christian name. At the other end of the scale, when I have been “of Croydon”, I have been called Monsieur “Croydon of”, and “Of” is a Norwegian Christian name. I would like to be called “Malcolm Selsdon”, but this is denied to me.

If we are to have an identity card or passport, the first thing we need to do is determine the full name of the holder. In an attempt to prove myself wrong again, I asked the Whips Office if it would give me the Christian names of all Members of your Lordships’ House. I then searched through these names, only to find that many of your Lordships are called by a name that is not either one forename or another. So how do you prove who you are? And, having proven who you are, how do you use that information for your benefit?

The British passport has a reference number containing 24 figures and four letters—it is perfect—which is scanned in when you go to an airport. However, it is big, and if you try to carry it with you when you go swimming you find that you have got a problem. Over time, I have taken a copy of my passport. Is it illegal to take a copy of your passport? I am not sure that it is, but it is photo voltaic. It also has a photograph of me because, if I wish to identify myself to someone, I need to have a photograph. Almost everyone these days requires proof of identity.

I say to the noble Lord, Lord Maxton, that I do not carry a pass of the House of Lords because, when I came here, I was told that I should certainly know everyone who had come here before me, their name and their face, and that the best form of security is recognition. Then, in order to get to know the security people, I was given the numbers they had on their shoulders and I learned their names so that when I went by them very quickly everyone would recognise me.

My problem is that I lose passes regularly. On my bus pass I am called Lord McEacharn, which is one of my middle names, and on something else I am Monsieur Croydon of, but I would like to have my own name and my own photograph on every card that I have. For example, I would like to have them on my bank card so that no one can steal it. I would like that freedom and that right.

Having studied the European legislation on data protection, I went to each of the countries where I worked and asked, “Will you accept this miniature of my passport as proof of identity?”. I had had it put in plastic—but not in a shop; I did it at home so that I was not breaking the law—and it is the same size as almost any European identity card; it is also waterproof. I have a miniature as well, but I am probably breaking the law. That copy has saved me on many occasions when I have lost a passport. I admit that I have two passports because of the places I go to.

So, first, can the Government give a definition of what is a name? This is particularly important because if you do not start with a name you get into trouble. If you are Lord Hunt of Kings Heath and have the name Philip, the question then is whether there is one or two “ls” in Philip. If you have got a hyphen in the middle, which many of the machines cannot pick up, you get into trouble because there is a space which is filled in with a back slash, an underlining or something else. My wish, first and foremost, is to get a definition of the name. Everyone should then register their name and it should become a legal name. So, first, let us legalise names.

Occasionally you get into trouble when you arrive somewhere and find that your baggage has been stolen and you have nothing but what you stand up in. It happened to me in Rome. I said, “Please let me through. I have got to go to”—forgive me—“a Christian Democrat Party meeting”. I was asked “Do you have any proof of identity?”. I suddenly realised that I was wearing one of my father’s old suits—from the days when he could afford to have one made—and that it had written in it “Lord Selsdon”. So I took it off and gave it to the man. He went off and there was a lot of discussion. He then came back and said, “Your jacket has gone through. Can we now have the trousers?” The point that I am light-heartedly making is that I of course support getting rid of the previous Act, but I do not support the way in which the present Bill is structured. Please can somebody get round to explaining how one’s name is defined and may we in the United Kingdom end up with a right to a legal name?

[Viscount Slim]

My Lords, before the noble Lord sits down, perhaps I may say that I sympathise with him, as I am sure do all noble Lords. He is not as fortunate as me. My father and I always used to say that our name is quite the best of the four-letter words.