Blunkett's Identity Cards - what do you think?

[Tinker]

What are everyone's (anyone's?) views on these? My woolly liberal self was instinctively against but wasn't quite sure why. Read letter in today's Independent about how most people are asked for passport or driving licence or utilty bill as id and this discriminates against those who don't have any - often the poor. Fickle me is now persuaded that these are not a Bad Thing and pretty inevitable.

Any other views?

Fickle me pendulum is now swinging back the other way. But not completely.

Interesting that Holland has them, that bastion of liberal values.

Re the cost, believe it is to be means-tested. we shall see.

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I hope that when they do introduce these they will have the iris and fingerprint on them.Surely that would be harder to forge wont it.
Cant all the information be based at one central unit rather than on our card???

I can understand the for and the against in this issue.

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Think GeorginaA makes some good points about minorities, discrimination etc. I guess I'm another woolly liberal because it just doesn't seem right.

From a personal pov I'm like Suedonim. I don't want to have to take it out with me. I want to be able to go out unencumbered if I want to IYSWIM. And I just know I'm the sort of person who would end up leaving it somewhere.

Unless they give the contract for the huge overspending new database to our company and we all get massive payrises that is

I think they are wrong. You don't get pulled over by the police for not carrying your credit card around with you - I think it should be up to us if we want to disclose our identity to anyone - not compulsory. I don't want to be criminalised for not carrying an identity card around. I think it's like innocent until proven guilty - there should be a basic presumption that we don't have to prove anything, including our identity just while going about our legitimate business.
Hate Blunkett anyway. Think he's to the far right of Norman Tebbit and can't believe he's the kind of person in the Labour party these days. Also, just because you have nothing to hide doesn't mean you want to be pried on. I have nothing to hide but certainly don't want my phone bugged!

aloha phone gets bugged if you say certain words on the phone.

leaving aside all the pro and con arguments, both very persuasive, I too would hate to 'have' to carry an ID card every time I leave the house. So my gut instinct says no to this.

I have an id card & also carry them for 2 ds's. i don't mind at all, they're in ,my filofax which I always have on me anyway, but in 3 years I've never once been stopped & asked to produce it, otoh, on many occasions it's been great that I have it on me, especially living close to international boundries (which I accept isn't an issue in UK) so never have the 'shit, I haven't got my passport' hassle.

I can't see any problem with having one, EXCEPT I was very shocked to hear the individual will have to cough up, and around £40 - bloody cheek