back to article ID card support hits bottom under Brown

Support for the government's ID card scheme has slumped to its lowest level yet, according to research by NO2ID. The research, carried out by ICM research, showed that 60 per cent of the UK population think that ID cards are a "bad idea" with 38 per cent saying they are a good idea. The national identity database - which will …

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  1. The BigYin
    Thumb Down

    Voluntary?

    Eating is voluntary. Drinking is voluntary.

    You just have too accept the consequences of not doing either.

    The ID system will be "voluntary" in the same way. i.e. it will be social suicide to not volunteer to be spied on by the state.

    60% of the population have woken up to this fascist scheme, just 38% to go.

  2. Stef 4
    Joke

    Let's face it...

    Let's face it, the way things are going in this country at the moment, the ID card is going to be issued to every citizen, and we won't be able to cash our dole cheques without it. With unemployment so rampant (Hitting 43Million by 2010 thanks to asylum seekers an Nu Labour), the ID card is going to have a built in unemployment benefit payment system.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    NO2ID not touting the popularity of ID cards?

    As much as I'm opposed to the ID card implementation, your opening statement seems a bit pointless:

    "Support for the government's ID card scheme has slumped to its lowest level yet, according to research by NO2ID."

    An lobby group saying what they lobby against is unpopular? I mean, it's not really adding to us readers' knowledge now is it... :)

  4. Kalvis

    He is not popular ...

    Resign: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/please-go/

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What about their TV licenses?

    The many advantages are obvious. For example, you could make it compulsary for companies to deduct the cost of any outstanding parking fine, or TV license bill or other state bill that remains unpaid.

    You'd simply log all the outstanding bills to the big database of ID numbers, and the employee would automatically debit any pending amount from the persons wages.

    And child maintenance, likewise, if the person is late on their child maintenance, why bother the courts? Why not just tap it in the database and debit that direct from their wages.

    What about the DNA profile? Why not tack that in, then suppose you put the bins out and your wife puts a sanitary towel in the recycling bag by mistake. To find out the offender, they could do a DNA profile on the blood on the sanitary towel, determine who it is from the ID database, then send them the 50 quid fine and the 1000 quid costs of doing the DNA check and investigating the crime, and have the fine automatically debitted from their wages by the employer!

    Yours,

    Jacqee Smithe

    When people come up to me, and demand ID cards for exactly the above reasons, I say to them "I go all the way, so terrorists don't have to".

  6. Pat 11

    Contactpoint is the real trojan horse

    Watch them take a long view... they will insist on Contactpoint (think of the children), then wait.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Of course it's all about tax....

    "convince businesses ....helping them know who their employees and customers are."

    Of course, the REAL reason for wanting to introduce ID cards has always been taxation. The government want to keep tabs on you not because they think (or even care) that you're an illegal immigrant, or a terrorist, or a garden gnome. They want ID cards so they can make sure you pay your tax. This is so obvious it astounds me that it doesn't seem to get picked up more widely.

    Bearing in mind we're living on a planet that we are rather effectively destroying in any which way we can, thank you very much, and STILL all the world's governments can think about is money, what makes you think they have changed their focus when it comes to something as relatively trivial as ID cards? This is why the rising cost has such an effect on it - if it costs more to establish and run than the government will get back in tax as a result of it, they won't bother.

  8. Jacqui Smith's DVD Collection!
    Flame

    the problem is...

    I'm not against having a standard form of ID...

    I'm against the idea that it will be usable by businesses and pretty much anyone who want's in! This seems like the government only want this as a form of income for the permits they will issue, it strikes me that it's not unlike those tick boxes which say something along the lines of 'do you mind if we sell your details to all and sundry'.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    NO2ID

    No2ID should become a political party. Then the MP will realize how important it is to the citizen.

  10. Gav
    Big Brother

    Want a job? Get an ID Card!

    "The government is throwing half a million quid behind an advertising campaign to convince businesses that ID cards will benefit them by, er, helping them know who their employees and customers are."

    I'm sorry, but why are they worried about what businesses think? They're not the ones being "identified".

    All this appears to be is a way of forcing employees to get ID cards, because their bosses demand it. Says a lot of how popular this farce is. They can't get people to obtain them voluntarily, so they'll just make it impossible to get or hold a job without one.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What about Healthcare?

    We could link the ID card number to the Supermarket checkout, saving the need to issue a store loyalty card (less plastic hence more environmental friendly).

    We could link the purchases of a family to their eating habits and send in a social worker if their profile shows they're not eating enough green vegetables, or drinking too much alcohol. What if they have a young baby and are not buying baby food? We should flag that too as a potential dead baby scenario.

