Views on ID cards

Shadow

14-02-2006 07:21:09

Ok people from the Uk, whats ur views on the current issue on ID cards

Werdna Elbee

14-02-2006 19:56:21

I ain't gots no moneys for an ID card. They'll just have to lock me up.

Shadow

15-02-2006 04:14:01

lol, what 30 quid to much for ya

Werdna Elbee

15-02-2006 13:01:16

Actually, yes 30 quid is too much for me.

But I've been hearing reports of it being somewhere between 100-300 depending upon the source.

Malik

15-02-2006 14:48:25

They're forcing you to get ID cards and then also demand money for said ID cards?

Werdna Elbee

15-02-2006 16:38:21

It's like being a rape victim and going to jail for it

Tarax Kor

15-02-2006 16:39:24

In Serbia&Montenegro they have ID cards, of a sort. Yes, you have to pay for them but they aren't expensive. And it does help keep things in order.

Aghasett

15-02-2006 17:00:40

The de facto ID card in the US is the driver's license, and depending on the state you live in, it can be about 50 bucks to process. Of course it's not required, but try living a normal life without one. You can't. It's a total racket.

Shadow

16-02-2006 04:17:28

well there is so much **** flying around over here about them, i dont mind one for 30 quid but if its anymore the gov can stick it where the sun dont shine

Ceric Crimson

16-02-2006 08:08:38

It's like being a rape victim and going to jail for it



LOL! Nice.

And yes, the "ID card" of the US is the driver's license...and no you can't go anywhere without one...unless you carry a passport on you all the time, though most Americans born in the US never left the country so I doubt that they have one to speak of.

Shadow

16-02-2006 08:52:56

i can see the uk turning into the next us state

Werdna Elbee

16-02-2006 10:56:56

To be fair, I do carry around my passport everywhere as a form of ID. I simply begrudge paying for another form.

Shadow

20-02-2006 04:21:52

true, but why the hell do u carry your passport around, if u lose it ur screwed

Werdna Elbee

20-02-2006 06:57:39

It was so I could get into pubs a few years ago. Alas, my fair faced days are over and I carry the passport as ID out of habit.

Shadow

20-02-2006 06:59:57

get a driving licence its better and easier to carry

Werdna Elbee

20-02-2006 07:42:50

That would involve having to learn how to drive...and I really don't need to at the moment

Shadow

20-02-2006 07:51:20

no it dont get a provisional

Xanos

20-02-2006 18:53:46

They're forcing you to get ID cards and then also demand money for said ID cards?



Yes Mal. Its retarded. But thats the UK for you... force everybody to have one, but then force everyone to pay for them. I think they're estimated at £90 currently. Well, the new bio-metric passports are going to be about £60, and the ID card itself about £30 (they're making you upgrade from 2008 to both when you renew your passport). If everyone has to pay it would just make more sense to take it out the treasury, as everyone would be paying anyway as it'd be attacking the tax renvue, so taxes for something else would no doubt go up, but you don't "feel" the affects of a tax quite as much as a direct cash payout.

What they've actually done is not you require one directly, but make you obligated to get one when you renew your passport. Its the same thing at the end of the day. Currently you wouldn't have to carry it on you at all times but it wouldn't surprise me if in a few years time they try and force that on us as well, they tend to do that... last year they banned smoking in places that served food, this year they've banned smoking in public places completely, they always end up doing what they wanted, they just do it slowly to try and keep people happy, so I imagine they will force people to carry ID cards not long after implementing them in 2008 - unless of course the next government discards them completely, which wouldn't surprise me.

The really foolish thing is they assume everybody has a passport. We had to get a new bank account opened for my grandfather last week and it was the same problem, they wanted a passport, but he doesn't have one, he doesn't have any form of photographic identification at all. How he would actually go about registering for an ID card is beyond me, yet he'd be expected to have one, its really quite a rediculous set-up that hasn't been thought through fully.

