Two final meetings today. I had breakfast with Mark Law (above, clear), a veteran journalist who runs thefirstpost.com, one of the very best websites on either side of the Atlantic. It was fun to trade tales with such an accomplished and experienced editor. Afterwards I journeyed to the South Bank to the headquarters of No2ID, the citizens’ group which opposes the government’s plan to impose a national identification card that tracks, collects and keeps a person’s data in 49 categories–residence, travel, health, et cetera. I spoke to the organization’s General Secretary, Guy Herbert (above, fuzzy) who captures the issue most compellingly. “What business is this of the government’s?” It’s interesting–in many ways, he and his colleagues really want to remake the relationship between the British people and their government. In Britain, the government always is and always has been, and the extent to which this is a democracy is that the people choose their representatives. But in America, there is more distance between the people and the government. The people founded the government, and as powerful as the government is, the people have their inalienable rights. When Guy asks “What business is this of the government’s?”, he’s really asserting his independence.