    We could then pre-emptively ensure their health for them, saving the NHS huge bills!

    I know what you're thinking: "POLYCLINICS"!

    Yes, of course, Polyclinics! if the doctor says you need to stop smoking, we can link the purchasing record to the ID card and the supermarket record to the ID card, and flag anyone who is not obeying the doctor.

    Why advertise on TV telling people to eat better, when we can monitor them and intervene directly! Why limit the use of ID cards to just security, taxation, airport ID, proof of age at off-licenses, and police random searches, why not let our caring, snuggly government gently target people who need assistance, and we can send round the appropriate authority to tackle it.

    But why stop there, lets generalize it so that any authority figure could set any condition in the database and our caring computers, or 'caruters' as they henceforth will be known, will ensure that whatever rule is required by the authority figure is complied with.

    For example, an officer has decided that you cannot enter the center of town after dark, using their new Labour Anti-Social control orders. But what if they then go and purchase alcohol in an off license in the center of town???? What then? Their ID card age verification, will be flagged in our database and we can ensure such anti-social behaviour is not tolerate!

    The possibilities are endless, together we can make Britain into a perfect utopia!

    UTOPIA!

    Yours

    Jacquee Smithe

  12. brimful
    Flame

    38%?

    Ah the famous sales figures. Given a choice 33% would say YES, 33% would say NO and it's upto the G'ment to get the other 34% to say YES. However, it looks like the G'ment is losing ground to NO2ID. We used to work to earn a living. Then someone thought that taxes would be a good idea. Then we worked so that we can be taxed. Now some idiot in G'ment has thought of something even better - a fricking barcode / magnetic strip / guid by which they can tax us more easily with.

    Guy Fawkes - can be you like Jesus and have a second coming?

  13. TeeCee Gold badge
    FAIL

    Re: Of course it's all about tax....

    "......if it costs more to establish and run than the government will get back in tax as a result of it, they won't bother."

    You mean the government will carefully monitor the spending and potential ROI and may well drop their fave project 'cos it's costing a shitload of cash and has become pointless?

    One question: Exactly which country's government are you talking about here as I think we have our wires crossed?

  14. peter 5 Silver badge

    @stef 4

    43 million unemployed? By my calculation that's the whole country out of work. Everybody else being retired, in full time education, or wearing nappies. :-P

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    DVLA

    Of course, I missed the massive DVLA database! People are already completely happy to see the DVLA will hand out their home details to anyone who says they need it.

    But why stop there?

    With the new ID card scheme we could link the car details to the telephone details using our massive central database of telephone call records that we are pushing through to 'maintain-capability against terrorists nudge nudge wink wink', ..

    We could take the GSM interpolated cell location data, and tell the parking company where the offender is at any time of the day from their mobile phone data! Thus making it far easier for them to collect the parking fine!

    That is good for everyone! They can come visit you at work to collect the money, saving you all the trouble of contacting them! People will love this!

    I'm glad I just thought of it, this will surely get Labour re-elected.

    Yours,

    Jacquee Smith

    The more I think of the possibilities of cross linking all this data, the more I know we can protect all those vulnerable people that need our protection from terrorist pedos who traffic children to make extreme porn with cute bunnies!

    Cute bunnies?...That gives me an idea, perhaps the RSPCA inspectors, want a feed to check that a banned dog owner isn't buying dog food.... In 2002 RSPCA inspectors investigated 114,000 cases of cruelty and got convictions in nearly 2% of those cases! My god those poor vulnerable animals! Thank god the RSPCA stopped animal testing, now it's straight to Human testing first!

    Alcohol?... We already have background checks for people who work with children, we can check the database for how many times they do a proof of age check for alcohol and immediately protect those vulnerable children from these anti-social alcoholics!

  16. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
    Stop

    I thought Gordon killed them.

    I thought Gordon killed them in his conference speech last week. Or must me wait for the elections for the ID zombie to finally die?

  17. Dave Ross
    Happy

    I misread that headline as...

    ID card support hits Brown's bottom!

  18. Richard Porter
    FAIL

    the MySpace generation

    MySpace is sooooo last year! But in any case there's a big difference between sharing your personal information with friends and peers, and divulging it to HMG. I'm not sure which is more secure!

  19. Eponymous Cowherd
    Big Brother

    Re:I thought Gordon killed them.

    What he actually said was:-

    ***"And so conference, I can say to you today, in the next Parliament there will be no compulsory ID cards for British citizens."***

    So, no, you won't be legally required to have one.

