Identity Cards: yes or no?

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Surely in proving that the UK government can't be trusted you'd not want to trust them with ID cards?!

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I used to be against identity cards, but after Brexit I'm now firmly in favour. Brexit showed that UK governments cannot ever be trusted to honour their commitments and that to ensure that we can get what we're entitled to we need an official document that recognises who we are, where we live, and how long we've lived there.

A helpful reminder: the staff at the Post Office were innocent but found themselves at the centre of a Kafkaesque nightmare unable to prove themselves innocent. Some killed themselves over it.

"Why would anyone who has nothing to hide from the authorities prefer not to hold an official proof of identity?"

It is a slippery slope though. Surely if you have nothing to hide yu wont mind you phone calls and txt messages checked by the government.
Police controlled in home surveillance would be great fo stopping domestic violence... not a abuser? then why would you object?

Silly examples, But it always worries me when someone says "why are you worried if you have nothing to hide"

So just how is an ID card going to stop cash in hand jobs being available?

Maybe we could, hmmm, make cash in hand illegal instead. Do we think that might be more effective?

So for 30000 illegal migrants per year, 65 million of us need ID cards.

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When you think about it in those terms, you kinda go 'hmmm why?'

The French are more than happy to send people they don't want to England.

But immigrant or not, its incredibly easy to work for cash in hand in the UK.

Provisional driving licence may be an option, unless you've eyesight issues that would exclude you. They're cheaper than passports and there's no requirement to actually intend to drive. You just apply.

https://www.gov.uk/id-for-driving-licence

You memtion a birth certificate and being married, so you could send those certificates as the necessary proof of ID?

I would like an ID card if it is cheap and fairly easy to get. I currently do not have useful ID as never had a driving licence and my passport is out of date. A new passport is quite expensive. I cannot login to Government Gateway and do not have correct ID for something else I am trying to do.
The lack of ID is made worse by using my husband's name as my birth certificate is not in the name I use.

Other simple solutions to complicated problems: Brexit. 'nuff said.

Well they do interview these migrants and they have a reason for wanting to come to the Uk - English is the only language they speak and there are already people they know here are the usual responses.
But let's not forget the numbers crossing on boats are really low. 21,000 this year, and approximately 30,000 last year.
We are the ones making the massive deal about uncontrolled immigration but the reality is it's a tiny fraction of our population.
We really need to open legal routes in again, and document people as they arrive. And issue ID cards or not, whatever.

Remind me. Which country suggested we need ID cards to stop illegal immigrant? And which country are all these illegal migrants traisping through to get to the UK?

It's not just a french dead cat being dropped here to deflect from their own inability to prevent it, is it?

Hmmm. Let me think.

It hasn't stopped 100s of 1000s of people crossing the Med into Europe.

Back in 2006 the cost of issuing the compulsory ID card was reckoned to be in the region of £75 per head. This was to be paid by the recipient, and would be charged again should the need for a replacement card ever arise.

This is 20 years ago near enough. The idea that it would cost 1/5th of that now is just bonkers, especially since the manufacture and issuing would inevitably be put out to tender and result in a profit-making enterprise overseeing it.

Yes, some of the numbers that have been suggested by people who are in favour seem rather unrealistic.

This is just not a good idea for our society. The British state can't be trusted either with the power or to run the system efficiently. And even if it could, ID cards won't do the things people want them to. The idea that it's going to solve illegal immigration, for example, as if countries with compulsory ID cards don't experience it, is completely laughable.

Until the UK accepts ID cards, it will have struggles with immigration. It's literally the only way, and the easiest, to solve the problem.

DD has just been to Greece, on arrival greeted with smiles and hellos, on her return, greeted by dogs & armed police, screaming "get into single file now!"
On the train back home, a poor woman whose railcard had expired a week earlier, was interviewed in front of all the passengers & given a notice to prosecute card, even though the guy doing all of this said "looks like a genuine mistake" She was in floods of tears, thought as the card said 16 to 25, it was valid until she was 25.

Maybe ID cards would be a mistake given our attitudes.

If we started having a serious conversation about identity cards theres no way the UK would consider one without biometric data (akin to the one that visa holders had to get).

The idea we would do it for £18 is laughable...

Who then get outsourced to Capita.

It's the English disease of gold plating anything that moves, apart from the poor.

Yes, it would likely be an expense to the taxpayer even on the assumption that, like most of Europe, we wouldn't provide cards throughout an individual's life for free.

As the NHS is a residence based system, unless we changed that we'd also need to maintain systems for checking ordinary residence. The cards would be stolen and misused in the same way that other forms of state issued ID are, and we would actually have to come up with some idea as to what to do with the people who don't manage to keep theirs valid when they eg turn up in A and E needing urgent care, or get arrested.

I think it works well on the continent, but we always like to do things our own way.
Gerard Darminin makes a valid point and I think in times of heightened security as well, I really don't see it as a problem, but everyone can have their own opinion.
Editing to say this is not a new idea to be honest, the folks in Brussels used to mention it a lot especially in the days when the migrants were hiding under lorries in the Tunnel.

The last time this was tried it was an expensive mess that failed. Personal freedom and risk balanced with any actual benefit killed it off.

Physical cards are largely pointless. It's a database. Probably one with biometric data.
A very valuable database with potential for misuse.
The risk of things being tied to this database, then breaking when it fails, are very high (computer says no!).
Then the 'special cases' which are exceptions to the simple system - like VIPs, Undercover law / spy / VVIPs, witness protection, transitioning folks, freedom of movement people (Irish only now since Brexit) and..... children.

Yes ID cards for children with their fingerprints and iris scans could well be the reason such a scheme fails.

It was meant to be. As you can see it was killed before it had a chance (David Davies wielding the spread as I recall).

I realise I am a siren voice here, but if people want to make the same mistakes again, don't say some of us didn't speak up.

Ok, @SerendipityJane
As I say I do not recall but I probably wasn't paying that much attention in 2006 as my kids were small and life was chaotic 😂
But that scheme wouldn't have any resemblance to a mandatory ID scheme, where penalties are given when you are found without it.