We'll get them, we're like the testing pad for schemes the USA wants to pull, CCTV Cameras are everywhere over here. just wait till you get them

I only just read this thread, and I have to say that I'm extremely annoyed about it (being one of those people who responded through the website).

I've written to the home office to ask for an explanation, I'll stick it here if I get one. Not sure if they answer slightly sarky emails though...

"I would just like to ask what's happened to my response to the consultation plans submitted through an external website. There's some indication that you're going to consider over 5000 of our responses as just one response.

Could you just confirm that this is not the case? I can't honestly believe that net users responses are 1/5000th as valuable as responses from people who use the phone. Or is this just one more example of the public's opinion becoming irrelevant as soon as it expresses a different opinion to that of President Blair?"

We should have ID cards.
They would make life so much easier.
I don't see it as an infringement on my liberty. I have so many other bits of paper with my name on them anyway. The problem is that none of them is good enough on their own.
Drivers licences and passports are about the only thing we have in the UK that officially mark out who we are. And I'm buggered if I want to carry those around with me all day. They're just not convenient.

At the moment you have to carry about 4 bits of paper with you to verify your identity. Just give me the one and I'll be happy.

It's a pain in the butt having to empty half a paper mill out of your wallet when all you want to do is rent a video.

The problem is, the more difficult it becomes to fake the ID (iris scans etc.) the more lucrative this type of faking becomes. So you can guarantee that whatever ID scheme we put in place, it will be hacked, and the more we spend on the ID system the more trouble someone who hacks the system will be able to create.

Will you be happy if someone gets into the core database and swaps your iris scan with theirs? What happens when you get arrested for having been in a certain place at the time of a murder when you know you were actually 400 miles away?

This isn't just a scare story, hacking computer systems happens all the time. The iris database is going to be accessed 10's of millions of times a year, which means there are going to be thousands of people who have access to your scan. Do you trust every one of them?

For an equivalent example, consider how much care and attention goes into banking databases. This is where billions of pounds are going through a computer system. And still, we've had people hack these systems for their own personal gain (such as the guy who rounded all 0.5 pences down to 0.0 and stuck the extra in an account registered to his own name), and hundreds of smaller examples of id theft etc..

ID cards aren't going to help you at all. They'll just make it easier for the government to track you and me, people who aren't criminals but are being treated as such.

I dont believe you people dont have ID cards. OK, maybe its cause I lived in a one party totalitarian state (not saying where) but Im so used to carrying my ID card that I even carry it here in Australia.
The card does make identification simpler, but people obsessed with privacy may have problems with it, as if introduced there it would no doubt be compulsory.

Amusingly Blunkett tried to make it sound like it wouldn't be compulsory. But then admitted that you wouldn't have access to healthcare or welfare from the state, and you also wouldn't be able to get a job.

It's almost acceptable. If he'd allow us to not pay taxes without an ID card (and get a job) then sign me up.

I think most UK people are honest enough to know that the government can't be trusted 100%, therefore more snooping powers without fundamental restructuring will not be acceptable to a lot of people. I just don't see the need to have an ID card on me at all times so that if the police want to they can check who I am. And that's where this is all leading...

Leveller, i understand your points...all your points!

I have 4 main ID's:

National Insurance
MOD
NHS
Provisional Drivers license.

I understand why i need th MOD and NHS ones but can't they create a card with you blood type, NI no and any other vital info that they may need????

Save a lot of time and the Iris scans.....they have been watching Minority Report too much!