    BUT:

    What happens when you want a mortgage or want to open a bank account and your bank wants you to have one?

    What happens when you become unemployed and you are required to have one to claim benefit?

    What happens when you apply for a job and your prospective employer wants you to have one?

    What happens when you want to rent a home and your landlord wants you to have one?

    The government has realised that it cannot *directly* get us to sign up to ID cards, so it is concentrating on persuading employers, banks, etc to *insist* on them.

    So no, ID cards are no longer going to be "compulsory", but there's a *big* difference between Gordon's "compulsory" and everyone else's understanding of the term.

    Oh, and he didn't rule out compulsion in the Parliament *after* next, did he? And that's only 5 years away.

  20. Eponymous Cowherd
    Joke

    Re:DVLA

    ***"Cute bunnies?...That gives me an idea, perhaps the RSPCA inspectors, want a feed to check that a banned dog owner isn't buying dog food"***

    Even better, they could keep a check on men who buy puppies. Everyone knows paedophiles use puppies to lure kids into their cars, so anyone buying one should be immediately put on the sex offenders register.

    Just in case.

    Ditto kittens and bunnies.

    Think of the Children!

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Go

    Go No2ID!

    They only need to delay the implementation for another 8 months!!

  22. Captain Mainwaring
    Go

    As for the next five years

    I do hope if the Conservatives do win the next general election, they not only scrap the national id card as promised, but also the ID Card act that underpins it's basis in law. Once deleted from the statute book, the whole question of ID cards and their future implimentation will be off the agenda. Should a future Labour government wish to re-introduce them, they will have to go through the whole process of introducing a new bill in parliament and go through the whole planning process and start up costs as well. The danger of leaving the bill intact on the statute books is that a future Labour government will be in a position to immediately re-introduce them as originally intended in the original draconian bill passed into law a decade previously.

    Perhaps to discourage National ID cards ever becoming a future prospect in our society, an incoming tory government could make the UK Passport a non-compulsory primary identification document, along with the UK driving licence. As 85% of the population already has either a driving licence, a passport or both, this will make official personal identification a much more practical prospect, without the need to waste further billions of pounds of the public's money.

  23. Adam Salisbury
    FAIL

    @ Richard Porter

    Oh I'd say the Gubbbermint is waaaaaaaay ahead of all of the social networking endeavours combined, both in quantity and sensitivty of data leaked/published/mined/sold!!

    When the "How to stop data leakage" book gets leaked you know it's bad!

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Eponoymous Cowherd

    "Even better, they could keep a check on men who buy puppies. Everyone knows paedophiles use puppies to lure kids into their cars, so anyone buying one should be immediately put on the sex offenders register. Just in case. Ditto kittens and bunnies. Think of the Children!"

    No pedo, DON'T think of the children!

    We've got your ID number, via our Internet Interception-modernisation-program we got your details, we confirmed it by a RIPA request to elReg's hoster, and we get your home address via a warrantless RIPA request to your ISP! We'll then add a note to your extended background check, using the 'secret note' facility to prevent you getting a job/education/bank account/life.

    No court can save you Mr Cowherd! And if ever a court could save you, we can simply use the extradition treaty to bypass it! Alan Johnson is not a real person, he is the code name for the rubber stamp we use in the Home Office! 'Alan' will stamp approval on any the extradition in 2 seconds flat!

    So don't think you can hide behind that made up name, citizen, soon we'll link this all together with your ID number.

    No 'thinking of the children' citizen, bad citizen!

  25. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Happy

    Anyone got a list of which MP's voted for this

    So we can contact them and find out which ones have gone ahead and got thers.

    If they voted for it they must be keen as mustard to get their hands on one.

    244 days max to go (209 likely).

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    There's always somebody...

    "60 per cent of the UK population think that ID cards are a "bad idea" with 38 per cent saying they are a good idea".

    Now all we need to know is how many of the UK population are as thick as two short planks. Dare I suggest... about 38%?

    That would be rather better than the USA, where apparently half (very precisely!) of voters thought that George W Bush would be a jolly good president. Or, at least, someone they would enjoy having a beer with. About the last time that happened, I learned one day that almost exactly half of Americans hadn't read a single book in the past year. Could it be the same half?

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    HOLOCAUST Card

    there is no such thing as an ID card, your identity is your own.

    The card is a tool of State Surveillance, very similar in fashion to the system used by the Germans to efficiently enact the Holocaust.

    Holocaust card would be a better name.

    Mine's the one with the Star of David on it.

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