National (British) ID Cards?

Apparently theres been a poll of around 512 people about ID Cards, 72% agreed to it, 16% said no, 12% said they didnt care. What are peoples views on this?





Sure ID Cards will help solve political hot potatoes like Immigration, and rising crime. But it will make us limited to what we can do, and in fact gives more power to the Government with regards to charging taxes.





Its all happening next year from the source i have. Email me and i'll get you the link.





So my question is, what are your views on this?

National (British) ID Cards?
ID Cards are a complete joke. South Africa has had ID Cards for over 30 years and have the worst crime rate in the world and nothing gets done about it. Also they have no idea how many illegals are there either.
Reply:What the hell do I need an ID card for I have credit cards and plenty of other info carried by me and in any case I know who I am. What his half baked government chooses to ignore that every half organised terrorist organisation has already found a way around the scheme. Computors programs are not unbreakable and anyone who knows what they are doing have already broken into government systems unless they do not use 'phone lines or radio
Reply:Who conducted this poll? Where was it conducted? I am HIGHLY suspicious of it - I don't know a single person who's in favour of spending such a collossal amount of money on a piece of plastic that would be completely and utterly useless for anything other than the government keeping tracks on everyone. Making us more secure? That's absolute rubbish. A foreign terrorist won't need an ID card because they'd only be in the country a short amount of time. A home-grown terrorist will already have an ID card. As for immigration I should have thought passports, birth certificates and visas are PERFECTLY viable way of seeing who should be here and who shouldn't. No more wasted money, no more wasted time, and the government stay out of our lives.





I am very much against ID cards. They would be an utterly pointless waste of time and money.
Reply:I've still got an identity card that was issued in the 1940's I have never had to show it to anyone, This latest idea is only to extract more money from the general public for no useful purpose.
Reply:No, it won't stop any percieved immigration problems. For it to do that, everyone would have to be liable to be stopped and searched on sight. And only those who do not look European would eventually be harrassed.





It would not stop crime in the slightest. No one would show an ID card just before stealing anything, or defrauding large corporations.





There are no arguments for the card, so there is no need to implement an ID card.
Reply:It's an absolutely terrible thing. First they'll give these cards to you but then they'll take away your freedoms more and more.
Reply:To Illvillain, the govrnment will not be giving us the ID cards anytime soon, if we do get them we will be charged. The last official estimate was almost £100
Reply:The government and others have all the information on us they need so I.D.cards will not make much of a difference as these will be easily forged as everything else is. The Banks, credit card, Internet provider, store cards, passport agency, D.V.L.A. doctors surgery, etc. seem to know more about me than I do myself?
Reply:Everybody will be issued with an ID card 2008 to 2009
Reply:Not long ago the former Head of M.I.5 stated that the ID cards would be no deterrent to terrorists as the London Bombers were all British citizens and would have had ID Cards. They certainly will not stop criminals even although to-days papers tell us that one in five immigrants is responsible for criminal activities. This is merely another way the government have thought of to take away our liberties and is bound to be useful for taxation purposes.


The old chestnut that, "I have done nothing wrong so what have I to fear" will quickly be seen to be a farcical notion. Any thinking person knows that over the past ten years we have lost more and more of our freedoms to an increasingly authoritarian government.
Reply:to put it bluntly i think its aload of bollox. it wont stop any crime.. what are they going to do? arrest people who wont carry them? when prisons are already at breaking point? yet again the british government dont listen to their people and just dally around in their little land of bentleys and high wages. i think this is just another way of them imposing the 'big brother' scheme on everybody no doubt so they can track us little people for tax costs and trace our every footstep... i think they could do a hell of alot better! like sort out the dramatically understaffed police and armed forces instead of wasting money on new smoking sign designs and crappy pieces of plastic!
Reply:ID cards will not help with immigration or crime. they have them in many European countries already and it doesn't reduce the problem. This is about EU harmonisation Britain is one of the few if not only member that does not currently have ID cards.





You will have to pay the costs of these cards which are estimated to cost between £300 and £600 per person so you can be sure it will be a lot more as this government hasn't got one single IT project running properly on time or within cost and that includes the passport, NHS, CSA, GP and immigration fiasco's to name a few all of which have current problems in operational areas.





I have not seen this poll. What was the actual question?
Reply:Totally against. How do they prevent crime and illegal immigration? If they do come in, I will refuse to carry one.
Reply:I will NEVER carry an id card.I will give no information,i will pay no money for one.





new liebour can get stuffed.
Reply:Well it's unlikely to happen next year as Gordon Brown is known to be against ID cards. Although the way was cleared through parliament last year (Dec 2006) there is still the question of the costs both the set up and running costs and the costs to the individual. The latest scheme puts the amount at over £5 billion and that will only rise as many of these mass scheme prices have.





It is highly unlikely that cards will stop crime or illegal immigration for reason mentioned by other posters. Although many other European countries have ID cards they still have problems with illegal immigration and they are hardly crime free.





ID cards will always be contentious - although they offer supposed greater freedom from the terrors they come a price to your general liberty and once that threshold has been crossed then who knows what else will be removed.
Reply:At the end of the day this is just another scam from the party of scam.


It fits in nicely with the 4 million cctv's now watching your every movement and the proposed "congestion charge" scheme to which the police and other government bodies will have full access to monitor your vehicle.





It's called BIG BROTHER my friends - it's here so you'd better get used to it. Remember New Labours favourite phrase "nothing to hide - nothing to fear"
Reply:Only 512 people? Hardly a representative slice of the overall population.





I'll put my faith in pollsters when they survey ten percent of the population. A Yes/No survey of 512 people can be carried out in one afternoon, in one town centre even if it's raining heavily.
Reply:Actually, I am in favour of it. Having an ID card will help ascertain who is eligible for benefits, free NHS treatment and the like.





The only problem I have with it at the moment is the technology needed to make it secure. I do not think that it is up to the standard we need yet.





But for those who are worried about a surveillance society, we live in one already. It is not controlled by the government. It is controlled by business. Everytime you use your credit card, it is logged to build up a picture of how you spend your money. Every time you use a supermarket reward card, the same thing happens.





Our ID's are already tracked. ID cards will just make it more honest.
Reply:I think ID cards are a necessity in this country now. We have so many illegals and dangerous foreigners floating around, we need to keep track on people.





If you have nothing to hide from the law, then it is no harm to have it. At least you will be helping the country stay secure if you agree to having one.





Most other European states have had them for years..and funnily enough, have a grip on immigration and illegal aliens roaming about. (and a much smaller threat of terror)