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Blunkett urged to shelve ID card plans
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
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Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Comments
Hypothetically, and for arguments sake. Cost is not an issue.
We carry around, driver's licences, proof of age cards, donor cards, loyalty cards for shops, credit and debit cards, any amount and any number of various bits of paper and plastic that allow people to assertain our identity and personal information. Why does this ID card really make any difference? Does it really bother people that they can be IDed like this. In Italy and France you have to carry them.
Why are we (as a country at large) being so anal?
the money is better spent on better policing and intelligence
You'd be amazed at the amount of information I can find out about someone from using a couple of computer programs at work.
Carrying all the information on a little card won't make any difference to that, and in my opinion would make life a lot easier for those who are law abiding.
It would make purchasing credit easier if you don't drive, make getting into licensed premises easier, it would prevent people stealing your identity.
Currently a fraudster only has to dig around in your bin, get a bank statement and something with your signature on and he can cause no end of trouble. IF you have an id card that is impossible to replicate, then how is this going to happen???
And as for producing a figure saying 3.5 million people oppose it, that would leave approximately 37 million adults who wouldn't, assuming an adult population of 40 million.
If we had ID cards my identity could be quickly verified on a computer database from a chip in the card or something and I'd be saved all that mucking about.
I don't want to give the Government my retina scan and my fingerprints, because I don't trust them with them.
BUt no biological scans means no security. Therefore meaningless.
What also concerns me is the idea of "uncopiable". Crims are always one step ahead, they ahve better acces to funds. An "uncopiable" card can be copied or forged, but proving it owuld be imposible. Identity theft would, ergo, be easier.
I hate the idea.
Anyone who thinks "If you do no wrong you've nothing to be afraid of" is a fucking moron.
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty not safety.
Benjamin Franklin
Lawlessness is good for a Government, so long as it doesn't threaten them and their position of power.
And in future you'll very likely need an ID card, gas bill and letter from a professional.
What benefits do you see from having a ID card system?
The introduction of an ID card will make identity theft more likely for those tasks that do not require full verification, according to the select committee.
click here for a detailed consideration of ID cards
Owning and using an ID card isn't going to make anyone less free. If you want to see infringed liberties then take a look at the US patriot act.
Like I said before, the government already knows who you are. They already can, and do track your movements.
Credit agencies know everything there is to know about virtually everyone in the country,
so WHY does having an ID card scare you?
You all carry a switch/credit card, most people have a photo drivers licence or passport.
We ALL have a national insurance number.
Putting some of that information on a little card so we can prove who we are and what we're entitled to won't negatively affect us at all.
The police can already ask you for ID if they don't believe you are who you say you are, and have every right to arrest you if you don't produce any.
Immigration can detain you indefinitely if you can't prove who you say you are.
Employers won't employ you if you can't prove who you say you are.
So, tell me people. WHY don't you want an ID card? Saying because you shouldn't have to prove who you are just doesn't wash, when so many of us have to do it on a daily basis anyway.
I am against the ID card because it is too expensive, unworkable and unnecessary. As you say, the police already know who the people who they need to know are; an ID card wouldn't cut crime, just make admin easier. And the easier admin isn't worth £3.1billion (HO estimate- using the "British public IT algorithm" doubhle it and add 10% for good luck:p).
Security experst say that no card can be 100% safe, but if the Government says that it is then innocent people will suffer if someone steals their identity (after all, the chip is only secure until someone cracks it, and with the money involved in serious crime, in particular the Russian mafia, it wouldn't take them all that long).
So tell me again, why do I need an ID card?
You seem to have got this the wrong way around Whowhere. This shouldn't be a discussion about why we shouldn't have something, but why we should. It's a sales pitch. HM Govt wants me to spend [upwards of] £50 to have an ID card and yet I have no idea why. Would you throw £50 at something with nothing in return?
At the moment I don't have to prove who I am to the police, on request. I take my anonymity as a basic right, yet I do not commit crime. I am law abiding yet I fear a national database which contains so much information about me, in so many ways and in a single place. I do not use "loyalty" cards in supermarkets for the same reason.
Really? It would also be used as an excuse not to give you an "entitlement". How long do you think it will be before this is used to determine treatment in hospital etc?
Then what? Fine me for not carrying ID? They will be able to do that if this becomes law.
Not so, provided you have NI number, they have no reason not to employ you...
But we do it when we want to.
I don't want an ID card simply because I don't actually need one. If I need to prove who I am, I can already so why would I want to pay for something I already have the capability to do?
As far as I am aware "health tourism" costs us about £200million. Out of a budget of £70billion.
Ho hum.
When one comes in, it won't be "compulsory" but to access any public utilities or services you will need one. To be updated every ten years.
Great thing to spend nearly £7billion on...
That is just the cost of the Govt end?
Remember we will each have to buy our own - or in my case I will have to buy four of them...
Not because of any multiple personality disorder, but one for each member of my family...
I, for one, would like to think that I get something extra from such an investment...
It will happen, it will go tits-up and it will be us poor schmucks who are left to pick up the pieces after the blind twat leaves office and gets his highly-paid directorship.
Just on a side, what do the American's among us think about this quote? Their government voted in the patriot that does everything this quote is against, allow numourous invasions of personal privacy.
Are ID cards the same, worse or better than what's contained in legislation like the patriot act? And would our government really listen if we were as horrified about it as we seem to be about ID cards?