Eh?
So not having a passport leads to social exclusion does it? Well I don't have a passport and I don't think I've ever been excluded from anything for that reason. Clutching at straws on behalf of a drowning project?
Home Office Identity Minister Meg Hillier is now pitching ID cards as a weapon against social exclusion, and has mysteriously truffled-up nearly 6,000 extra ID card enthusiasts, meaning enrolments will hit 10,000 next week. Was it not just last week she said they'd only had 4,307 applications? Yes it was. Furthermore, says …
I don't have a passport. I didn't a few years ago either when I rented my first flat, set up four utility providers, got things delivered to the house, applied and got jobs, enrolled at colleges, set up a bank account..... etc etc.
I must be one of those "socially excluded" people who cannot take part in society due to having no ID that's acceptable.
Socially excluded people are I would think, more likely to be people who have been on long term benefits and have very poor credit. If you are in that situation, you will find banks unwilling to offer you a proper bank account and utility companies insisting on pre-payment metres. This leads to higher bills and can force many to use "dodgey" credit sources (dodgey dose not mean illegal either). Having a passport is not going to change a banks mind on whether to give you an account or not - it will just speed up the decision a little and save you the time of digging out that old birth certificate!
I'm calling spin and lies on this one!
"Frankly, it's a puzzle [...] how they'll be able to get an ID card if they can't identify themselves"
It's OK, they're clearly who they say they are. They'd be committing a crime if they gave false details.
Mine's the one with the "Spartacus" ID in the pocket... what do you mean there's more than one?
"Or indeed, how they'll be able to get an ID card if they can't identify themselves."
Quite a serious comment, I presume you will need a signature from suitable worthy to confirm who you are but I have no lawyer, don't go to church, have never met my bank manager (branch several hundred miles away), only met my doctor once (only registered a few years ago never bothered before).
Not that I want one anyway.
I got my first passport when I was 30 and don't remember any social exclusion as a result - bought houses, rented flats, got drunk, visited nightclubs.
The passport has now expired and I'm still not excluded. It hasn't been renewed due to the current pricing structure - I would have to spend around £300 with the passport office if I wanted to holiday abroad with my family this summer!
"Other polls however have indicated much lower levels of support, showing the public split on ID cards, and heavily opposed to the database."
I think you have an extra "l" in split.
Mines the hoodie with Obe-wan Kanobe's autobiography in the pocket. Something to read at the job centre,
... and the woolly-minded mammoth trumpeted louder and thrashed more wildly as the tar stuck to her fur. Slowly but inexorably the weight of rubbish dragged her down her down into the pit. Soon the bubbles stopped, and the tar closed over her without leaving a trace.
And they all lived happily ever after.
It has "A politician's guide to La Brea" in the pocket.
re: "Shouldn't her comments go through a spin doctor or some PR guru?"
... that a Home Office offiicial now goes around afterwards clearing up, er... misunderstandings among the audience.
That some more credulous media than El Reg will print any old rubbish a minister happens to announce, as a product of ideologically convenient misunderstandings of her own or the IPS's own economy of expression, is no doubt unfortunate, and in no way a feature of the government's PR strategy.
"she also claims that public support for ID cards has 'grown consistently over the last year, now close to 60 per cent, whilst opposition has declined'."
That statement actually has me grinning from ear to ear. This Meg Hitler bloke talks more shit than a turd salesman. He must have some kind of brain implant to help him come up with such random statistics.
I hope Mr Hitler has a Twitter feed, I could use some nonsensical gibberish in my crypto keys. C'est fantastique
"I could use some nonsensical gibberish in my crypto keys."
A use at last for all the 'noise' that comes out of politicians mouths - use it as actual random noise! If I ever want to brute force your crypto keys, I'll use the Government Press Release archive as the dictionary!
... who we already know don't give a sh*t, no matter what words Meg Hitler shovels like brimstone and treacle into their mouths when they aren't looking.
This is more about the people of Hackney South and Shoreditch, who have a marvellous opportunity coming up to show NuLabour that there is no such thing as a safe seat.
Being very sad, I actually looked at the article your report refers to.
