Digital ID Flip Flop

[Dragonflytamer]

So Digital IDs are now going to be optional in the latest backbench appeasing flip flop.

I think this is good call, but surely if they are optional no one is going to get one? It will just become a massive waste of money.

Would you pay a fee to get a digital ID if you don't need to?

I heard this mentioned on the radio. They said that the Govt are going to drop Digital ID ... but are still going ahead with the consultation.

I have been involved (from the Directors' POV) in the digital verification of Directors which started last autumn. The system is an absolute shambles and not fit for purpose.

Maybe it will be for people that don't have a driving licence and don't need an (expensive) passport, anyone that has these won't need further ID, the digital ID was supposed to be free.

I am against ID cards.

While I am pleased that backbenchers do have power over Government, that the UK does have the fabled "checks and balances" that other countries claim (1) to have, all these flip flops are not good for the UK.

To me it indicates a government that is not thinking policy through, and consulting their own back bench before announcing these policies.

(1) for USA, read "checks and balances" as "Cheques and bank balances"

I don’t particularly feel strongly about the ID cards one way or another but another u-turn is so embarrassing for Starmer. I don’t see how much longer the Labour government can continue how they are.

Are these U-turns actually U-turns, or are they ongoing policy tweaks?

I do agree that the government are getting it wrong with their own backbenchers but that dilemma is intractable, even for St Wes of Streeting should he actually ever hold the top office. His own judgment isn’t all that.

(I’m not defending any of them. I really hate the Romans. I’m just cynical about newspaper and media sound-bite headlines like ‘U-turn’ and ‘flip flop’.)

Are these U-turns actually U-turns, or are they ongoing policy tweaks?

The BBC are reporting it as "The government has dropped plans requiring workers to sign up to its digital ID scheme in order to prove their right to work in the UK ... This marks a shift from last year when the government first announced the policy and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer told an audience: "You will not be able to work in the United Kingdom if you do not have digital ID. It's as simple as that."

That sounds like a U-turn to me! (and see also the quote below)
And what on earth is he doing releasing this information on a Wednesday, PMQ-day?

Another quotation from the BBC report: "One furious Labour MP told the BBC last night that the latest U-turn was "an absolute car crash", adding: "The boys at No 10 jumped into it with no thought, marched the PLP up the hill only to bottle it, take all the pain and no credit." "

It was sold in as sorting out illegal working. It was always a dud and making it optional is dead in the water territory.

Good. Well done to the campaigners and opposers on it.

It was sold in as sorting out illegal working.
It would have helped if they had enforced the current system (introduced by a Labour Govt btw), not wasted money and effort trying to invent a new system.

I’m wondering if they’ve dropped it because the EU said we’d rather you joined a system we’re developing.

It's a pretty big tweak. Moving from compulsory digital ID to crack down on illegal migration to a optional ID that will mainly be used by people under 25 to proved are 18 in the pub.

Although as @tanstaafl says, maybe the eyes are on the pan-EU/European developments in the digital ID area?

How not to introduce difficult policy …

Is a Driving licence not a valid ID card? What’s the benefit of introducing another?

Hi from the USA, it's like my late Dad said, If you have your ID on your phone and no backup, what happens if you lose it?

I wouldn't be getting one even if they were mandatory.

I am not the property of the government.

The card isn't really the problem though - it's the giant government database of everyone's details: all their personal details, where they live and work, how much they earn, what they own, what bank accounts and savings they have, God knows what other details. Which will be used for more and more intrusive reasons, probably deliberately shared with other countries, and almost certainly ineffectively secured.

Are they just telling us whatever we want to hear to shut us up ('no ID cards! Yay!') whilst quietly going ahead anyway with privacy-destroying policies: for which they have no mandate yet allow no opposition or constraints?

Digital ID will continue as the method of signing in to use a range of Government Services. The requirement for people to sign in to prove their right to work has been dropped.

Why did Labour sell it in as a way to tackle illegal working if they drop that part?

Because they have so little regard or respect for the electorate that they genuinely believe that if they use the right magic words at us, those words will invoke a pavlovian response and we'll celebrate whatever they're saying, and so let them do whatever it is they want (that they've couched in that language).

They simply can't imagine or accept that we actually think about what they're proposing, and make our own judgements - which are sometimes more insightful than their own half-baked opinions.

Instead, they assume that we must be manipulated, and they want to do the manipulation themselves.

See also Kier and flags.

I’d be delighted if they recanted every single one of their policies to be honest.

I use one - the Post Office EasyID which is provided by a partner Yoti under a post office brand. It's free. The model is that they drive income from corporate companies who don't want to process bits of valuable paper and copies of your bills.

I did quite a bit of due diligence before I used it. They don't store your ID, it's encrypted on your phone. You verify it once - ie they match your passport or driving licence photo to your facial scan, and connect to the identity provider [HMPO or DVLA in this instance] to confirm it's a valid ID. If you use the app then it's either a visual check - eg: the Post Office can look at my phone screen and visually match me so I don't have to carry docs around, or if a business needs it [eg John Lewis] I generate a QR code confirming I am 18 which is scanned and then scanned again by the postman when they arrive.

It's an app on my phone. I mainly use it for picking up parcels, will be able to use it for buying alcohol if the government ever pull their finger out and pass the legislation [not that I'm carded much any more] and I used it to buy a new kitchen knife online as it's required now. Though not for a chainsaw weirdly.

I also use GovOne login which I had to verify my ID for as it's compulsory for all company directors since end November but that was really painful by comparison. Had to keep going in and out of the website which took me to the app and round again until I got there in the end.

Not everyone drives. And passports are now £100 which if you can't afford to travel feels like a bit of an unnecessary luxury I imagine.

You need ID to vote and prove right to work and prove you are over 18. For lots of people, driving licences and passports are not an option. Why not have a free digital ID that can be used for student train tickets, cinema entry, booze? The world has moved on from bits of paper.

If you want fine. As long as none of it is compulsory.

I would be amazed if the digitial ID is free in the end. There is bound to be a digital ID tax - Reeves loves to tax stuff.

@TreadSoftlyOnMyDreams

Why not have a free digital ID that can be used for student train tickets, cinema entry, booze? The world has moved on from bits of paper.

They’d have a Student ID though ?