According to Alan Johnson, the government’s over-priced, over bureaucratic Stasi scheme ID cards are a “no brainer”.
Unveiling the card, Mr Johnson said: “The introduction of ID cards today reaches another milestone, enabling the people of Manchester to prove and protect their identity in a quick, simple and secure way.”
Yawn… Bollocks. I have no need to prove my identity in a quick, simple and secure way – if I did, I would not be giving my sensitive details to the government to leave on a train, post though the ordinary postal system or simply misuse and abuse – not to mention fining me for not advising them of changes or errors. Still, I don’t live in Manchester, so we will have to rely on the Mancunians to give this nasty little scheme the two fingers.
“Given the growing problem of identity fraud and the inconvenience of having to carry passports, coupled with gas bills or six months worth of bank statements to prove identity, I believe the ID card will be welcomed as an important addition to the many plastic cards that most people already carry.”
If it is “inconvenient” to carry a passport, then it is inconvenient to carry an identity card – but, then, we mostly don’t carry our passports around with us because we don’t need to. The same applies to an identity card.
If Johnson believes that it will be welcomed, I suspect that he is in for an unpleasant surprise (I certainly hope so). If, as I suspect, he knows full well that he is flogging a dead horse for the benefit of his authoritarian monocular Scottish master, then he is even more morally bankrupt than I would normally expect a politician to be.
But Mr Johnson said the card was a “no brainer” and that the opposition had initially supported the plans before changing their position.
What is a “no brainer” is not paying for the privilege of being tagged like livestock for life and having all of one’s personal and private details on a leaky, inefficient and over-priced government database.
“Given the growing problem of identity fraud and the inconvenience of having to carry passports, coupled with gas bills or six months worth of bank statements to prove identity,”
I carry my passport when I go abroad and have no objection as I am a guest in those countries. Sadly I need it to get back in to this country as well. Other than that it stays locked away and I refuse to carry it in this country.
If someone wants to sell me a service that requires me to produce it or 6 bank statements or whatever, I will go without. Fortunately I am very happy with my bank which is about the only time when there would be a statutory requirement.
Other than that, I can’t think of anyone to whom I will have to prove my identity so no need for me to pay for an ID card.
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What’s a no-brainer is what’s going to happen to that lot next year.
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Totally agree.
Unfortunately, the ID card scheme is an EU initiative so unless we extricate ourselves from its clutches, it’ll be forced on us eventually.
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What’s the betting they quietly commissioned a bit of private polling and then ran the trial in the city with the highest approval rating for the ID Card scheme?
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Yet no EU country is coming up with a similar scheme. When the French government proposed one shortly after the UK announced theirs, the French unions and professional organisations made it perfectly clear that they were vigorously opposed and the scheme was quietly dropped.
In France, there is a voluntary card that is simply a piece of laminated card with basic details on it. Organisations that ask for identity documents (the post office when picking up a parcel, for example) will happily accept other forms of documentation. I tend to use my passport, but a driving licence will do if I had a French one.