ID cards to be introduced. What do you feel. ?

[Fishingboatbobbingnight]

I have worked in serious organised crime for two decades. This is one of the best bits of news I have read in a long while. I have also been involved in ‘small boat’ arrivals. The reason people will by pass several safe EU countries to get to the UK is ‘I can get lost if I don’t get asylum’ ‘UK has no ID cards’ . It’s a no brainer .. why why has it taken so long. ? If you want to have the services your country has to offer - through most of the world - from healthcare to the library- you need to show you are a bona-fida citizen. However , for some unfathomable reason , the flag waving right wingers are always the one to oppose ..is it because they are scared it will work and leave their thinly veiled racism floundering ?

Yes to ID cards = YANBU
No to ID cards = YABU

You lot are utterly mad to be in favour of this.

Agree

Where would you go? Are you sure your chosen country doesn't have ID cards?

I agree but I can see why it’s an attractive proposition at the moment given current public discourse.

I can’t believe any intelligent people will actually fall for this. It’s a control method - first step digital ID (which will do precisely nothing to “stop the boats”) then they will monitor your every move. If your carbon footprint is too high- well no more holidays for you this year. If you haven’t “conformed” to this government’s dictatorship - good luck getting a house to rent, a mortgage or any form of credit. And hello to any hackers that want to access every single detail of your life. Another awful policy from an awful government. Absolutely not.

It's not likely to replace a passport. There are some countries where people can travel between the two using state ID cards, but none where they've been able to stop issuing passports entirely because every other state recognises them. It would have to be an addition, not a replacement.

I used to be against this, but I've got really fed up with having to take my passport to various places as ID because I don't drive. So now I think it's fine so long as the the number of occasions ID is needed doesn't dramatically increase

If they claim asylum then they have a card issued to them with their identity on it and whether or not they have permission to work. All legal migrants will have something either in their passport or a biometric card, depending on their status in the UK.

If they’re intending to disappear into the black market then they get cash in hand jobs, or they buy a National Insurance number, they rent unofficial accommodation etc.

Exactly. They're in for a shock as more and more things will be included on it, including banking and access to goods and services. They will get rid of cash at some point then our ability to control our own money will eventually be affected.

Computer Weekly - Digital ID risks turning UK into ‘Checkpoint Britain’ — Big Brother Watch share.google/rM2lrLlICflBGnTmj

I dont watch the news.
Are they being introduced?

You don’t now but with an ID card you may have to. My ID card enables me to file my taxes return, (eventually claim my pension), have hospital appointments and collect my prescriptions.

Other countries have for decades successfully used an ID card - what’s special about the UK?

In Spain every citizen's ID card has a chip that carries a secure digital certificate. You can get a USB reader for a few Euros that you stick the card into and it logs you into the health system, the driving licence system, etc. No need for a username or password, just the chip. The whole country runs on it. They have something similar in Estonia but on an even more ambitious scale, and that's a country where half the population remembers Soviet occupation.

There is not a single political party in any EU country — not even the privacy-conscious Pirate Party that exists in some places — that advocates for abolishing that country's ID cards. To me that's a pretty good indication of how integrated into daily life they are.

Oversight into benefits, striking, banking. Are people sure they want that.

id love for someone to reply to me here, non fear based with pure logic and common sense:

what are the pros?

For whom?
For the Government: ability to keep tabs on its citizens and put in place a system that prevent them doing anything anything they do not want. For example, during Covid there was a lot of talk about having to prove vaccination status before being able to go in public buildings. Things like that would be easier to enforce.
Ability to prevent access to services for whoever they decide.
For whichever private company the government gets to build it: Lots of moolah. Like, lots.
For the police: a handy method of harassing/ detaining people they don’t like.

what are the cons?

For us? We have to have a digital device. The option to chuck it all in and live smartphone free is removed. Our data is conveniently up for grabs in a way we have no control over whatsoever.
Data errors happen (hello Post Office) with disastrous results.
It will cost billions and billions. It will work badly because hello, government IT projects.

We would no longer be a people (as we have been for a very long time) living under the expectation that if we have done nothing wrong we will be left alone.
That changes EVERYTHING. Having to continually prove you are who you say you are ( a blameless person) puts the onus on the citizen to prove their right to exist and move freely through life unmolested, rather than automatically being trusted UNTIL they do something unlawful.

who is at risk?

All UK citizens, but especially the old, the infirm, the homeless, the dissidents, the politically active, the brown skinned, the foreign named.

How long will it take?

Given the glacial rate of major government projects I’d count it in decades not years. But sunk cost fallacy will ensure successive governments plough on.

Slight segue, but unless you have a medical reason you can't have one, a provisional licence might be more convenient? There's no requirement to actually drive.

Successfully in what sense? what have they achieved that the UK hasn't?

…….. what “ services “ ?.

Digital ID won't stop boats, get you seen by a GP/Dentist any quicker, get you into business class, stop flag shaggers, ebike riders, cyclists, people speeding/driving without insurance or license, get your children into private school. It will be a form of control and there will be a select list of those who don't require a digital ID eg Prince Andrew, non Dom's, foreign diplomats, anyone who can afford not to have one. Tommy won't be having one but somehow life in GB will be marvellous. Like VE day everyday but without rationing.
People on MN were apoplectic that M&S were hacked so what happens if the UK database is hacked/shutdown. Look at JLR right now. Prob outsourced their IT to the lowest bidder

Thanks but no thanks!!

I lived in Spain.

i had a card (residencia) and it had my fingerprint on it. Showed my right to live and work, unpaid taxes and got my CB etc.
I have no issue with them .

I think all European countries have ID cards . I think it’s silly people in the U.K. get through life without having a proper photo ID

Did it stop the boats over there?

Because it's not going to stop at being just an ID card. Haven't people worked this out yet?

The UK's obsession with WW2 movies explains a lot of it. Something something Great Escape something something Papieren Bitte something something Good Luck! something something.