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

It's true that burglars will always find a way to commit their crimes, and you can't completely prevent them. So, should we really leave our main door without locks and just have a frame? That doesn't make much sense. Having DIGITAL id is similar to having a main door for a home , it helps in its own way !!

A digital ID system won’t do what you’re after. Why would it? Germany had cards and the highest unauthorised migrant numbers in the EU.

I am not after it ! But I am okay. I don't loose anything , may be 5 mins of forming filling .. and that does not matter !

I've just had a thought, if this digital ID is supposed to stop illegal immigrants from working. If they cant get work and are hungry are they going to start shoplifting? Robbing houses? Mugging people?

Me and thousands more will refuse.

Adapting Dubai's some of the rules would be beneficial.
Dubai's strict regulations create a sense of security that is hard to find elsewhere.I had recently lost my phone but was fortunate enough to get it back, which really highlights how safe it feels to walk around without constantly worrying. There’s a certain level of fear that keeps things in check, making the city feel even more secure. We cannot be too polite too sweet and yet want everything ! Does not work ! When there is no good fear in humans things will go out of hand !

They will only work if there are severe consequences for people who don't have one. Which is why I think it should be a chip implanted in the back of the neck, rather than a card that can be "lost" or "forgotten" and also stolen or sold illegally.

Chip , I doubt it’s a practical move. Have we really reached to this point? What’s happened to the good old UK?
So we will be like dogs and cats with a microchip

I was accused of being a conspiracy theorist up thread for touching on a number of potential issues that do actually have basis in our current reality (Chinas social credit model for example).

Human chips already exist, some tech companies have employees who happily use them to swipe in and out of buildings.

For me, it's a case of "just because we can, doesn't mean we should". Because some bad actors will always take things to the next level, and the next, whether the motivation is ideological or financial.

Strange and interesting times, but I think scoffing at potential disaster is dangerous, and we do have to talk about it.

Bizarre to want this.

You are not a conspiracy theorist ! You are free to express your opinion.
Yes, strange times !

Sorry typo. I mean Form filling

It’s not going to stop the “boat people”. Those who dont care about employing people with the right papers still won’t care. This isn’t going to stop that. You need a NI number to work and people have got around that with cash in hand. This will be the same.

I don’t care in principle, but in a time when we have so much more important things to spend money on, I don’t think now is the right time.

I can’t believe people are ok with this. Ok with this going quietly under the radar between November-June and passing. No media has spoken about this or brought this to the attention of the public. No one voted for this and it wasn’t in the labour manifesto. Wake up
people your sleep walking into dystopia.

I’m ok with it - I already have one. Many other countries have had ID cards for years. It’s a positive rather than a negative unless you have something to hide.

An ID card is one thing, as long as it is free of biometrics etc. A digital ID is different, and open to manipulation and fraud at a whole other level, because of the systems it's linked into.

Mine is biometric - signature, photo and fingerprints.

I have had an Italian ID card since the 1970s. It is compulsory to carry one at all times in Italy. I don't have a driving licence, and I don't want to carry my passport with me. I have never thought of it as intruding my privacy. The powers that be know all our business anyway. I can't see a problem with having a British ID card.

The 70s is a different proposition to a digital ID scheme and all that AI can do.

How will the digital ID scheme help like a door does?

Really? I wouldn't hold my breath. The last attempt to introduce ID cards failed due to concerns about costs to individuals and intrusiveness.
(Would the ID cards have to be renewed periodicially - perhaps every five years or so, new photo needed etc? Yet more costs...)
For those who suggested they might replace passports - this would need every single country in the world to accept them as such.

Do we in this country accept another country's ID cards at our borders? We do not. Passports only.
In addition, in order to replace passports the cards would have an additional section for visas. And visas often need to be renewed too.
Such a system would require far more complexity than is currently envisaged, and may not yet be even possible.

This isn't just an ID "card" it's a digital bio-metric identifier

Ok with me

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/26/israeli-loudspeakers-broadcast-netanyahu-speech-to-un-gaza

Sharing this because it contains a claim, allegedly from the Israeli PM that phones were hijacked to broadcast the speech from the UN direct to Palestinians.

Now, it does say in this article, that these claims are as yet unverified and unevidenced, but the point is our phones are vulnerable to hacking and interference.

We plebs likely have no real idea of the potential for digital interference in our lives.

In the late 90s / earky 2000s there was a film starring Sandra Bullock that touched on the potential for digital interference, and computer hacking, and the dangers thereof, and computers / the Internet were in their infancy at that point.

Given the instability in the world, I think we have to truly consider the potential for digital warfare, not just aimed at big corporations, but individually as well. We're locked in, and I really resent the removal of choice around the whole matter.

Not OK with me and the majority ie over half of those polled.