-
-
Latest Discussions
-
-
By David Peckham · Posted
It's difficult to keep politics completely out of it, if only to look who its most vehement opponents are; Farage, Corbyn, the Tories, the Lib-Dems, the Unionist parties of Northern Ireland, and civil liberties organisations like Liberty. That's a hell of a broad church - it seems to vex different people for different reasons. I don't really have a problem with ID cards ideologically, but large government organisations don't have a great track record in implementing large scale IT systems,. The Post Office and the NHS stand out - hugely expensive systems which either didn't perform or were written off. Data security is a concern - there seems to be arguments both for & against it making identity fraud both easier and more difficult, but the majority of adults in the UK have given away so much personal data on Facebook etc, that they're pretty wide open to being cloned anyway. Other than Switzerland and Denmark, we're the only country in Europe that doesn't have them. so there should be be enough learnings from other systems to have a reasonable debate about their merits, or otherwise. My major concern is that after politicians debate it ad nauseum, civil servants carry out a tedious tendering process and the Information Architects start arguing amongst themselves, the world will have moved on so much that whatever was originally signed off will be very expensive, anachronistic white elephant. -
Not everyone has a passport. Not everyone has a driving licence. If you have nothing to hide, I can't see the problem. And hypothetical assumptions about what a future government might do could apply to many things. That is not a good reason not to do them (imo). If Farage forms a government we will have plenty to worry about apart from digital ID. -
If you and I already have various government id and use them effectively, why do we need another? I need to travel abroad, then I use my passport. I need to drive, I need my licence. I need to check my tax, NI or whatever online, I need a government id. This is all fair enough. However, I should not have to and I will not produce my papers on demand for simply existing in my country. Illegal employers currently exploiting migrants without physical id will continue to do so, knowing the worst consequences they will face is that their limited company might be fined. Can you imagine what misuses a Farage government might put a compulsory id system to? Opposition to what may well become this government’s Poll Tax will be considerable. The petition to parliament is already up to 2.5 million: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/730194
-
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now