There's a hint of fog on the steps of the Al Italia shuttle that's just touched down in Milan. Fresh dank air is something you welcome after three hours crunched up in coach class, but it's midnight by the time I hit customs and pretty late by the time I check in to somewhere to sleep for the night.
But there's email to answer before going to the room, and that's when it happens.
"Pass-e-porte signore..." Fabio the night check-in clerk says it with the same tone of voice he asked for my credit card when I checked-in a moment before.
"Por internet signore..." What must have been a rather unpleasant look of confusion - or just a dazed incomprehension - gets an answer. "Sir, the terrorismo, I need your passport".
Ah, of course, last month, the Italian government; jeez, they actually did it. They made access in hotels subject to photo ID. I need to prove who I am before they'll let me log on. Scary? That's just the start. The hotel then gives you a code number, and that's when Big Bro arrives. Because the security services, can link the number to you and the sites you visit to your number. In a development you might expect more likely in China or Singapore, they decided to restrict and track casual internet access.
Whatever. I buy three hours of access time and hand Fabio 20 euros (yeah, don't even think about the margin the hotel's making on this - it's 3 euros just for 15 minutes!). He gives me my codes with a polite note saying "Please don't give this code number to anyone else".
Now I totally accept the threat of the new terrorism we all face. And I totally buy-into the need for new counter-terrorism laws to deal with it. I also totally accept that the new digital channels can, like phones, be used by all people for all things. And being pragmatic I totally understand why governments have to be seen to be doing things (as well as actually doing them). But who's kidding who here?!
These terrorist groups are smart enough to raise millions without trace, smuggle people and weapons across borders, plan bombing campaigns across the world and attacks in some of the most security-conscious cities on the planet. Are these people really going to be suddenly squeezed out of Italy because they can't walk into a hotel and instantly log on? Nonsense. This is so naive, I'm just lost on it. Look, maybe I'm just missing the point (and if so then please mail it to me because I'm yearning to understand), but this is going to do nothing to stop those people. Niente!
What it is going to do is just add a layer of friction for everyone else. It's going to make doing stuff slower, the costs of logging on higher, access less easy (yep, some hotels won't let you plug your laptop in at all now) and the number of access points lower. While on the one hand the whole of San Francisco is getting wi-fi'd up, Southern Europe is taking a firm step back. Even worse, all that energy and resource going into this has a more important cost: it's distracting the very people fighting one of the biggest challenges society has faced, and it's probably even convincing some of them that they're winning the battle.
Anyways it's late. Obediently I log off.
Then I see a scattering of access code tickets squashed up behind the flatscreen monitor. So I try one. It's got 18 minutes left. I try another, it's got 5. I try another; 11. Congrats guys, you've created an anti-terrorism regime a five year-old could crack.
