Should we be made to carry ID cards?

[brighton rock]

David Blunkett says he wants to push on with plans to introduce national identity cards, and wants a bill for their introduction to be included in the Queen's Speech.

The Home Secretary claims to have no idea how many illegal immigrants are in the country and blames this on the absence of ID cards.

He says that in his view no-one should be able to work or claim benefits without one, and that they would help track illegal immigrants and restrict access to public services.

But shadow home secretary Oliver Letwin has said that the government have not thought the "half-baked" system through and it would prove unworkable.

 

[Goring Gull]

I don't see why not, i have absolutly no probelm with it, and if it helps get rid of a bit of scum of our streets then all the better, need to shovle up these Illegal immigrants and get them packing and if this helps even marginally all the better.

 

[albiongirl]

We sort of carry ID now in the form of a driving liscence so it would not be all that different.

 

[DTES]

No problem with it at all IMO. I've got nothing to hide...

It's when they start putting chips in us all I'll get worried

 

[Shizuoka Dolphin]

OK, I'll carry one, but only if Blunkett is the one who checks if I have it on me or not.

 

[tedebear]

I don't have anything to hide so it doesn't really bother me - I've got a social secuirty number in the US and the amout of information that is attached to that is incredible....

I carry a photo license all the time like Albion Girl - so I guess I'm always carrying an ID card now anyhow...

what I would get annoyed about is if it is used for any marketing, advertising purposes - and if we were made to pay an obscene amount of money to get one...

 

[Sam]

if youve got nothing to hide, then why not have ID cards?? a driving licence is pretty much an ID card isnt it?

 

[Sam]

No problem with it at all IMO. I've got nothing to hide...

It's when they start putting chips in us all I'll get worried

 

[CHAPPERS]

No problem with it at all.

I find those who think it infringes on our human rights very strange indeed, if it helps public service then it can only be a good thing.

 

[Yorkie]

Anybody who has a passport or driving licence has got an id card in any case.

 

[Sorrel]

I don't think it would a problem either. The problem is making the cards good enough to stop people copying them, and doing fraud. Because if they do that we're back where we started.

 

[Brixtaan]

For the first time in my life i'm starting to think it would be a good thing.

Despite thinking all my life that the idea of having a name and number and being a registered citizen to be abhorrent and totally against the theory of being a 'free citizen'.

 

[The Great Cornholio]

I would happily have one - I would even extend it to DNA as well. I know this will be a more thorny issue with conspiracy theories about planting DNA and stuff but imagine how many rapes/child abuse cases could either be solved or avoided. At the very least, I wouldn't be a suspect in most sexual crimes whereas, at present, any man in the country could be suspected if they don't have an alibi.

To me, it comes to the same argument - if you haven't got anything to hide, why not have one?

 

[Long Saulty Seagull]

Yorkie, not everyone has a driving licence or passport, and some people even choose not to.

I think they should be compulsory, and I certainly wouldn't have any problem with carrying an identity card around with me. I have to carry a Japanese "Gaijin Card" (Foreigners Card) on me all the time over here.

Those people who object to them saying that they breach civil liberties have obviously got something to hide.

 

[Dandyman]

The estimated cost of this scheme is somewhere between £1.5 and £2.0 billion. It has also been suggested that everyone will be forced to shell out £40 for "their" ID card. I would have thought that schools, hospitals, pensioners, community stadiums might all be better recipients of government largesse.

I would also suggest that anyone who thinks they would prevent fraud is living in cloud cuckoo land, as the most likely effect would be a growth market in false ID cards.

At the risk of being predictable I do also object in principle. ID cards work only if you are obliged to carry and produce one, which inevitably means people being stopped and asked to produce. Stop and search powers are already disproportionately used and ID cards are unlikely to lead to more targeted use.

There is also the more general issue of whether you wish the state to be your servant or vice versa. I for one have no wish to give an authoritarian thug like Blunkett anymore control over me than he already has.

 

[Marc]

I vote for barcodes on the back of our necks

ID cards are fine with me, shoot anyone who aint got one, that'll get the population down abit

 

[Yorkie]

Yorkie, not everyone has a driving licence or passport, and some people even choose not to.

I agree. I should have qualified my comment by saying that I do agree with them.

 

[tinx]

I'm all for it, works in other countries no problems as well.

 

[Hilton]

I'm fine with the idea, don't see any real problems against it.

 

[JEM]

So if I were stopped by the old bill and I hadn't remembered to take my card with me that morning it would give them the right to take me down the station for questioning. Bollocks. And we would have to pay for it? f*** right off. How much more money are they going to bleed out of us? Wankers.