ID cards; big brother or big nothing?

In this country (UK) we used to have ID cards during the war and they were phased out. France have identity cards and don't baulk at having to use them - which is very un-french. So why are we so anti? Is it because we are secretive or clandestine, no, so is it just something else to got hot under the collar about as we haven't had a poll tax riot in a long time. I would like to hear from people as well who have them, what are your views of having them?

ID cards; big brother or big nothing?
i cant see them making much difference, just like fake passports %26amp; id theft, im sure the same will come from ID cards..





In spain they have always had these ID cards, these cards must be carried at all times, if asked by the police to show ID %26amp; you dont have it, you will recieve a big fine...infact in spain without these cards its quite difficult to do anything...





This didnt stop the madrid bombings...
Reply:A lot of big something.
Reply:If you like ID cards, then you will love RFIDs. Just wait for this to be a government solution. Then an individual can be tracked everywhere he goes, everything he buys. It would be frightening.
Reply:I've had an ID card since moving to Switzerland in 1971. Personally, it's not a problem. The only problem I have is the format. The Swiss citizens card has been in credit card format for several years, but the foreign residents card is larger. For most purposes my credit card format Swiss driving licence is enough.





Way back in 1979, when Hong Kong was still a Crown Colony, I had to carry an ID card (credit card format) and I didn't hear any objections from other Brits. Surely ID cards would make it easier to track true illegal immigrants and avoid paying social benefits to those who were really not entitled to them. Asylum seekers whose case was still under consideration would be issued a card, as would legal foreign nationals. In Switzerland such cards are a different colour from the Swiss national ID card, and instantly recognisable .What's the problem?
Reply:Erm mate you need to think before your nose.








the mafia, dogy laboritories, bad companies etc can all check IDs to spto journalists and anyone who would be politically against them.








As can police at any demonstration say against arms fairs or keep anyone against a foreign dictors arrival .








ie bad guys check IDs as well.





Plus ours will have more info then the french ones and the government and companies all sell info to anyone who pays. Plus it gets hacked or the info could be innacurate.








Many bad governments have misused the ID system like nazis.








Your ENTIRE history will be on them, every petition you ever signed, every little job say when a girl worked in a sauna as despirate to stop her finding work, say if you have medical conditions or say you had an abortion.





Plus as said if you are likly to give a company any grief for its bad or immoral activities it will lable you as an activist etc.





The police are not always good especailly when it comes to anything political.





its not so simple mate.








Plus the real bad guys will find a way around them
Reply:ive got a driving licence with my photo on it but when you get stopped they now have a machine which identifies you through your fingerprints,so whats the point of the licence,they are bringing out very expensive new passports which hold all your details,so why id cards,its a matter of civil rights,we already have the most cctv,the police are always beating people up and getting away with it,they love people like you
Reply:Big Brother. Think of the Oyster Card for teenagers, it allows people to watch their movements. An ID card would be just as bad. OK, I don't know about us being secretive people, but I agree that we love to reject ideas and attack proposals by the government. But with that said, I still think that it would be exactly like the government watching us. So I say NO ID!!
Reply:I am very anti ID cards and there are a few reasons for that:





First I come from Egypt where they have ID cards and have done so for 50 years. That has done nothing to deter terrorists. Sharm for example has one of the most stringent security checks...yet there are still bombings. So if it doesn't help national security why are they promoting it as such (sounds like another 'Saddam has weapons of mass destruction' ploy)





Second in Egypt it is FREE I refuse to pay even more money to a government that won't be happy until everything I earn is given to them.





3rd every time the government has come up with a silly scheme it has led to failure. Let us use the most recent example in the news Junior Doctors and this new website for applying...after so many hospitals have pulled out of the scheme they have had to admit they were wrong and are now changing it...in my personal view this is a great opportunity for them to screw up.





4th I am a law abiding citizen I am a Muslim and an Arab......I have already been stopped under the prevention of terrorism act a number of times, which is fine. But should the need be there, with my details they can make me a scapegoat...NO THANKS. I have worked hard all my life and don't want it thrown away like the people in Guantanamo or the lads from Birmingham who were taken away for a week and then they realised they are ordinary citizens....
Reply:Oh Great I am doomed


The gas people know my gas useage


The electric people know my electric useage


BT knows all the telephone numbers I dial and so do Orange.


The various government departments know everything about the car I drive, about my birth, where I live etc


There are companies that know about my credit rating.


