We Need Identity Cards

Having an ID card won't stop people paying tradesmen cash in hand.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

Wouldn't ID cards help stop people working in the black market? I’m sure I read that’s why irregular migrants come here. It’s a big pull factor - work cash in hand, no checks.

Have you seen the cndtions and sufferings people do to get here FGT. I think it takes more than that to lead them to come here. The choice between starvation and eating?

Having ID card would have no effect on the black economy. Countries with ID cards also have flourishing black economies. As it is when workplaces believed to have illegal immigrants working for them are raided, those who are here legally will have documentation to prove it. what does it matter whether a worker has a form, a letter from the Home Office, a passport with a stamp in it - or an ID card.

Elusivebutterfly

I would like ID cards to be introduced. It would make life much easier for us non travellers and non drivers. I only got my last passport for ID for banks etc. It is now out of date and I cannot open a new account or access my Government Gateway account. Lots of places now want ID and, with most bills on line, it is very difficult.
I imagine young people would like ID cards as needing ID to buy alcohol can be a nuisance!
I do need to sort out a new passport but could not manage the photo and gave up - I need to try again. It is also expensive to get a passport.

I imagine some of us have already had identity cards as they continued until 1952.

This is an interesting article: www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/feb/22/identity-id-cards-abolished-1952

Wouldn't ID cards help stop people working in the black market? I’m sure I read that’s why irregular migrants come here. It’s a big pull factor - work cash in hand, no checks.

How on earth would us having ID cards save money on migrants being housed while their claims are processed?
How would knowing if someone was a migrant or not make anyone feel safer?

I used to feel a bit reluctant to have to carry an ID card but with all the info out there about us all now, I don't see it as a threat any more.
Stuff like ID theft is scarey, & having an ID car with your biometrics on would ultimately be an extra way of proving you are who you say you are.

I would like ID cards to be introduced. It would make life much easier for us non travellers and non drivers. I only got my last passport for ID for banks etc. It is now out of date and I cannot open a new account or access my Government Gateway account. Lots of places now want ID and, with most bills on line, it is very difficult.
I imagine young people would like ID cards as needing ID to buy alcohol can be a nuisance!
I do need to sort out a new passport but could not manage the photo and gave up - I need to try again. It is also expensive to get a passport.

Jackie Smith - labour MP - tried to bring in ID cards. If the use of them had been explained properly at the time, then I would have supported them. I was against them as it was yet another government tracking in a so called democracy. As a Brummie, i would only have to say a few words and anybody would know I was English.
I've since found out that many European countries use ID cards instead of passports and the ID cards are much cheaper.

Yes those with multiple identities.

Or bogus benefit claimants.

I’m sure we will pay directly or indirectly but if it means we are not funding hotels and housing for migrants to the tune of billions a year then it will balance out. Only those with something to hide will be against it.

woodenspoon

The cost might be astronomical as you say, but then again it may not. It would mean money currently wasted on those who should not be here would reduce, a big saving, to offset the initial outlay. Most other countries do it so it can’t be that astronomical.

We will pay for it, either directly or indirectly. There is no "other" to do so.

One of the concerns I have with them is -would they be compulsory and what happens if you don’t have it on you?

There have been a couple of occasions when an “official” form of ID would have been useful because I don’t drive and I don’t have a passport.

woodenspoon

The cost might be astronomical as you say, but then again it may not. It would mean money currently wasted on those who should not be here would reduce, a big saving, to offset the initial outlay. Most other countries do it so it can’t be that astronomical.

It undoubtedly would be astronomical to introduce the system, and a new department of government would be required to administer and police it.

It got quite a long way into development under Labour last time they were in power, there’s a good potted history on Wikipedia if anybody is interested.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_Cards_Act_2006

The technology to do it is already there and waiting.
It's the infrastructure that's needed at great expense.
A bit like the human brain chip implants too.

The cost might be astronomical as you say, but then again it may not. It would mean money currently wasted on those who should not be here would reduce, a big saving, to offset the initial outlay. Most other countries do it so it can’t be that astronomical.

Many years ago but I struggled when I first moved to Sweden because I didn't have an id card at first - I remember having to get a certified letter from the tax office to take, together with my passport, for Swedish language and university exams,

It would be a good idea, I agree- but the cost would be astronomical.

I’d be more than happy to have one, for all the reasons stated previously. I’ve got my driving licence, passport at home , and numerous store cards in my purse. One more makes no difference surely. The government should utilise money they give away freely to other countries to fund it. No card, no residence legally then out you go.

NonGrannyMoll

Sad, but probably true. I think we're getting towards that point when we need proof of our existence in order to live our everyday life - the rules of the Internet applied to reality. On the other hand, fake IDs will be relatively easy to make, so would it really be a step forward or just another way for crooks and bent civil servants to make a living?

Can you explain in how they are easy to fake with embedded facial recognition and fingerprints?

Casdon

I think it’s different when the system is embedded as it is in France Mamie. As we aren’t used to it in the UK though, I think we’d have to be required to present them frequently in the first few years, or they just wouldn’t work when they needed to because people would forget them, lose them, leave them at home etc.
In future, I think there’s potential for us just to have one card for everything we need, if they could be update electronically, you wouldn’t need a separate driving licence, passport etc. pie in the sky at the moment though I know.

Or on your phone Casdon the new digital driving licence for your phone is this year, I can see everything being on your mobile in the future.

Winterwhite's is a sound argument argument against identity cards. Perhaps a chip under the skin like dogs have would be better than paper cards. A skin chip would be especially useful for us when we are demented or otherwise forget to carry the paper ID.

Sad, but probably true. I think we're getting towards that point when we need proof of our existence in order to live our everyday life - the rules of the Internet applied to reality. On the other hand, fake IDs will be relatively easy to make, so would it really be a step forward or just another way for crooks and bent civil servants to make a living?

Casdon

I think it’s different when the system is embedded as it is in France Mamie. As we aren’t used to it in the UK though, I think we’d have to be required to present them frequently in the first few years, or they just wouldn’t work when they needed to because people would forget them, lose them, leave them at home etc.
In future, I think there’s potential for us just to have one card for everything we need, if they could be update electronically, you wouldn’t need a separate driving licence, passport etc. pie in the sky at the moment though I know.

I think if you carry it in your purse / wallet you are no more likely to forget it than your bank card really. Our health cards are going on to phones soon (if people want to do that) and I think maybe driving licences too.
My grandchildren in the UK would like ID cards to avoid the need for different sorts of ID like driving licences / passports / student cards etc.
You can of couse travel in the EU with just an identity card, no need for a passport.
I agree that introducing them would be costly and difficult, maybe starting with the eighteen year olds and working upwards would be a good idea?

No. We don't need them.