The very idea of ID cards is bad enough. But that we would actually have to pay to give the government all of our personal details out of our own pockets just adds insult to injury.

I don't want an ID card. My life is more than can be summed up in just a magnetic strip. And there is no fucking chance that I will pay them to have one.

So long as there is any compulsion in any way to have an ID card, it should be completely and entirely free, including no tax levy to pay for it "indirectly". If they want me to have an ID card, the very least they can do is pay for it out of their own wallets, because there is sure as hell no way that I am.

ID cards are pointless and intrusive. At the very least, I will not be forced in to paying for one.

No to ID cards. No matter what step-by-step approach is taken. If it is to be "consumer demand" that drives take up of ID cards, then make then completely voluntary, with no compulsion involved in any way at all. otherwise it really isn't "consumer demand" but government imposition.

Especially since the Home Secretary really doesn't seem to get the real issue. It's not about having a physical ID card or the same information on a passport - but the government having our information at all. They seem to have no comprehension it is this database culture that is the largest issue. Having to carry an ID card is part of it, but not all that much in comparison.

And what is scariest is the inability of government to protect our data. Not just this government, but the entire institution of government. This government is specific, though, since Jacqui Smith doesn't seem to get the idea of data privacy, defending her database because it "won't be on the internet". Yes, she really said that, forgetting that data privacy exists anyway. And since it will presumably be on the government intranet, it is obviously be open to good and persistent enough hackers.

Polls show growing opposition to ID cards:

Do they, really?

The penultimate sentence in a post on the new Times blog, Red Box, on Nick Clegg's first PMQs as Lib Dem leader, reads:

Iain Dale picks up on this and asks:
Well, I'm not a Lib Dem, but I think I can answer it anyway. Ignoring the fact that this is a media report of an unattributed and non-quoted remark.

Whilst ID cards are undoubtedly an issue - one which Nick Clegg has spoken on quite a bit and even declared that he would take part in a campaign of civil disobedience against them and even go to court. What is being said here by these "Lib Dem strategists" is more that ID cards are not the most pressing issue that most people could come up with.

Yes, it is a very important issue, but for the large majority of non-political active people, it really isn't there number 1 priority right now. When it comes closer to fruition, then yes it will be an truly important issue for all freedom-loving people in Britain, but right now, more people are likely to be interested in their winter fuel bills.

When it comes down to it, ID cards won't be the most important issue for the majority of people until the axe is hanging right over their heads. However it is, and will remain, an important one - but just number 1. A simple fact of human nature.

Bloody hell, the government really is just crap at looking after our data, isn't it!

My details were almost certainly among those lost, and I am by no means pacified by Ruth Kelly apologising for “any uncertainty or concern” caused, especially since sorry seems to be the easiest word for Labour minister to say under Brown.

They were lost in May for crying out loud! Why did they not at least tell us that they had lost it? This isn't however the fault of Ruth Kelly, who was only informed of this on 28th November. Stephen Ladyboyman most certainly can be, however, as he was told of this loss of data on June 4th, and whatever he did didn't tell people like me whose details are more than likely to have been lost and potentially in the hands of fraudsters. What is staggering , however, is that even though nothing had been done about this loss of data on the government's behalf, they only told the new Secretary of State after the government had lost the details of 25m other people.

I wonder, if that hadn't have happened, would she - let alone us - ever have been told?!

What this does is demonstrate categorically that the State cannot be responsible for any more of our personal data than absolutely essential. Even what it currently holds is too much, and certainly even the thought of this incompetent bunch of morons ever getting hold of enough information to make an ID card should make all intelligent people very, very scared.

UPDATE: Ladyboy defends doing bugger-all about this because he "assumed the new minister would've been told about it." Why didn't you do something about it yourself? Or would that have meant that you would actually have to had earned your pay? Read Mr Eugenides' comments on this issue.

Yes, this is absurd. But no, Devil's Kitchen, it isn't an example of them being "Little Hitlers". Under the alcohol licensing laws, all supermarkets that sell alcohol are obliged to run a scheme under which all shoppers buying alcohol who appear to be under 21 are asked for ID before they can purchase alcohol. As the penalties for selling alcohol to minors is serious - resulting in a £70 fine and potential criminal conviction for the checkout operator themselves and any supermarket who did this three times in any twelve-month period loses its ability to sell alcohol, a serious revenue cut - many supermarkets have gone for the extreme approach of requiring checkout operators to request ID for every alcohol purchase. They do this to basically cover their own arses. As you may have realised, many checkout operators [and other supermarket workers] aren't the brightest crayons in the pack.

Yes, to require ID from a man as obviously over 21 as Mr Ralls is absurd - but done simply to cover themselves. The manager's reaction appears over the top. He should have just told the checkout operator to sell him the bottles of wine. But considering the way in which Mr Ralls also appears to have reacted - such as refusing to confirm he was over 21 because it was a "stupid question" - almost certainly did not help the situation.

Yes, it is absurd. But it's not the fault of the checkout operator, or even necessarily the manager. They should have just sold him the wine - but company policy is company policy, even when it's stupid.

UPDATE: Re-reading the BBC article I have to fall even more to the supermarket staff's side - Mr Ralls refused to confirm that he was 21 by not answering the question put to him. If I am reading it correctly, he was not asked to produce ID but to answer "yes" to the question "are you over 21, sir?" - verbally confirming that he was over 21. He is quoted in the article as saying: "I wouldn't dignify the question [of whether he was over 21] with an answer." Whilst refusing to sell the wine was absurd, Mr Ralls certainly didn't help the situation. It was a very simple questions with a very simple [and obvious] answer - but an answer which he refused to give. To a certain extent he has only himself to blame.

Source: BBC

ID cards are just wrong. I don't want my life reduced to a piece of plastic. The contracts for companies to provide services towards the creation of the ID card scheme went out to tender yesterday. So today I signed this pledge [quoted below] not to use the services of companies who win the contracts. In fact, like Tim Worstall, I might even avoid any who even apply for them if I possibly can.

"I will boycott any company that wins a contract to deliver the National ID card. but only if 500 other people will do the same."
...
The plan for a National Identity Card scheme is an invasive threat to privacy and yet will achieve nothing.
Today the Government announced that contracts to supply computer equipment and manage the application and issuing of cards have been put out to tender.
A boycott of a company's services -- for example changing phone and internet provider from BT to another firm -- is a simple way to make them think twice about whether they want the job.

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