Sky know what I watch on TV


Even tesco know about my shopping trends.





I might as well cut my wrists now, everyone knows too much about me.





Seriously I havnt got a problem with them, most stuff about is already recorded somewhere.
Reply:I think its a good idea , would help. Look how much identity fraud there is , surley this can only be a help.


If we all had ID everyone wouyld be able to prove who they really are.


Bring it on..
Reply:I don't see any problem with having an identity card since people will know of where you come from(country) if yuo were to lose your passport people would help you using that.





Do you know that every one in the whole world wants to be a citizen of the UK and if ID cards were introduced it would be made impossible for non citizens to acquire your citizenship. My opinion.
Reply:It wuuldn't bother me if we had them. I've got nothing to hide.
Reply:I agree with pretty much everything that As_It_Is and Ivan R had to say.





I would add the government are twisting themselves into knots trying to justify id cards. First they said their main purpose was to combat the threat of terrorism. Then when pushed on the matter, they admitted that they wouldn't be effective for that purpose. Then they said they were to combat benefit fraud, and had to admit that they wouldn't be effective for that either. Then they tried identity theft as a justification, until it was shown that id cards might actually make it easier for criminals to steal somebodies identity.





So it must be asked, what exactly are they for? I suspect the real reason this government has in mind is to gather marketing information, so that businesses can inundate us with "targeted" spam and junk mail. But in the future, perhaps under an even more unethical government, they could be used as a very sinister means to limit our freedom.
Reply:we need ID for getting in2 pubs and getting can's


it's ok there BUT for the people out side the uk yes they MUST for people witein the uk no ID f the uk people
Reply:i think they are a great idea, I've got nothing to hide, the only people who seem to object to them are those who are up to no good, or the P.C of this country who like to interfere with every new thing that comes along, as for an invasion of my privacy, well if I'm doing nothing wrong, what the problem, and anyway with all the CCTV that's around these days i dare say that if anyone wants to know what I'm up to, they would be able to find out very easily
Reply:I have no problem with ID cards as I have nothing to hide and I would welcome them even more if any one found without one was taken straight to Heathrow and put on a plane and sent anywhere but here.
Reply:My Grandad is vehemently against the idea of ID cards. He had one during the second world war, and didn't like how often the police stopped you and asked to see your ID card.





Personally I don't see a big problem, as long as they limit the amount of information on them.
Reply:On a political/freedom level, I welcome them. I've lived in France where every resident MUST have an ID card, even EU citizens.


In the 18 months I was there, I never got asked for mine once by the police, but used it conveniently to prove who I was when writing a cheque, getting high value items delivered, at the bank etc.


A very useful tool that proves only you are who you say you are and your address.





On a practical level I don't see why I need:


-an NI card and number


-UTR (Unique Tax Reference)


-Passport with a unique number


-a driving licence with a unique number


-An NHS card with a unique number


-numerous profiles storing the same information duplicated across hundreds of IT systems for my GP, dentist etc.





I would prefer that a single government issued card holds all my data in once place and entitlements can be added/removed as necessary e.g. driving licences, points etc. rather than having loads of documents and references.





On the note of IT - it is only since the current government first entered power in 1997 that there has been a series of catastrophic IT projects usually outsourced at extortionate amounts and badly delivered...
Reply:Because governments are not the peoples' friend
Reply:Perhaps it's because they're a weak answer to a complex issue? Or perhaps it's because the Government themselves don't entirely know what problems the ID card will solve? Or perhaps it's because Government is known to change its stance regarding just *what* issues the ID card *should* solve? Or perhaps it's because the ID card won't actually solve any single issue, but only serve to "make it someone else's problem"? Or perhaps it's that the ID card, and associated technologies, are flawed by design because the technology to implement them as promised just isn't sufficiently capable enough? Or perhaps it's because Government has a nasty habit of implementing seemingly 'liberating' Acts of Parliament that, somewhere down the road, turn out to serve an entirely contradictory agenda? (Nonsense!) Or perhaps it's because we're not just talking about a card with our ID on it, but a nationwide database profiling us, as individuals, based on information acquired by means beyond our legal control? Or perhaps it's because some Britons who actually get off their asterixes have had enough with being told what to do, when to do it, how to do it, where to do it and who to do it to, that they're in a prime position to glance behind the veil of 'democracy' and recognise that the ID card - as proposed by this Government - has only one true and disingenuous purpose: promote a surveillance state? Or perhaps it's because the ID card is just another step closer to tagging us at birth, classifying us in youth and conditioning us in adulthood? Or perhaps it's for all these reasons, and much, much more besides?





