ID scheme will cost £400m annually

Passports?

While working over here in Germany I noticed that all my German friends and colleagues fly to and from the UK with just their ID cards. They fit in their wallets and negate the necessity for a passport. Oddly, when I ask what benefits they have for travel outside of the EE, they run out of argument.

The size difference between an ID card and a passport is insignificant, unless you INSIST on keeping it in your wallet (or, buy a bigger wallet?). Anyhow, a drunken chav with an IQ matched only by his shoe-size can understand that the British People want a little more for their 400M than our government are (falsely) promising in the way of a passport-free nirvana!!

Roll on the next Marxist candidate... It'll be an improvement (particularly if it's Groucho).

it's only packaging costs

A standard trick among Swiss immigrants is to buy a red leather wallet with a Swiss cross on, to cover their second-class documents. They are exprensive, about the same as an e-ID, and work okay when they lose their initial polish.

When Irish eyes are smiling

For all Reg readers with Irish ancestry, I had an Irish born mother and this automatically makes me an Irish citizen although I was born in the UK.

When my British Passport was due to expire I applied for and got an Irish one, pretty straightforward, and much cheaper at the time.

There is an added benefit of them being issued free to people of retirement age ( that will be me before the current one expires :-) )

Re: Passports?

Ze Germans and many other EU states actually like ID cards because they're legally obliged to have ID with them at all times.

So, either they carry a (cheap) credit-card ID or the (bulky, expensive) passport. Guess which they choose?

In this country, you DON'T need to carry ID - at least not yet. So I'm not sure what the (Jaqboot-approved, biometric, horribly expensive, intrusive) UK ID card is supposed to achieve.

Costs?

That's funny, I thought the cost would be nothing more than whacking off over a porno and getting the missus to charge the taxpayer for the five fingered fun.

I would get an ID card if.......

It allowed me to do something I am not currently allowed to do.

For example

I could use my new ID card to buy Cannabis from a chemist.

Something I am not currently allowed to do.

I could use my new ID to use a home office approved Prostitute.

Something which I currently not allowed to do. I could also check the my lady friends card to ensure she hasn't been trafficked and is paying her Tax.

Just think of the amount of Tax such a scheme could generate, and it would have the added benefit of reducing illegal drug use and illegal prostitution. Both scheme's could be backed up with regular visits to the doctor, so Tax benefits and health benefits.

There you go Jacqui. Vote winning idea there. As it stands I have no incentive to enter your dark kingdom.

Anybody else got any idea's as to what would encourage you to get an ID Card. Our FINE HONOURABLE FRIENDS need your help.

And the rest...

That's £400,000,000 annually passing through the IPS. They are not counting the cost to anyone else for anything.

Better way to fight terrorism...

"We will give £1m to anyone who can give us information (leading to a conviction) on any terrorists currently operating in the UK"

I bet you anything you will only spend £20M, and you will catch 20 more terrorists than you would with this ID bullshit.

Other Countries have IDs but ...

Those other countries, like Germany and South Africa, also permit their citizens to own firearms.

The law in South Africa has changed more recently (according to my SA friend) in that you used to only have to hand over your fingerprints, if you owned a gun or had been convicted of some crime.

I'd probably be more interested in handing over my DNA profile if the benefit was not saving money but something a little more rewarding, for example, if the government tore up the Current Terror legislation that undermines so much that the Britain once stood for.

Or even at least took notice of the country when they protest and sign petitions.

If all else fails, they could even promise to take notice of the expert panels they commission to give them advice on certain issues.

What Cost

Why should MP's care about the cost of ID cards - just add it to the expenses sheet and us gullible public will just carry on paying for it along with mole trapping, gardening allowance, shopping bills and all the other stuff we currently get conned into paying.

Fire hazard because MP's seem to think that they have our money to burn.

10% Cut in Government Spending

10% Cut in Government Spending until about 2023 I think I read in the paper....that's what they need to do if they want to get out of all this debt.

Scrapping the ID card scheme would be a good start! I can see very few advantages to introducing them. I carry ID with me at all times...My driving licence. But I shouldn't HAVE to keep an ID card on me at all times.

I see what they are trying to do in terms of reducing terrorism but this isn't going to work, I think the poster who said offer the £1m reward has the right kind of idea lol.

The government should know by now it can't control EVERYTHING that goes on, and I don't think most people expect them to. They just annoy the country with their stupid schemes and attempts to control every little thing.

The figures?

£400 million per year

Think of how many small business could be saved or started up with that cash, giving the country as a whole a much needed boost to the current state of the economy and for securing jobs for the future?

How many lives could be saved with a small amount of that £400 million being injected into the NHS each year?

Could our children of the future benefit from a slice of this £400 million being used for their education each year?

To think of the savings gained by not spending this figure on an ill concieved scheme, any future governments could keep the people content with the possibility of lower and stable taxation, and to remover the requirement to raise the National Insurance contributions, becasue of the mis management of our economy by this current goverment and unlected prime minister.

It's amazing that Brown indicates that it's time to tighten our moneybelts in these times, whilst Jackboots Smith is going all out on a spending spree, from IMP to ID cards, and failed IT systems.

The future as I see it under Labour if they're re-elected.

Police officer " ID Card now, show me, where is your ID?"

Pedestrian "Ze here - Heil Harman!"

Passport Free?

"British People want a little more for their 400M than our government are (falsely) promising in the way of a passport-free nirvana"

If you use it for that purpose it's not passport free, more a smaller form-factor passport that you can only use in Europe, and it's expensive, and we already have passports... and they could just change the form factor of passports...

Or we could just stick with not having ID cards and use passports where necessary and not have to deal with any of this and the massive outlay and general absurdity.

Real costs, virtual benefits?

I think the the total contracts handed out to CSC, IBM and their chums topped about £600m already. I presume these would count as set-up costs. So the statement about £400m on set-up costs is already flawed.

And I will note that £400m a year is 4x the increased revenue from the new 50% top rate for earners over (what is it?) £64k a year. And these are the know costs. Without any budget rises.

Now as for that £10bn net improvement. How solid are those figures? How many assumptions do they contain on what we (the customers of the government) do and how will we do it? Where they perhaps provided by the suppliers to show why having it in the first place would be such a great notion?

I note if these numbers were disclosed in the Gateway Reviews they might have had a lot easier time persuading people this was a good idea. But maybe they did not exist then. maybe they are still rather notional. IIRC the last time they tried to show cost savings the bulk of it was by listing savings from credit card fraud, which the Government has taken considerable steps to wash its hands of.

A grammatical error?

"ID scheme will cost £400m annually." Should that not read "ID scheme will cost £400m annually at least."

It's a government IT project that has not seriously started running yet.