Digital ID cards in the news again.

[Kaz]

I don't have photographic ID at the moment so I would very much like an ID card please but I would like it to be free.

I do have a passport, but have always been in favour of ID cards.

[Suff]

I do have a passport, but have always been in favour of ID cards.

But you've never been forced to have one?? Even though everyone has a NI number, people don't associate with being "a number". I memorised my NI number immediately I got it and I did the same with Mrs S' NI number shortly after we were married. I have had to use both over the years.

With an ID card you "are" a number and the authorities who issue and manage these cards will see you that way. Choosing to do that is one thing. Condemning everyone in the country to have an ID card simply because they were born. Basically for all time, with no ability ever to repeal it, no matter how invasive it gets into your life? That's a really big decision to take.

Because the more invasive it becomes into your life the less chance you have of opting out or stopping it.

Whatever the majority agrees, I'm OK with, we do live in a democracy. But making this decision on a "my life is easier with it" convenience basis is, to me, a simplification too far.

This is a really BIG decision. Very easy to take, impossible to back out of. The government, naturally, wants you to make this decision and will downplay it to make it as "no brainer" as possible. What they will not do is give you cast iron binding guarantees that it will not morph into something significantly more invasive. Because they want it to morph into something else. Because it makes "their" life much easier. No matter how difficult it makes your life.

Think of it this way. You get an ID card. Suddenly everyone "requires" the ID card for you to do pretty much anything. No ID card, you can't do anything beyond going to the shops and buying your groceries.

So then what happens when someone breaks into your car and steals your handbag? Does the Government take 1 month to replace your ID card? Does it take 6 months? Will the department be understaffed to make cutbacks? Do they give a damn what it does to your life?

You think I'm overreacting? I had a Swiss colleague who had his wallet stolen whilst out for a night. He had his ID card and driving license in it. He went through 6 weeks of hell before he got all his documents back. Want your driving license replaced, you need your ID card. Once you get your ID card only then can you apply to get your replacement license. Not allowed to drive without the license in your presence.

Because we don't have an ID card nobody in the UK really knows where this is going to go.

So it comes back to trust.

Do you really trust this government, or the next? What happens if the population really loses the plot and the BNP wins. Far fetched, yes, but you only need to look at the rise of Sweden Democrats to see how this can go. Less than 1% of the vote to 24% of the vote in less than 2 decades. Would you trust a government like the BNP to correctly manage an ID Card? Could you trust them not to use an ID Card to discriminate??

The only thing I wanted was for people to stop and think about the future consequences of todays "convenience".

I didn't think it was too much.

[Workingman]

I have carried ID cards, military and civilian, for most of my life without any problems whatsoever. Suff, methinks that you are overly paranoid about ID. If you have a mobile and apps, and most of us do, all the info about you is already out there on various interconnected databases. Having some of it centralised on one easy to use card is no big deal, it really isn't.

[cromwell]

I wouldn't mind a simple ID card.

But Blair wants a lot more than that. He wants everything on it.

Tony Blair has become very rich by being the front man for billionaires. His Institute for Global Change has recieved more than $22 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation from 2012-2021. What they want, he advocates for.

As a rule of thumb anything Tony Blair is for, is deeply suspect.

[Kaz]

I have carried ID cards, military and civilian, for most of my life without any problems whatsoever. Suff, methinks that you are overly paranoid about ID. If you have a mobile and apps, and most of us do, all the info about you is already out there on various interconnected databases. Having some of it centralised on one easy to use card is no big deal, it really isn't.

This!

[cromwell]

So it comes back to trust.

Do you really trust this government, or the next?

No and no!

[Suff]

I have carried ID cards, military and civilian, for most of my life without any problems whatsoever. Suff, methinks that you are overly paranoid about ID. If you have a mobile and apps, and most of us do, all the info about you is already out there on various interconnected databases. Having some of it centralised on one easy to use card is no big deal, it really isn't.

Choice. It is all about choice. You chose this. With ID cards issued as a result of birth, choice goes away.

There is a film, forget the title, where a teacher is talking about giving up all your rights. The teacher starts out with 24 hours. Most people say "well yeah, OK if it is only for a day can it be so bad". When the teacher gets to a week, there are far fewer who say yes. When he gets to a month the answer is "hell no".

But the reality is that one second is too long. Let alone 24 very long hours. The second you give up all your rights anything and I do mean Anything, can happen to you. Because you no longer have any rights.

All intrusions into your rights should be viewed with deep suspicion and mistrust until it is proven, beyond a very unreasonable doubt, that the intrusion is benign.

You saw what Crommers said. That's "Hell NO". So why would you allow these governments you distrust so much to intrude so deeply into your lives? One of the basic freedoms we have is to be anonymous in our daily life unless we want something which requires ID. Even to the police, on the street, you do not need to "prove" your name and address. You can tell them anything you like and only if they have suspicions can they detain you until you prove who you are.

The moment you get an ID card, that right to anonymity is gone. Forever. Oh they won't demand that you show it. Not in the first few years. But once two generations have gone by it will become mandatory. Because unless the ID card is mandatory to be shown, on demand, it is useless to the Government so there is absolutely no reason for issuing it.

Governments do NOT issue ID cards for your benefit. They issue ID cards for THEIR benefit.

Yes there are people who were born with ID cards and see it as normal. But those born with more freedom see it as an erosion of privilege and rights.

To allow the government to do this to us, just for the sake of a few £ and a bit of convenience? Unless you fight for your rights and freedoms they will be taken from you. One at a time. The more you appear amenable to those rights and freedoms being taken, the more they will take.

That is why I have an issue with this. A lack of trust in the ever changing governments just makes it worse.