How can Gordon Brown justify £5.3 billion for ID cards?

[eleusis]

Let the bidding commence

How is he going to pay for this? And why why why is it necessary?

£5.3 billion!! And we all know these things are never in budget. God help us.

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It's already costs a bomb for a passport, why not just use those?

id cards are one of those things which i don't want instinctively..without even discussing..difficult to explain but feel strongly about it but at a deep physical and primitive level

Cheap at the price!

Why, you couldn't even get another dome for that amount.

It's a rubbish idea, terrible for civil liberties and wide open to fraud, let alone a future no-so-benign government misusing it. The whole basis of our legal system is that we are free people who can do what we like as long as it isn't illegal. The French legal system is completely different so it's not a fair comparison.

The real problem is the database. Impossible to secure. And then there's the fact that ALL huge government IT projects suffer from major problems and come in many times over budget. Look at the passport agency and the NHS electronic medical record for starters.

And then you get onto the issue of expecting us to pay to surrender our civil liberties - what an effing cheek! And I BET the VIPs' data will be much more carefully guarded than our own - that's what they are already proposing with the massive children's database. Cyber-criminals will be able to have a good old nosey at or misuse our children's details but celebs and top politicians will be exempt.

As for terrorism, that's bollocks. Countries with ID cards have been attacked by terrorists. Criminals will work out how to set up false IDs, perhaps by stealing yours. And then there's the risk that you'll get a knock on the door from the cops, or be detained if you fly to the States - already happening to people whose names happen to be similar to suspects, will be many times more likely if ID database comes in.

Real question is why on earth they want to do this when they know perfectly well their stated reasons are rubbish, it will cost an arm and a leg and it won't work.

nah...I knew poll tax would come up!!!.................poll tax was grossly unfair, and Thatcher was wobbling anyway...not same scenario here...

not sold on i.d. thing meself. Just the 'loss civil liberties' thing on one side of the argument, is as specious as the 'fight against terrorism' argument is on the other.

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I think the terrorism angle is the one thing that will keep the masses happy, despite it making no sense at all. Anything can be sacrificed at the altar of anti-terrorism in this country.

Shit! The Daily Mail is against them?

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The erosion of civil liberties really really scares me, particularly things like it being an arrestable offence to demonstrate without permission near Parliament

COmpletely agree with Lapin.

It will not happen. The system required is far too complex. The end.

Fucking stupid idea anyway.

the erosion of civil liberties is scary...as scary as the fact that people don't care

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i think plenty of people are sleep walking

Agree Pruners.
The do teach philosphy as ds's school.

Well, I'm not sleepwalking and I certainly will not be having an ID card.

Not that it will happen of course

I'm sure I read something about the proposed ID card system having more personal information on the one database than any other country in the world - medical records, the whole works.

I personally find the whole thing terrifying and can't figure out why some people don't think there's something implicitly wrong with the whole dangerous concept. All this 'if you have nothing to hide then why should you worry' bollocks - it just takes the wrong person getting hold of the info then you're seriously screwed and I DON'T believe I'm being paranoid.

we are all branded anyway. once you get your ational insurance card - why not send a photo off to go with it.

photo NI photo driving licence
photo passport

jesus H fucking christ on a god damned bike -bow many forms of ID does one fucking well bastard need?

it strikes me as funny the whole civil liberties argument - becuase you practically need ID to open your own toilet and shit in it these days.

In a Europe with open borders and an unprecedented free flow of people (including terrorists)and mass immigration on a scale never experienced before, I think ID cards are essential. Expensive but a necessity in a globalised world.

lol, custardo! you should live in Switzerland.

in a globalized worl - then let the foreiners who want to come here for a holiday ro to work or to look at the queen or whatever - to get ID that is recognised by the brish ID standards people

we certainly dont need anymore

i've practically got a fucking barcode on my arse

Because he doesn't give a toss about special schools closing, and NICE having to be taken to court to allow the prescription drugs that alzheimers sufferers need etc etc etc. For the same reason we funded a war in Iraq - because politicians actually really don't give a toss