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

What was ambigous there?

The length of time or the role - unless you thought PP was admitting to having been a criminal, which would be beyond silly.

Anyway, yes to ID cards, I object to having to have a fucking passport when I have no further intention of leaving the country due to my health.

I don't object but I be worried someone cloning my identity.

Yes, it's the hacking that worries me. But also, won't fraudsters be able to produce fake i.d. cards quite easily? How useful would this scheme actually be?

And how will i.d. cards stop people who now 'disappear' according to the OP, unless the police track people down/carry out targetted raids/stop people in the street & demand i.d. - which posters are claiming they won't do?

I'd like to know more about how it's designed to work.

I'm sure nothing could possibly go wrong with a massive computer system involving the data of 68 million people.

The UK is so great at doing computer systems.

Foreign nationals already must have an E-visa to prove their residence status to work/travel/ NHS etc. You have to provide a share code to your employer.

So it basically already exists.

This is to keep tabs on the whole population. I don't think it will happen. Its another HS2

Fishingboatbobbingnight
the flag waving right wingers are always the ones to oppose

Jeremy Corbyn
@ jeremycorbyn

I firmly oppose the government’s plans for compulsory digital ID cards. This is an affront to our civil liberties, and will make the lives of minorities even more difficult and dangerous. It is excessive state interference — and must be resisted.

5:17 PM · Sep 25, 2025

😆I knew what you meant, but still did a double-take initially as it wasn't 100% clear whose side you'd worked on.

I lived for some years in Spain and Italy where ID cards are standard and extremely convenient. So it's a yes from me.

I think it’s guaranteed that:
This will cost far more than claimed, and far more than it should;
The price to the user will rapidly go up and be more than initial claims;
Whatever the timeline it will massively overrun - with a concurrent increase in price;
Impacts - Lord only knows but one is that the data won’t be kept secure enough, someone will come up with a wheeze to monetise it that fucks up massively, and there will be damaging data breaches.

i just don’t trust our Government (of any stripe) to manage even a half-arsed attempt at doing this safely / well / in a value for money way.

My point is, ALL our data is already digitally stored. The government already knows everything about us. People saying they won’t get one because the government wants to control us (lol) - please, they already have all the info. There’s nothing we’re going to withhold that they don’t already know

Exactly. People who speak out about the government of the day may find their ID blocked or no longer working, and no access to services as a result. Government already has far too much power over us.

Feel free to share

What about people who don't have a phone?

The issue is that overseas criminals can get any form of fake ID so unless it can be properly policed the scheme is pointless.

I keep asking questions which make me wonder why you don’t have IDs already…

How do you identify someone as having a criminal record? Wonderful to have things like Claire’s Law but if it’s so easy to just be anybody how do you know?

I think it’s all a moot point because, if you have a smart phone, the police and govt can know where you are all the time anyway.

Even if not registered in your name, if they seize it from you they have a pretty good case to say it’s yours!

It’s pretty hard to live without a smart phone these days.

Whats interesting to me is that nearly everyone hated the idea when Blair proposed it.

But now, cos of immigrants, it's being lauded.

The very people that hated the idea of being tracked are the people that now want it introduced to track other people.

Its given me something to think about.

Im not opposed in theory, but I don't think anything should be 100% digital when we've seen just how fallible that technology can be.

I think it’s a good idea and have no issue with having a ‘national ID card’

In France everyone has one from the age of ?16 or ?18 it’s just what they use and have done for ages, they can use it for travel within EU

Some French friends were caught out when planning a trip to London a couple years ago- when it dawned on them they could no longer travel on their ‘carte d’identite’ (Brexit/us leaving the EU and all that) plus they realised their passports had expired post-COVID!

I'm from a country with ID cards. They're not mandatory and I've never gotten one but I imagine majority has. But I am a bit confused how they would be used in the UK and how this is a solution for immigration, NHS, benefits and crime?

I would think without a single ID number linking you as an individual to multiple govt departments you could have multiple passports, multiple names, multiple drivers licenses, claim benefits for children you didn’t birth… The UK seems a complete paradise for criminals already.

Other countries with compulsory ID cards will tell us how they overcome all these issues.

I think part of the consultation will be looking into how to make it work for people without smartphones and passports.

Well yes, given how cutting edge our civil service and NHS systems are, we can be fully confident that the government will bring this in on time and within a reasonable budget....

And not outsource it to Crapita, or similar lowest bidder, to dish us up an out of date system that's not fit for purpose, with inadequate protections against hacking and other misuse, massively late and way over budget....

"If you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear."

The vast majority of Jews in Germany in the mid-thirties had done nothing wrong, but they were absolutely right to be afraid. (I have some German Jewish ancestry.)

And we are looking at rising fascism, at the moment.

Hmmmmm.

But a lot of posters think benefit claimants don't need a phone...

I will need convincing.

Really good plan. No more separate driving and TV entitlement, Bus Pass, Passport, Immigration Status, NHS number, tax code, pension details, work/social id, marital status, sex at birth, change of sex, criminal records. This will all be on one number along with right to vote, IP address. Everything all in one place rather than and vast variety of numbers. We already have lots of ID which can all be joined up without our knowledge. Maybe ethe only people who consistently object have something to hide!