I'm not actually against ID cards myself, there are quite a few things they help with, but if you're going to do them, you need to do them fully, a half-assed watered down semi-required system just makes them a waste of money, because if not everybody is going to have to have them (only passport holders) then they're not actually going to protect against anything. While I do favour them for some reasons I disagree with the way the government has forced down our throats the idea that they'll be good against terrorism. It ignores the fact that so far the only terrorist attacks in this country have been committed by native Britains, so wouldn't have stopped them, plus it doesn't prevent foreigners coming into the country and causing harm, as foreigners would have 3 months free stay before needing to get an ID card... so all in all its not actually going to do a lot. For benefit fraud and things like that, sure, I think its actually a very good idea, but the whole thing about using them to fight terrorism is rediculous. I know a number of Bulgarians who are in this country illegally (Bulgaria is like the capital of the forgery industry), and they can make perfect forgeries of passports, VISA stamps, etc. Its not like it would take them long to start faking ID cards, the technology would take them longer to figure out than just a passport stamp, but it can't be much more advanced than the security systems on credit cards, and criminals have managed to design fake credit card scanners to steal your details (happened to my dad once when he was in Bulgaria, got home to discover somebody out there had charged ten thousand or so to his card), so if they can do that then they'll be building machines to fake or steal ID card details as well... at most it might buy two or three years security - but even then, it'll take two or three years, if not more, for the whole country to be issued with ID cards in the first place.

All in all, while I agree they could be useful in some regards, with the half-assed laws that they approved last week they're basically just going to be a total waste of money. They probably realise that though, even the government isnt that stupid, so I expect in two, maybe three, years, so 2008 or 2009, they'll probably use it as ammunition to make them compulsory, saying that they've spent all this money on the systems, so its too late to turn back else it would have been a complete waste of taxpayers cash, but that the only way to make the most of the investment would be to then make them 100% compulsory. Its a clever way of sneaking them in by the back door, as this way they get to spend money setting up a totally useless system, and can later use it to blackmail people into accepting the need to make them compulsory, or otherwise have wasted billions buying all the computer crap to operate them.

Sato Khan

20-02-2006 22:35:44

its really quite a rediculous set-up that hasn't been thought through fully.

That's Labour government in a nutshell :P (I joke). But in all seriousness, I wasn't surprised when this was set into motion. I've got kind of a mixed feeling on this issue, as I'm a resident of the US but fly back home to the UK from time to time. My passport will have to be updated eventually, so I reckon I'll have to shell out the money for an ID I'll most definately not use that much :(

I really can't buy into the whole "fighting terrorist" concept either, ID cards can be faked easily... All this will do is create an expensive useless bloated system that will eventually require overhaul and really it'll not solve the great issues facing the nation.

Shadow

21-02-2006 04:37:07

okn the faking point, biometric data shud stsop that, and I am all for ID cards as long as the system behind it is efficent and reliable.

Muz Ashen

21-02-2006 11:29:16

There has been talk of a National ID card over here in the states, using biometric data and even RFIDs (tiny little Radio chips that send info to specific readers).

Now, here in the states, you have to be able to provide identification if a police officer (or 'Peace Officer' or 'Public Safety Officer', or any of the other titles they use to attempt to sound nicer) asks for it. I'm not sure what the penalty is, but I'm sure that it is unpleasant.

Identification takes the form of a State-Issued Driver's License, a State-Issued ID Card (they have them), or a Passport.

And with only 1 in 5 Americans even having a passport, and almost all of us being able to drive, I think you know which of these three is more common.

And what can you do without ID here?
Well, you can't buy alcohol or tobacco, drive a car, write a check, or even use a credit card (in many places). The Bank asks me for ID when I have to go there. Festivals ask to see it when I enter. Any time i have to deal with government officials, i generally have to have ID with me. On an interview for a job, I'll need it. To rent an apartment, to get utilities set up... well, almost everything requires that you prove who you are.

Heck, my driver's license even has a magnetic stripe along the back which allows people (only police so far) to swipe it and log my information.

I don't know how it could be much different elsewhere.

What scares me is how the RFIDs are getting more and more common. These little chips are about the size of a grain of rice, and transmit data to specific readers. The data can be financial transfer codes (There's a bar that offers these as a subdermal transplant that links the chip to the person's credit card so that they can just wave their hand and pay for their drinks) to id info.

Personally, i think that the more reliant that we as a society become on these things (the various methods of ID, credit, etc), the more of an abusable environment we create for those who wish to 'hack' the system. Identity theft has become a major issue here in the states. Imagine how much worse it could be if we continue down this path of 'convenience'.

It's only convenient until it fails.
It's hardly convenient to try to undo damage to your credit, spending thousands of dollars in court, trying to convince people that you are you, and not responsible for the acts commited by your usurper, etc.

Rage

22-02-2006 02:17:12

Heh lol for being military dependent (Im currently 13 till May 21) I get a free ID card w00t!

Shadow

01-03-2006 14:26:50

its alright for some