What do you think about proposed ID cards?

[RosieLeaLovesTea]

I am not sure what I think about proposed ID cards?
does the UK public want it?
how much it is going to cost to bring them in?
what are the positives and negatives?

Yep. It’s about control. Blair would have loved them, now Starmer.

Digital ID is being developed to be used by private companies.

Essentially Sainsbury's, HSBC or Mumsnet can ask for Digital ID to sign up for their services, and then those accounts are linked to your ID. Online anonymity disappears. If any of those companies are hacked a link to your Digital ID will be gained etc.

The NHS demands details on sexual orientation, health conditions etc, this will be on your digital ID and will be shared with private companies etc.

Why are you so sure about their reach?

Plus it won’t do much about the 1m

Remember Covid restrictions and Blair's demand for Covid passports?

No harm but that’s how it started in Nazi Germany.

And the Nazi used state records to decide who to send to concentration camps.

And yes, we aren’t there yet, and that’s not how it is now, but it wasn’t when the French and Dutch started keeping their records either.

The potential for abuse is too high for me. It would end up with every single bit of information about you all linked under the auspices of a good idea.

It is a no from me. I’m old enough that by the time it comes in, if I go to jail, I go to jail.

I’m happy to conscientiously object to this.

Also the illegal immigrants are staying inside government run hotels! The government knows exactly where they all are already!

What’s it like being that naive? Must be so relaxing!

Of course they’re not saying the quiet bit out loud! That’s not how wolves in sheeps clothing generally operate…!

I can see why the government thinks we’re idiots to be honest.

It won't make a fat bit of difference to crime or immigration. Already hospitals could ask people for proofs of residency when doling out free treatment but the employees say 'it's not their role to judge people'

Yip. My daughter lives near 3 of the hotels. They’re full of single men. And she is harassed day and daily to the point she doesn’t go to a particular supermarket because she has been followed round there so many times by foreign men telling her they want to marry her, she could be their wife, they want to take her home to have sex with her. And she reported it to the store security and the police and neither were interested.

And as someone who is very left politically it makes me uncomfortable that I feel uneasy about accepting this sort of person - I believe in the principle of seeking asylum, one of my great grandparents came here this way. But what so many of these men are doing isn’t that.

My great grandfather’s parents stayed behind. They sent him and his brother to a friend in England - they died. In the concentration camps. But they got their children out. Lucky they could, but they got their kids out before them. This is not the same with all young fit healthy men in these hotels.

The asylum seekers in hotels and HMOs aren't illegal and amount to approximately 100,000.

Starmer is saying that Digital ID will stop the boats.

Will it fuck. It won’t.

I have no issue , we had them in Denmark - someone on a friends post objected today because it would ‘out’ trans people - now I’m a liberal person but I think we can’t run the country around what a very small select group of people think and this person is a bit deluded if they think ‘we don’t know’ -for those of us who don’t drive it can be handy for ID - we don’t all walk round with passports and can be very handy if having a car accident and exchanging details - for most people in reality I can’t see the difference between having it and carrying round your driving license and think it’s lot of fuss over nothing - it’s common virtually everywhere in Europe. Tradesmen doing a job- ask to see it etc - stops people hiding behind false identities which contrary to what the public think is pretty common -

And you believe him?

No, it was in response to someone playing semantics over boat migrants being illegal immigrants or asylum seekers.

Essentially the government don't need ID cards to recognise who they are because they already house them in government accommodation!

I don’t think it’s a good idea. It’s convenient, yes, but with the rise of AI it gives way too much power to the authorities. As with the loss of cash.

you might say it’s ok as long as you’re not a criminal. That the sort thing they say in China. Do we want to live like that, under government control?

For the first time ever i understand why the Americans want to keep their guns. To stop against a totalitarian government. Not saying I’m for guns, I’m saying we need to be wary of these things. Don’t let history repeat itself

Regardless of the pros or cons, Digital ID is being proposed as a response to Reform, and the appearance that Labour isn't doing anything effective.

In reality I doubt this will be popular with the back benchers and will get watered down or quietly shelved.

They are excuses, not reasons, for ID cards. The timing is merely opportunistic. It has nothing to do with their stated aims, which is why it will have no impact on these things. They are totalitarians.

Yep. If they did what is being sold by Labour those that had a card wouldn’t have migration issues. They still do.

Blair and now Starmer will be happy people are swallowing the immigration line or whatever the current sell is.

I cannot fathom how people still trust Tony Blair when he has shown us he is very clearly a criminal with malign intent. What does the guy have to do?! I met him once just after he won in 97. Skin nearly crawled off me, he had such bad vibes.

Yes I'm sure the Nazis would have loved to have known the DNA of all their citizens! What if we get a fascist government - it's not too abstract a thought!?

Why do you think it has to be a fascist government to be sinister? How about the totalitarian left?

One thing it would counter somewhat is the number of overstayers because if businesses were forced to check it and it was enforced rigorously -digital IDs can be cancelled at the touch of a button ( and frequently were in Denmark) - there is a huge underbelly of people who came in as students , don’t have right to remain and vanish into the ether of ‘family’ and don’t leave the country either -and also people who came when Johnson and Sunak were letting in everyone and his mother plus families post Brexit to work supposedly in essential occupations who quickly ditched those soon as they could and again go and work in the black economy - cancelling digital IDs makes it harder for anyone doing this to then access housing, jobs, medical etc - ironically all the things people complain about - I do think it has to be strictly controlled though and not used for nefarious purposes -

Access to society can be cancelled at the touch of a button and that doesn’t terrify you?!

I read that Canada did the following in the last five years

Blocked Bank accounts of citizens who wouldn't have the COVID jabs

Blocked Bank accounts of farmers who protested against the government

Blocked people from going into their own forests this summer threatening huge fines.