Would you support mandatory identity cards in the UK?

Yes. The fuck on trying to sort out a citizenship card for my youngest is a pain in the arse. There's just no link for the referee bit 😡

Also what I don’t get is what’s wrong with wanting to live outside the government and not have ID?
In a free country why shouldn’t people be able to fly under the radar if they wish? To work or claim benefits they need an NI number, to travel or buy/ rent a house they need a passport, to get a car they need a driving license- if someone chooses to exclude themselves from all this why shouldn’t they?

Yes I'm well aware of this but there's a very conservative estimate of over a million people currently in the UK illegally. They certainly don't have this type of documentation. Because UK citizens don't have compulsory ID it's difficult to expect everyone to show ID. A compulsory system would streamline this.

What's nonsense?
I don't need a cute little blue cardboard book with pretty pages - I need a photo ID card.
That's all I want.
I DEFINITELY wouldn't want it to be compulsory.

Those people without can get one of these instead of having another layer of ID.

Its pointless and unnecessary.

I wonder who benefits from the introduction of this ID? Which government ally will get access to this contract.

it won’t stop illegal employment anyway as employers are already meant to check right to work documents anyway. Why would an ID make this more likely to happen. It won’t.

@Bambamhoohoo this is what the DVLA website says.
So if I want a provisional driving license for ID... I need to provide photo ID??
(screenshot incoming)

I'd be a bit annoyed if it would be expected that you produce one on demand. I'd be ok with it if you have a week to produce it at a police station, like with a driving licence.

this is a nonsense. How selfish to argue that something so many people are fundamentally opposed to is necessary so you can get ID for £50 rather than £100. Absolutely ridiculous.

Belgium, Germany, Italy, and Spain. To name a few.

been put forward several times on the thread

still as invalid an argument as the first time

They don't need to be free.
I'd happily pay £50 or something.
Surely most of the money for the passport is for the special paper that's embossed and got special pictures all over it and the cardboard cover that those pages are sewn into.
The important bit is just the back page. That could easily go on a card instead.

No, there’s never been any situation in Europe where it’s ended badly for citizens requiring to carry and produce ID on demand.

For people like me who don’t have either

I am politically and philosophically opposed- but pragmatically I think it’s the way forward now.

You don't believe in the right to privacy? You trust all your personal information will be safe in a leaky centralised government system? You want the government to have instant access and control over all your personal data?

This… it’s a slippery slope to loss of privacy and freedom.

Where I live in the world it’s compulsory to have an ID from the time you’re a young teenager and if a person wants one before then they can have it.

At birth you’re given what must be like the Uk national insurance number (I think) and that follows you through life on all your official documents/official life and it’s your ID that’s your official proof of ID. Not your passport and not your Driving license as not everyone has those things.

The ID even has your blood group on it as well as an abbreviated version of your driving licence though that’s also a seperate card in itself. And off the top of my head I seem to recall your next of kin/person to contact is also on it as well as the name of your local Sheikh

It’s renewed every two years, costs about 10 pounds and is a painless procedure.

Having one is no trouble at all.

they wouldn’t be free though, would they? So what’s the advantage?

But we already have biometric ID cards for all immigrants. This is just making all British citizens get an ID card too.

We are taking about compulsory carrying of identity documentation.

I don’t actually know what other European countries do within their card systems, but let’s face it many of them were easily turned to totalitarianism in the recent past so maybe aren’t the best example.

I do know what they do with compulsory ID in China and Russia though.

The DVLA website 🤔
I don't think ID cards should be compulsory. They should just be available as an alternative for those who can't/don't want to pay 100 quid for a passport.

https://www.labourtogether.uk/all-reports/britcard

I resent the wording that I need to 'prove' I belong in this society!

It would be free, I believe an ID card that we'd have to pay for was mooted in the past and of course no-one wants to have to pay for it.

Quote: It could lay the foundations for a fully-functioning digital identity system that would in time deliver huge benefits in terms of great efficiency and better outcomes in public services, as well as being a driver of growth, building on the existing One Login and Gov.UK Wallet.

Because the full scope of what is being suggested
-compulsory national ID with
-compulsory carry and present on demand

Isn’t required in any other European country.

Absolutely. They could be used for access to all public services and to ensure that individuals have the right to live and work in the UK. Would make it less attractive for people to be in the UK illegally.

Tesco and Google might know where you are but they can’t tell anyone else.

it’s so dystopian to not care that the state has the ability to track you (and potentially stop you accessing things)