Can anyone tell me what the last sentence of the following quote actually means?
"In some circumstances we want to know that people are who they say they are for the public good. This might be to meet security requirements, prove eligibility to work, or prevent crime. But it is equally, if not more important, to make it easy for individuals to verify their identity once, rather than time and time again.
"
I thought the whole point of this thing is that we are going to be continually asked to prove that we are who we say we are.
... and every month, when income tax and NI is taken from my gross pay, I'm proving who I am - and that's done with no more than my National Insurance Number.
Unless of course, HMRC/DWP would like to admit they don't really know whether they've been collecting tax and NI from the right person for the past 17 years...
Actually there's no great reason why HMRC should care particularly about who you really are. For most of the dosh it's just a matter of making sure the employers are doing approximately the right tax deductions and bunging it across. From that point of view, HMRC should care less if the NI number is attached to Mickey Mouse, a Shetland Pony, or whatever, so long as it's being appropriately taxed.
Actually, as an ex-dole monkey I had the opposite experience needing a passport. Every single "professional" job I applied for insisted I bring a passport to my interview or I would not be considered for employment. (An NI card wasn't good enough apparently, 'cos you can still be a furriner and have an NI number!)
Turning employers into boarder guards is *definitely* throwing up a barrier to the disadvantaged trying to apply for work..... Not that this justifies ID cards and the Nu-Stasi database obviously.
It was always intended that this be the case. When Blunkett first proposed them, they were to be called Entitlement Cards, the notion being that you had to prove who you were and what your entitlements were in order to claim them. So making employers liable if they employ illegal immigrants and forcing banks to impose tougher ID checks (you know the way your bank keeps asking you to prove who you are, no matter how long you've banked with them? - government's fault) forces people to prove who they are more often. Thus creating a greater demand for ID cards.
You could think of it as the New Labour ID Card Hamster Wheel System.
How many of the alleged 62,000 application packs have been or will be converted into ID cards?
I can see quite a few people applying for them just so that they can say they did it, before the entire ID card failure slides into oblivion...
Will we see them on eBay once Cameron cancels the lot?
So what we're saying is that Hackney has a large percentage of lobotomised voters....
Her pedigree is impeccable by Labour standards though...
Oxford educated in PPE -> Librarian -> Journalist -> councillor -> mayor -> all women shortlist (htf does that work with all the 'equality' legislation these communists have brought in?) -> MP -> junior government minister (just about as soon as she's in the door)....
Some shites just seem to float to the top....
"Her pedigree is impeccable by Labour standards though...
Oxford educated in PPE -> Librarian -> Journalist -> councillor -> mayor -> all women shortlist (htf does that work with all the 'equality' legislation these communists have brought in?) -> MP -> junior government minister (just about as soon as she's in the door)...."
Actually it's impeccable by any government . I've lost count of the number of Oxbridge PPE's who end up somewhere in the reptile house.
The former heads of MI5 and 6 (including the one who went on to head the SOCA, the lead agency for IMP) have all done the course.
Like the US funded officer training college in Panama many of whose graduates have gone on to mount coups in their homeland this seems to attract students of a right thinking law and order point of view.
Thumbs down for a complete and expensive waste of time.
"The only thing that'll shift a Hackney Labour MP is the Hackney Labour Party. "
That was lazy of me. Checked Wikipedia just after posting.
Not necessarily. Remember the Speaker's constituency in Glasgow? c26000 Labour majority. IIRC it went to the SNP with around a 4000 majority. I think the safe seat MPs also had a disproportionate involvement in the expenses scandal. Ms Hillier seems to have avoided getting covered in too much of that.
I'd guessed her willingness for this project was her snowballs chance in hell of being re-elected, hence seeing weather she could push this thing through so far that it could not be canceled. Obviously she fully expects to stay in.
"I did that once, you know... (-:"
I salute you.
ROFLMAO.
Seriously, I live and work in Manchester and I haven't come across anybody saying they're going to get an ID card. The usual response when you ask people about ID cards is either:
a) No thanks, I know who I am
b) What, you need a passport to get an ID card? Then WTF do I need an ID card for?
This government is a bunch of fucking not rights if you ask me.