Taken from BBC Website http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3127696.stm Personally I really don't want one or see the need. The UK government already has NI numbers to track Tax etc. And cards will be forged, and government databases hacked. If I need to get a passport, I'm invoking my Irish citizenship and getting an irish passport. I would suggest those who are able to make such a switch, and do not wish to have ID cards do the same.
So they give you one with your passport. Are you required to carry it? Is it actually good for anything? That's why this program will die a quiet death because people will never use the cards and they will get lost, etc. THe only reason people carry driver's licenses is because they have to. If I'm going somewhere where I won't be driving I don't carry any ID.
Great, so passports double in price and we get no benefits, other then maybe an easily hackable system with tonnes of data about us on it that the government will spend a tonne of our money setting up? Wonderfull. I'm tired of all the god-damn centre right facists we have in this country, I don't know why they push all their bull**** at us, I can't figure out the reasons behind it, but it is obviously such bull, when you look at studies of things like ID theft compared with the cost of bringing this system in. /rant
I don't see how these are going to solve problems of ID theft or terrorism (as someone said on the news the other day, the London suicide bombers made no attempt to hide their identities). Much ID theft involves the interweb, where the photocard will be entirely useless.
You might not know, but almost every country in europe has ID cards. ID cards are easier to travel within europe, no need to carry your passport everywhere you go. At least your ID fits in your wallet not like a passport.
They are generally a different sort of id card. They just have name address that sort of stuff on. The on proposed here basically tracks your entire life, all stored on one big central database. Oh and the icing on the cake is that companies can get access to all of your oersonal data for £70 a pop. I would be for a national ID card if it was just that. Group up your NI card Driving licence etc into one card, something usefull.
Moreover, it will be just as forgeable as any "unforgeable" document. Some Dutch IT experts visited a Journalist in Britain with a laptop and a briefcase full of gadgets and basically made a fake ID right there on the spot. They simply lifted a fingerprint off his beer glass in the pub without his knowing, got some personal data from the census records, a portrait photo from his work and filled in the blanks. Presto, one ID card with some biometric data. Of course, everybody will believe that the ID card is unforgeable. So if some dude commits a crime with a forged copy of your ID, you will be hard pressed to prove your innocence. After all, the ID card doesn't lie... does it?
