Certainly wouldn't make me feel safer, cause the day identity cards become enforced is the day I'll leave the country...
Whow how scary...one small step for president Blair (id cards) then next is sure to be sneaked in slowly, maybe more terrorist threats to frighten folk and make them feel these measures are necessary, media propaganda etc
Most of us already carry ID, driving license for starters. We have a medicare card out here, everyone has one, therefore it's our ID. What's the big deal anyway, I reckon everyone's DNA should be recorded, then no problems finding anyone if nesessary. Lets face it, most of our private details are on record anyway.
I'm sure what you say is true Diane, but the vast majority of people in the UK have never broken the law and I don't therefore see why they should have the inconvenience of having to carry something that is not only going to cost £millions if not £billions to set up and no doubt the same amount to administer once it is, but cost ordinary law abiding people a great deal of money when they have to replace one that's lost or destroyed. As important is the creeping tendency for successive governments and their agencies to accumulate more and more information about individuals in order to control the population (ie function creep), only a minority of which needs controlling.
An ID card will:
- lead to a loss of privacy, because it will require a massive database with an unprecedented amount of personal information would be created with giving government the power to "extend surveillance" of the population.
-be costly and impractical: remember how much money recent large-scale IT projects have cost.
- Worsen harassment of ethnic minorities: This could at some point include the Cornish.
- Have little impact on counter-terrorism: forgery of ID cards or papers enabling people to get cards will be easy for those determined individuals/groups.
- Have little effect on illegal working as people have always been able to get around this little problem.
It worries me that some people are so laizzes fair about long held freedoms and never question authorities' motives for doing anything!!. AND also what will happen when we in Cornwall have to carry cards that identify us as English. You can bet that the Scots and Welsh will have something on the card to distinguish them from the English and you can guess who we'll be lumped in with if that happens.
Me and you are so different Di, I see this as a breach of my freedom, you see it as a security measure, I do understand where you coming from, my mum tells me "you have to have rules Sharon otherwise people would get out of control," I just think it's a shame people are not able to live honestly and responsibly without being controlled. This is where we do share common ground I think you could live without the rules but are glad they are in place to control the arseholes.
The whole thing is a complete waste of money, there are already forged passports and driving licences and cloned credit cards, cars using false plates in London's congestion charge zone. Once ID cards are in place they will be forged within weeks, but the difference will be that we will all be living under a very expensive false sense of security.
If you use a credit or debit card you can be tracked.
If you use a loyalty card you can be tracked.
If you drive past one of the new license-plate-reading cameras you will be tracked and your movements stored for two years.
If you're a normal citizen, "They" already know who you are and where you are. Having an ID card will make so little difference to "personal freedom" and privacy that the ordinary citizen won't notice. The problem I have is with the biometrics: they have been shown to be unreliable--even fingerprints are only reliable when clear and complete--and once you're on a blacklist erroneously, how difficult will it be to get off it again?
I have to say I'm seriously dubious about the introduction of identity cards.
Quite apart from the obsene cost, the Big Brother attitude and the extreme inconvenience to law abiding citizens I'm growing continually more suspicious about what happens if my card falls into the wrong hands.
We're told to be increasingly security conscious about our personal details being available, we should shred and burn any paperwork with bank or address details on them, what happens when your identity card goes missing?......Identity theft on a grand scale?
Already my new pictorial drivers licence has way too much info on it in my opinion:
My photo
My name (including marital status)
My date of birth
My address
If lost the finder would know all this information, it can't be a good thing surely?
A work colleague had her bag taken she sensibly reported it and stopped all her cards. However about a month later lots of store-card bills arrived. Using her driving licence and bill that she had just paid the thieves had opened up store accounts in shops all over Plymouth in her name. These were probably opportunists but increasingly professionals are behind much identity theft. What might they be able to do with an ID card?
We use the Media to repeat it over and over again until you actually believe it ! Identity cards will make it a safer land and keep us free. ( Bullshit! )
Secondary smoking is so dangerous that we now need laws instead of manners to protect our health ( bullshit ! ).........but we will still sell you the product which gives us vast ammounts of money. ( not much hypocrysy there !!! ).
" There you go people. Congratulate yourself on living in the land of the free. Here...... Watch these endless streams of mindless soaps to stupify you, and masses of cop shows to show you what will happen if you step out of line.
There you go people.
YOU ARE FREE..................TO DO AS WE TELL YOU !
YOU ARE FREE..................TO DO AS WE TELL YOU ! "Bill Hicks
As I understand it (I could be wrong though) the issuance of a passport will go hand in hand with an ID card after 2008. Ok they won't be compulsory (ha ha) but if you want to go out of the country and need a new passport you won't get one without an ID card as well. And the cost will be £93.
Child abuse cases to be re-opened
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Farmhouse murder case man freed
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Drive clamp-down catches hundreds
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Firm's loss a 'body blow' to town
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Extra planes for stranded Britons
Cornish photgrapher amongst UK tourists stranded in Thailand hoping extra flights will help him return home.
Icy conditions causing accidents
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Stranded dolphins returned to sea
Vets, volunteers and marine experts battle for hours to rescue a dolphin and her calf stranded in Cornwall.
and then there's the old, old adage which really gets up my nose, "If you haven't got anything to hide ....."
