Voter ID.

[Suff]

Ah yes, the I'd card. The first step on a slippery slope.

I sold our Motorcaravan to a German last weekend. He didn't have a passport, only his ID card which UK insurance companies won't accept for temp insurance ID checks, only a passport even if you submit a valid photo ID EU driving license.

Why did he have his ID card on him?

Because it is a punishable offence not to be carrying it at all times, even on the beach in swimming trunks.

The UK government can tell me that they will never make carrying it mandatory, but the whole point is that if you do not make it mandatory then it's no use for 90% of the things they say it will fix.

The whole POINT, which was articulated by the Windrush victims themselves, was that the UK used to be low regulation and common sense. The EU is the opposite and we have become infected with it.

All we need is a small measure of common sense again and not ID cards.

A unique number mailed to your voting address would fix the problem. Because voters would have to be implicated in the fraud and that is a high enough barrier.

ID cards was the wet dream of Blair and Brown for cementing the UK ever deeper into the EU. It was also the overbearing state changes of Blair and Brown which led to the Windrush scandal.

All we need is good, pragmatic, British common sense. Which, apparently, is gone for good.

[Workingman]

How other countries operate their ID card rules is entirely up to them and totally irrelevant to what the UK may or may not do. We are quite capable of making our own rules and not following like sheep.

We do not have to have biometric anything or digitised everything. A simple card with photo and name visible but with DOB, address, NI, NHS and voter reg numbers on a chip would be fine. We also do not need it be mandatory to carry it 24/7 on pain of incarceration, but if a person is going to enter into something requiring ID then they would be pretty damned stupid not to take it along.

We also do not need another unique number, we already have one. Anyone over 18 is supposed to be on the voting register and that is where your unique number comes from, when you get your polling card through the mail there it is just below your name and address.

A combination of polling card and simple ID would be a very pragmatic and common sense approach to cutting out most voter fraud.

[Suff]

It comes down to whether you trust your government or not. I respectfully submit that our government has given us ample reason not to trust them.

Giving a government carte blanched to interfere in your life, then hoping it will not; is not a winning combination in my mind.

[miasmum]

I only want it for when I try to collect a parcel or when I try to sign on for online systems at the GP surgery and they say 'photo ID please" which I dont have

[Workingman]

Suff, I would agree if we were talking about a biometric ID cum driving licence cum passport with RFID, but we are not.

All we are talking about is a simple form of bog standard ID as a first line of defence against voter fraud and for the sorts of things Shell mentions There are loads of times in daily life when such an ID would be a boon not a hindrance.

[Suff]

I only want it for when I try to collect a parcel or when I try to sign on for online systems at the GP surgery and they say 'photo ID please" which I dont have

Wouldn't that be wonderful. Perhaps we could be issued a NI card with Photo ID on it??? That would work perfectly, it is something the government already issues us, we could present them with a photo and update it every decade by using the same booth as they use for passports and driving licenses. Now wouldn't that be useful.

But, no, it has to be "identity" in the formal method of passport or driving license. Simply because the government wants that ID card for entirely different reasons than we do.

I had a look at the Wiki page on countries with ID cards. It was interesting to note that the German ID card is not mandatory to carry, as I was told. The only fly in that ointment is that the Polizie can decide you have "refused" to give them sufficient identity and drag you off to a cell for 12 hours. So I'm not wondering why he told me it was mandatory. I now know.

That Wiki list was _very_ revealing. Especially the nice statements like "It is not mandatory to carry it. Well unless they decide it is mandatory to carry it"..
The only countries which are in the list for "do not have a national identity card", that were taken over and ruled by a hostile power in the last 100 years; are: Denmark and Norway.

I must admit it amuses me no end the lengths our politicians will go to, nowadays, to act like a conquered nation.

[Osc]

Perhaps we could be issued a NI card with Photo ID on it??? .

Over here, we have a Public Services Card, which is gradually being issued to everyone once they are allocated their PPS number (like your NI number). You have to have one to collect benefits at the post office, and Mr Osc and I have to use them for our free travel, they have our photographs on them. Personally, I have no problem with an ID card. My driving licence is also a plastic card now. We always bring our passports when going to vote, but a lot of the people at the voting place know us anyway. I can actually never understand why so many people get all uptight about having an ID card, in this technological age so much is known about us all anyway.

[TheOstrich]

Well, the standard Over-65 Bus Pass here has your photograph on it, but not your DoB or your address.

It does show the issuing County Council (you have to change it if you relocate; that's because different Counties may have different add-on travel concessions for their residents) and it does have an 18-digit identifying number.

It lasts for a maximum 5 years, but when you renew it, unlike the passport, there's no requirement to update the photograph.

And it's not really accepted as photographic proof of ID - most times you need to display a photo ID, such as to open a bank account for example, only passports and driving licences are acceptable. Interestingly, I've just checked Lloyds Bank to confirm they don't accept Bus Pass (confirmed. they don't) - but they do accept something called a Northern Ireland Voters Card!

Full circle back to the opening post!

[AliasAggers]

I have still got my ID card which was issued during the war. Sometimes use the ID which consists of four letters and four numbers.
THis was in the days before photos were used as well as computers.

I haven't still got my war-time ID card, but I remember the number - QJHU XXXX.

I still carry my old driving licence, which, although now out-of-date, I find is still accepted.