Identity cards....

You touched on an interesting point about not recgonising the place you grew up in. I think things in the UK have changed quite a lot since 1997 (I wonder why) and that the government is getting very big brothery (sorry not a word) however I just think some of their policies though unpopular are for the best such as the smoking ban.

I don't see how a smart card would make your life any harder only a few agencies will have acess to this date. You're not going to walk into Tesco and the staff say "it says here you went to Sainsbury's last week how dare you".

In fact it would be imposible to log every movemtn by these smart cards because each person would require at least a terrabyte of data, its simple not possbile you would need a computer the size of Birmingham.

All these card will do is monitor certain things the government feel there is a need to. Remember the card itself stores nothing apart from a primary key.

 

I agree with Michael points,we have them here in Spain,at first when I moved here in 1988,I thought,what the hell is this,now I don't even think of it.£80 is pure goverment scam, I pay 3 Euros for mine every 5 years.

It will not prevent crime,they don't prevent crime,if they think they will ,they are in for a suprise.

Invasion of privacy?I haven't found that to be the case at all,in fact I hardly ever use or need the thing,if I was to get stopped by the Police while driving it would be driving license only. I need the card to collect goods from the post office,buying a car,or a house,I can't think of any other reason when I need the card,I think spanish do need to carry it on them by law,or when paying by credit card,I don't use a credit card,so don't need it,I don't even carry it with me,I've never been stopped in the street and asked for it,I think its paranoia,wipped up by the media,and a fear of the unknown,and money in through the back door for the goverment.

 

at,
you can currently get 4gb on something about a cm square with the way that technology moves by 2010 (the dates these cards become compulsory) a terrabyte on the card will be possible. another hypothetical question - what happens if an extremist govornment gains power (ukip, bnp, muslim or christian fundamentalists, etc.) the data on the cards will be open to them and their ends. we won;t always have 'benevolent blair' at the helm you know.
cheers


julian

 

My experience in Portugal is similar to adam's in Spain. I have an ID card but rarely need to show it. Picking up parcels from the post office is the most common reason. I do carry it with me all the time as it's technically against the law not to but I've never been asked to show mine by the police, even when I've been stopped whilst driving in random stop and search operations (they have those here).

They certainly won't have any effect on crime.

Michael.

 

The ID card is logically pointless, it's going to store a fingerprint, iris or facial scan so the card can be definitively attached to you by someone with an appropriate reader. But it's you that's important (from a government pov) not the card. So why the card? You are the key to the database.

If it was facial recognition then a future fundamentalist government could scan CCTV and roadside cameras looking for couples that weren't married. A letter would arrive later, 'Miss X. On X the XX of XXXX you were seen unaccompanied in the presence of a man. This is your fourth offence in less than three years. You are now subject to curfew for six months. If you leave your registered residence between 1900 and 0800 you will be incarcerated.'

Paul

 

Or on the other hand.

Standard Letter MK4433434.3323445

Dear Mr Bloggs,

I am writing to inform you that according to our database your wife is currently having an affair with Mr Smith at 42 Manchester Road. We advice you that you should take appropiate action on your wife.

Yours Sincery

Boris Johnson
Cheif Security Advisor

Welcome to 2010.

All these cards will store though is at the most probably just a 32 ORT 64 byte number. This number will be linked to an external database just like credit or debit cards.

The cards really will be nothing more than a glorified driving licence.

I would be more worried about the 2016 plan to ban people having opinion. If anybody breaks this you will be shot by the new serious crime agency.

 

Actually, that is not too far from the truth, these companies, the big ones, much as I love them for being dead easy to return something that you don't like, would love to get ahold of your buying habits, along with targeted marketing, the google mail thing is a prime example now.

It is a real bane of life having this marketing research customer knowledge stuff, sure its not wrong in simple forms, but 100 questions about everthing you do...

this id card may well be able to track everything you do, why £80? if it was just a simple card, it woudln't cost much. It must have some technology for that, and the other dark side of this govt. shows they want to control just about everything about you. It is now becoming a minor totalitarian state.

I coudnlt put it any better myself, spot on.

The whole malarky is just another way to compel people to give money, cos' the ridiculous notion that we won't pay direct tax, so you tax everything we buy.
Trouble is, we don't like that either, so we are made to pay, petty fines for everything now, frogmarched to the cash machine for putting the bin out on the wrong nite. OMG, how stupid will it get?
People now will be worried about an itch under their armpit at a football ground.. YOU!!!! were doing a monkey chant....I had an itch, honestly......
GOTCHA on camera!!!....ah well that proves it then...camera shows someone scratching with one arm....

The terror threat is pretty minimal, the biggest terror is the govt. I don't have nitemares about Osama bin Laden, I do though, have it in my head every single day about Iraq, insurgents, armies of nutters wanting to blow up the west, terror every day....its this countrys propaganda, the news, media and govt . machine, that is the terror, not the foreigners.

 

Yet another example of the state wanting you to be its subject and servant rather than having the state serve the individual. The government, the police, the military - all of them - seem to have forgotten that they are employed to serve US.