UK 'ID Cards' - Do you want them?

[chrisch]

Another interesting article.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3933319.stm

Chris

[Ali_Mc]

In principle I don't really have a problem with them. As long as they are introduced efficiently and don't result in chaos, confusion and excessive paperwork. Should be interesting!

[Mr T.]

Own up or face a £1,000 ID fine
By Philip Johnston, Home Affairs Editor
(Filed: 30/11/2004)

People who fail to tell the Government when they move home will face a fine of up to £1,000 when the new ID card is phased in from 2008.

Legislation for the first compulsory identity scheme for 50 years, published yesterday, contains a system of civil penalties for a range of offences, including a refusal to register - which carries a £2,500 fine - and not notifying the authorities of changes in name or address.


David Blunkett and Des Browne at the Home Office yesterday

As well as civil penalties, there will be tough criminal penalties for misusing or seeking to forge an ID card, with anyone found guilty of tampering with a document risking up to 10 years in prison. Anyone involved in ID card administration who improperly discloses information will face two years.

The cards will be issued automatically to people who are renewing their passports and the details, together with biometric identifiers - such as an iris print - put on a new National Identity Register.

Once a large proportion of the population is covered, the Government will use powers in the Bill to extend compulsion to everyone else.

Ministers had indicated that this point would not arrive until 80 per cent of the adult population was registered, which would be some time early in the next decade. But the legislation does not specify a "tipping point", leaving it open to the Government to move to a universal scheme earlier with parliamentary approval.

The combined ID card and passport is expected to cost around £85 - double the price of a passport today - and the total bill for introducing the scheme and the database is likely to be in the region of £3 billion.

But the Home Office said much of this would have been spent in any case to update the passport system with biometrics.

The cost of supplying thousands of public buildings, such as doctors' surgeries, with biometric readers to verify whether people are eligible for services when the scheme covers the whole country are unclear.

The Government said the ID card was not a sign of an authoritarian society, pointing out that it would not be mandatory to carry one.

Ministers also said that the police would not have any more powers to require people to identify themselves than they do now.

Tony Blair said: "I believe this is responsible government, not as some have called it `Big Brother government'. It is responsible to do what we can to enhance security and ensure that public services are only used by those who are entitled to use them.

"ID cards will also make our borders more secure, they will make our free public services and our benefits system more secure. They will help protect civil liberties, not erode them, because people will be able to produce their own identification."

The Government maintains that the ID project will help combat terrorism, tackle illegal working, and curb immigration abuse and the unauthorised use by foreigners of free public services.

Critics say it will do nothing to prevent a terrorist attack – the one group who will not be required to have an ID card will be foreign nationals who say they are in the country for three months or less.

Mark Oaten, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: "These plans are doomed to failure and will do little to deter terrorists and criminals."

[Fiji Dave]

Told you it was a silly idea - there's NO WAY I'm lugging a card THAT size round with me all the time! You'd think they'd have found a way to make it a little smaller.

[Bunny]

oh well... when the "deeply moral despite shagging married women" Blunkett, finally resigns over abusing his office, then maybe this thing will just go away.

[NotDeadYet]

It is responsible to do what we can to enhance security

Flicking through the November issue of National Geographic, they have a terrorism feature. A couple of interesting facts become quite plain: the vast majority of terrorist attacks are either domestic or by people legally in that country; and there were 206 reported terrorist attacks last year as opposed to close to 700 in 1987/88, the lowest figures for two decades at least.

So what major security issue are ID cards addressing again?

[chrisch]

Originally Posted by NotDeadYet

So what major security issue are ID cards addressing again?

The need for "New Labour" to gain all the right wing racist votes this scheme attracts....

Chris

[Mr T.]

Originally Posted by chrisch

The need for "New Labour" to gain all the right wing racist votes this scheme attracts....

Chris

Although you'll appreciate that it might not necessarily appear worded thusly in their May Election Manifesto

[berticus]

I can't see the point of them. They will cost us a fortune and it's crazy to think that terrorists will be stopped just because all us law-abiding citizens are carrying a piece of plastic.

[Fathoms Down]

Originally Posted by berticus

They will cost us a fortune and it's crazy to think that terrorists will be stopped just because all us law-abiding citizens are carrying a piece of plastic.

No, no, no, you've got it all wrong. Of course they will work beautifully. After all, look how the banning of personal firearms for sport has reduced illegal gun crime!