Best Of

I find it very difficult to care about the ID card debate. They work well in other countries, some people have a instinctive dislike of them (but can't elaborate a rational reason why), but I don't really see a need for them except for some welcome government efficiency gains.

If Labour really think that this will improve things for people in Britain then credit for taking it on I guess - and I hope the start of a trend. If not, bit confused as to why they are exposing themselves to such a large political risk.

It’s one of the Lib Dem positions - objection to ID cards on principle - that I can sort of understand but don’t agree with.

Why not start with a MVP that keeps the civil liberties issues in check. A simple proof of ID tied to, say, NI number and passport or visa status.

Then add functionality that is purely optional. Driving licence, NHS patient data, tax records, DBS. And so on. Most people will signup if it makes life easier.

Look, a minimum viable product is one thing. But there's no way it'd stop there. UK governments of left and right are simply too centralising for that to be the case once the infrastructure is in place.

Simple proof of ID that replaces drivers' license as an optional form of ID? Sure.

Compulsory for everyone to have regardless of whether the have other perfectly legitimate forms of ID? We're already into completely new territory.

Compulsory to carry with you and show on request for X, Y and Z every day tasks? GP appointment, traffic stop, to enter an event with some security measures in place, etc. We're in a completely different world now in terms of balance of rights between citizen and state.

Oh and, after all, it's not stopping illegal migration or the black market as people continue to get fake IDs and dodgy employers turn a blind eye? Better add biometric data to the database to make sure.

No one believes the minimum viable product is the end state here. So best to kill it before it's born.

Is the UK so singularly awful that we will become Nazi Germany overnight with ID cards? Is France some sort of distopian Fascist State? Switzerland Black Shirts with toblerones?

If we are so bad that this would happen if we introduce something that most of civilised Europe has then it says more about us as a nation than ID cards in themselves.

The same UK that, in 2020, turned overnight into a nation of curtain twitchers reporting on anyone who had a mate over to their house for a drink? The same UK that sent coppers to arrest everyone at a kid's christening party during Covid? Or flew drones over the moors, looking for walkers who'd dared stray more than 5 miles from their house?

No, the UK could never descend into authoritarianism or become a police state at the drop of a hat. There's simply no historical precedent for it.