If you're for the ID card, fine - keep quiet, don't rock the boat and live comfortably in the knowledge that "I've nothing to hide, so I've nothing to fear" and being a private citizen means little to me. But if you believe in privacy - especially if you're middle class, where your vote actually counts - then let it be known, because if you give Government - any Government - an inch then they *will* take a yard. They live, we sleep (in a stupor).





Fascist Spain, Nazi Germany, Communist Russia - history has taught us nothing... Our American cousins have a Bill of Rights whose whole purpose is to *restrict* the powers of Government (okay, so it's cracking under federal presure), whereas we in the UK have 24 hours drinking laws and almost a quarter of the world's CCTV so's to give hoodies something to hide their faces from. Go figure.





But anyway, yes: the ID card is just another something-bloody-else to get all hot under the collar over. ;-)
Reply:To me they look like being expensive and achieving nothing. Any value they might be thought to have as a more reliable form of ID will simply incentivise the fraudsters. Just another government "solution" that isn't, but costs us anyway.
Reply:big brother..





only the immigrants coming in should be quized about ID.


We have our own ID in terms of passport and driving licences.





do you think a terrorist having an ID card (as the ones here are born here) will deter them blowing us and themselves up?


No!!!
Reply:Yes, it's Big Brother. Trust me in Brasil things are a nightmare because ofthese stupid bloody things. I used to be glad I lived in the UK until I heard about the crackpot scheme to introduce them here.
Reply:If you are a honest person with nothing to hide I don't see why there would be a problem with ID cards. We have virtually got them already with passports, photo driving license etc. Big Brother is already watching - they know what cashpoints/bank you use, they know what you buy at the supermarket via your loyalty card, CCTV is everywhere. I can see no getting away from it.
Reply:I still cant see any real security in the cards they like any security document have to be made and if a product can be manufactured it can be forged or easier still bought like it or not every thing does have it's price this is not necessarily financial threat and fear can also make people venerable so the security of these cards is questionable without the invasion of peoples right to privacy


If a system can be devised that is not forgeable I might be convinced but this would have to be 100% fool proof or there is No point in instigating it
Reply:anything that combats fraud, credit card etc. has to be a good thing. if it helps prevent benefit fraud too even better.





It is not as if any of the information on it could not be found out fairly easily in the first place. it just brings it together with your photo etc..
Reply:We are becoming a dictatorship and these I.D cards are just part of the whole sinister plan by this government to control every aspect of our lives. We have every right to be worried by this as our days as a democracy are slowly ending. The people of this country must make a collective stand against this government before its too late.
Reply:It's all about the new world order ans its control over our lives...nothing to hide, sir?
Reply:I have to say that I am not comfortable with the notion of ID cards. We already have ID that we can produce when required (driving licence, passport, etc.) and I don't see the need for any more.





I also dislike the fact that it is the public who will have to fund these cards - estimates have gone up to £100+, which seems more than excessive.





Mostly, though, I am concerned about the kind of information that would be stored on the cards: fingerprints, iris scans, blood types, etc. I am very uncomfortable with this much information being stored about me on a central database. I know the old adage that 'it won't matter if you've nothing to hide', but I don't agree. I dislike the idea that the government would have all these details, I consider it an infringement upon my civil liberties; but moreso I am concerned about the security of the information. I'm sure that we will be told that there will be plenty of security measures, but, let's face it, the Home Office cannot locate its own backside so I don't trust it to look after my details and protect them from fraudsters and identity thieves.





I'm sure that ID cards will come to Britain - this government does whatever it likes without reference to the people - but I, for one, won't support them.
Reply:The holes in the system, if they had been brought in a long time ago there might even be less danger because they would not be geared towards the modern information age.





For example, there is space to record things many of us do not wish to be seen. Our shopping habits, our voting history for example. Not only should this be private but there is the opportunity for companies such as supermarkets to record the data for their advertising and product analysis. Then is the category of religion. Many feel this should not be recorded because it will unfairly bias towards criminal investigations.
Reply:we have that many forms of id (passport, driving license etc) what difference would one more make?


it wouldnt bother me to be honest