Do you ever wonder if Gordon Brown is suicidal?

[AtheneNoctua]

ID Cards

£5bln?!?!?! Now, remind me why you have to raise our taxes?

I heard that that is the most popular petition at the moment. Can't imagine why.

I'll be locked up before I have a compulsory one.

After all, if the relationship between the state and the individual is going to be changed so radically, I might as well be the criminal that automatic ID assumes I might be in the first place.

I think lots of peeps confuse the issue of having an i.d. card with the i.d. database. It ain't the same thing at all. Think it is particularly sinister re. children and also re. the wide range of partly trained bods who will be able to put stuff on it. Does anyone remember when thegovt. offered a texting service to those worried about terrorist attacks? A little while later people who had subscribed were wondering why American supermarkets were sending them ads. Reason: HMG had sold all the info.. It's not as tho it's about keeping our borders safe either its all part of the Schengen Agreement and will be Europe wide. Britain (I think) could still reverse the decision made by Tony Blair, which would mean we would not have to be part of this scheme. I think it's amazing that people really think it's about just having a card - (anorak emoticon)

I don't understand the point of i.d cards. Presumably to get an i.d card we will have to present some sort of proof of identity first? I can think of a lot more useful things to spend £14.5billion on.

I don't see the problem with an id database either.

so you get junk mail - big deal, throw it in the bin, like the junk mail we get daily already.

Educate me, what other issues are there? In what way can information be gathered to cause harm to you?

Genuine Q btw. I want to understand, but clearly I am just not 'getting' it.

Info about possible problems with the id card scheme here on the No2id site.

Record history to include date of death.

OK...still thinking about that one...

Hecate the issue is with the information that goes on that database, what if you suffered from depression as a teenager and then the database flagged that up 25 years later and decided you were unfit to keep your child ? Or if Mrs Smith who has the same date of birth as you is a convicted criminal and you cannot get a job but don't know why for the rest of your life ?
What if your child at the age of 5 showed tendencies that were similar to every other serial killer to date and was tracked throughout their lives as a result ?
It's too unreliable, open to misuse and human error plus devoid of human common sense.

The problem for me is that it fundamentally changes the relationship between the individual and the state.

There was lots said recently about police brutality and how we should be grateful we live where we do, and not in places in the world where people are treated very badly.

Well, yes, that's perfectly ture, but it doesn't come about by just 'being grateful' or hoping it will stay that way - it comes from the populace putting a value on those freedoms.

One of the most significant is that citizens are free to go about their business unhindered by the state unless they break a law. An ID card, which requires the owner give over their 'biometric data' changes that completely.

I appreciate that if someone wants to, there are currently many ways to track someone - but that's the point - if it is deemed necessary, it is already possible, therefore an ID card is simply a tool of control, nothing more.

I have no need for an ID card - I prove my ID currently with household bills and a birth certificate, when I wish to do so. If you desire to have a neat little ID card for multi-purposes, there are already age-schemes and so on which provide that, and you're free to use them.

The cost issue is obscene, but I'm an ideology, magna carta girl, and I will give up my freedom to exist without being fingerprinted when Gordon Brown turns a fetching shade of green and dances outside Buckingham Palace with nowt but tassles on his nipples.

I just don't get how ID cards are going to prevent terrorism. Could somebody enlighten me?!

Back to the OP, though...

I do wonder sometimes how they (senior politicians eg) are actually faring under the enormous pressure they are under

I mean, us mere mortals would be broken by now (if we were Gordon for example)

But then I guess most of us are not megalomaniacs

Kay.

Daisy - from what I've seen, govt. just says it will, without explaining how, exactly. Because obviously criminals are useless at forging stuff, or getting hold of data, or pretending, or applying for jobs where they can get their hands on interesting stuff or finding ways round the system...

If I lose my cards or passport know, it's a faff but can be sorted. If ID cards come in, and you lose one of them, you'll be stuffed. Especially if someone nicks it and starts posing as you.

'now' not 'know'!

If the government decide to make id cards compulsory I for one would gladly volunteer to join a protest of some sort

No way do I want or need one