Well, if you cant guess this is something that has annoyed me.

http://www.no2id.net/

Everyone make your opinions known.

If you support ID cards then can you explain why to me please? Despite my strong opinions on the matter, I realise one freedom which we should be trying to defend is peoples freedom to speak so I am willing to listen to any rational discussion on the matter.

If you can explain to me why or how ID cards are good for people in the UK and dont destroy some of our basic “rights” then PLEASE do so!

(edited to add)

I promise there will be no flame wars as a result of any comments on this subject.

The BBC have an interesting collection of comments in the “have your say” section – This is well worth looking at.
Alistair Carmichael (Lib Dems) sums up the “non compulsory measures” of the ID Card Scheme quite nicely – “The only way in which people will be able to opt out of the system is by giving up their right to travel abroad” – but interestingly this keeps it in the same boat as passports meaning (to me at least) UK ID cards are pretty pointless beasts.

While I realise it isnt representative of the population as a whole, the fact 75% of people are against ID cards seems telling…

The NO2ID Site may be of interest to some of you – http://www.no2id.net/

They were great arguments against ID cards. However, rational arguments cut no ice in this discussion. Is there a  minister with friend(s) on the board of the company that will get the contract?

Any serious criminal or terrorist will get as much apparently legit ID as they need. Probably with our names on…. The average person will get more and more accepting of measures that do nothing to improve their security but add endless potential disasters to the pre-existing pool of potential disasters.

The Franklin quote was most fitting. Are we really so pathetic in the 21st century that we can throw away centuries of basic freedom without even seeing that we are doing it. Cameras everywhere – has the crime rate dropped to zero. “Anti-social behaviour” a new substitute for actually finding people guilty of breaking specific laws, how much of a rant has this become??

Well, if you cant guess, this whole deal annoys the **** out of me.

The three main failings with the ID card system that spring immediately to mind are (and given time I am sure I can come up with more!): Continue reading →

Ok, on further investigation it appeared that an over zealous “cut and paste” from the BBC website (the URL oddly enough) brought with it some insane div tags which weren’t properly nested. This in turn, adjusted the natural flow of the page and made the “sidebar” content become part of the main page content.

In IE this had the effect of moving the sidebar to the bottom of the page, FireFox had the decency to do this as well as removing the background image. Nice.

Still, solved now.

Despite the optimisim of previous posts (for example http://www.whydontyou.org.uk/blog/2006/02/12/css-oddnes-solved/ ) it seems the almost random effects of the CSS / XHTML here are continuing to go all over the place. Sadly, I still have no idea why this is happening or what can be done about it.

I think a new theme is called for.

Judging from the news headlines, it seems that the ID card bill has been passed by the house of commons. Quote from BBC website:

Ministers have won a Commons vote making it compulsory for people to be given ID cards – and put on a register – when they apply for passports.

Well, it seems like a back door attack on what was once considered a “right” of the British People. Oddly I fail to see how this would make anyone in the country any safer? Would it have prevented the London bombings in July? Did we need these measures to prevent the IRA (were they even seriously considered even when the IRA mortared 10 Downing Street?)?

Interestingly, lots of other countries do have compulsory ID cards – Spain for example – and has it shown any effect in reducing identity theft of preventing terrorist attacks?

I suspect the answer is no.

Sadly, as previously mentioned, we are in a brave new world now. With each passing month there are new laws (no religious jokes for example) which limit our ability to express ourselves (not really a “right” as we dont have a bill of rights per se in the UK)

Looks like it could be time to emigrate.

(To steal a good phrase from Trevor Phillips)

The hopes that the common sense of the lords might get some sanity restored to the mad rush towards making 1984 look like Brave New World are dashed again I see

Well, it looks like the nutcases have finally taken over the asylum. Headlines from the BBC announce “MPs back ID cards passports plan” (quote taken from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4707608.stm, updated 2018hrs, visited 2037 hrs today).

Truly sad news.