I’ve stuck with my paper driving license precisely because I don’t want one of the new photo-licenses. I looked into it when they first came out. However, unlike my current license, they are in two parts – a credit card sized photo license and a paper license that you have to carry with it. This, combined with the hoops you have to jump through just to get one, put me off. I’ll be damned if I’ll chase around trying to find a JP prepared to sign my photograph – or pay my doctor for that matter. There is another reason why I’ve been reluctant to let the DVLA have my current driving license back. The DVLA have been making a habit over the past few years of "losing" motorcyclists’ category A entitlement. In other words, you no longer have a license to ride a motorcycle. DVLA accept no responsibility for the error and until the hapless rider retakes the motorcycle test, the right to ride and any current insurance are invalid. If anyone has to apply for an new license, the current advice is to keep a copy of the old one as it is the only evidence that you have the category A entitlement.
Now, it seems, having remained under the radar for so long, I’m going to have no choice but to renew my license. Not only will I be forced to change as a result of a mass recall of the licenses to comply with EU requirements, but I’ll be forced to pay a fee every few years to boot. This is yet another stealth tax on motoring.
"Motorists face paying a new charge of about £2.50 a year to help fund the cost of phasing out paper driving licences and replacing them with European-style photocard documents, under proposals being considered by ministers.
The planned “annual registration fee” will generate more than £80m for the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) and could come into force by 2007.
Alongside the new fee, the 21m motorists in Britain who already have a photocard licence are likely to be charged £19 or more to renew their documents every 10 years."
Oh, yes, there is another sting in the tail – as if there weren’t enough already. Driving licenses will, like passports be a primary document in relation to the National Identity Register currently being proposed in the ID Cards Bill going through parliament. This will mean that HMG will be able to force us onto its planned National Identity Register and issue us with ID cards using the mass recall of driving licenses.
Just what is the problem British people have with I.D. cards? When I went to work in spain in the pre-EEC 1980s, I was made to go down and give my dabs to a rather surly bureaucrat at the Immigration department.
Surely the alternative, a universal ID card with photo and fingerprint, that we can use all over the world, is a much better idea. Coming here to work in the Gulf, I was given no less than four I.D cards, all featuring photo and blood group, in my first month here – employer’s card, Government health card, medical insurer’s card, and another that I’ve already forgotten. As a result, I have absolutely no problems doing financial transactions, etc. It makes life so much easier.
Where is the infringement on our civil liberties if an ID card only helps make things easier for us?
”'{Longrider replies} You can’t be serious, surely? ID cards just don’t work – they do not prove that we are who we say we are and they will not give me anything that I do not already have; apart from a large hole in my wallet and less security of my personal information. You clearly haven’t read the bill or you wouldn’t be asking this question. This bill is not about ID cards, it is about mass surveillance.”’
”’As for a single world-wide data retention system….words fail me. Apart from the technical difficulties have you never heard of a single point of failure? This bill will make identity theft easier to execute because all our eggs will be in one basket.”’
”’That systems operate in other countries is a circular argument. If the government insists on identity documents for mundane transactions, then having them will make life easier – a self fulfilling need.”’
”’Just because other countries have them, doesn’t mean that we should. I know who I am and if I feel that others need to know, I will tell them. I do not need a card to do this for me – and I certainly am not prepared to be treated like a criminal and be taxed on my identity for the privilege of doing so.”’