back to article Saatchi to promote foreigners' ID cards

The Home Office will use advertising agency M&C Saatchi to tell employers about the introduction of identity cards for foreign nationals. The UK Border Agency will start issuing cards from 25 November 2008 to those from outside the European Economic Area applying to stay in the country as students or through marriage. About 50 …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Ash
    Thumb Down

    A quick fix

    "Mylifemyid has enabled IPS to gain a wide range of personal details from its target 16-25 age group in order to understand how identity issues affecting young people's lives can be whitewashed over and how we can best ensure the identity card helps make our lives easier."

    Fixed that for them.

  2. Ad Fundum

    MyLifeMyID

    I enjoyed playing on the whole My Life My ID site. It was so badly done, so hopelessly one-sided, it was laughable. I registered as a user just so I could post on it for a laugh. If you haven't had a look at this propoganda site, you really should.

  3. Steven Cuthbertson
    Unhappy

    Do you want what you're going to have anyway?

    "The mylifemyid website was created to inform us of how best to phase the delivery of identity cards to young people in 2010," said an IPS spokesperson.

    I thought it was there to ask if young people thought ID cards were a good idea or not, not how to phase in something they must have...

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Well.

    They could make everyones lives easier and scrap the idea altogether.

  5. Igor Mozolevsky
    Black Helicopters

    Won't last long...

    Clearly falls foul of Article 14 of European Convention on Human Rights...

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I wish Saatchi would dust off one of their other ads

    'Cos New Labour clearly isn't working.

  7. Steve

    What constitutes a "wide range"?

    "Mylifemyid has enabled IPS to gain a wide range of views from its target 16-25 age group in order to understand how identity issues affect young people's lives and how we can best ensure the identity card helps make their lives easier."

    Really? Because from I've seen, the views there tend to range from, "This is an unjustified imposition and I won't co-operate" through to "This whole site is fascist propaganda."

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    Only for those entering after 25 nov

    Are these cards only for foreigners entering the country after 25 Nov or will those who entered beforehand also get on eventually. Guess it doesn't make much difference to me, I'm going back home by December... thought I might come back, but now? forget it.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Saatchi? They have to be kidding.

    A campaign for ID cards from the propaganda company that brought you Margaret Thatcher? Nein danke.

    Paris, because even she wouldn't believe the same liars twice.

  10. Tim
    Happy

    MyLifeMyID

    Yes, the site is propaganda of course, as are all the discussion topics which are phrased as to assume the creation of cards and the database (eg "What do you think will be on it?", "How do you think ID cards help protect your identity?")

    Surprisingly though I found the vast majority of the comments on there to be intelligent, articulate, and carefully argued criticisms of the scheme. They are informed by history, literature, critical thinking and an accurate moral compass. Furthermore the kids' use of proper spelling and punctuation puts most of us El Reg commenters to shame.

    Well done, youth of today. I am humbled. I'm glad to see that despite my years of reading the Telegraph, drinking brown beer, smoking a pipe, snoozing in front of the cricket and crossing the street whenever I see a teenager, I was wrong about you. Here's hoping my next encounter with you won't involve you blading me with your flicky, innit.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Wait...

    ... without a National ID card system how's this going to work?

    "'scuse me, sir- you look a bit foreign. Can I see some ID please?"

    "sure, but I'm from Birmingham" *pulls out driving license*

    "Sorry, sir, I meant your foreigners ID card"

    "But I'm from Birmingham! I don't have one because I'M NOT A FOREIGNER!"

    "A likely story. Clearly you're trying to cover something up. Perhaps you're one of those paedophile suicide-bomber types? Yeah, I can see why you'd not want to tell people."

    *clack*

    "Don't taze me bro'"

    *fizz*

    *thud*

  12. David Harper

    @ Johan Hartman

    According to the table on page 11 of the PDF document linked from

    http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/managingourborders/compulsoryidcards/

    non-EU foreign nationals who are already settled in the UK with permanent leave to remain won't receive their ID cards until 2012/13.

    With a bit of luck, by that time, the entire ID card project will have imploded.

  13. ElFatbob

    NuLabour

    Really are a bunch of underhanded cnuts.

    The 'need' for an identity card comes about because we don't know who is in the country any longer because NuLabour dismantled our borders, rolled over and took it up the ronson from the EU.

    Oh, and the fact that they want to profile, then sell the information they collect to the highest bidder makes for a nice little earner (if they can only get round the small problem of the ineptitude for data security that is obviously systemic across government)

  14. Richard
    Unhappy

    My wife ...

    Since my wife isn't from an EU country, my wife & half the DNA of my children are now to be tagged.

    http://www.hri.org/docs/ECHR50.html#C.Art8

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    What?!

    48 grand for a drupal installation and a naff custom skin?

    Seems like somebody's been ripped off...

  16. Geoff Mackenzie

    Why can't they divert the funds to a vote on this?

    If the government think they need this campaign, then they absolutely must not spend the money of the people they hope to convince on it. I mean, for Christ's sake, if support is so weak you need a campaign from Saatchi to try to convince us, isn't it a bit rich forcing us, under duress, to bankroll it?

    UKGov: Reach into your own private bank accounts, you arseholes.

  17. Beachhutman

    good to see

    The youth of today have both a nice sense of irony and an ample supply of invective. Poor Dear Jacqui must be feeling sick a bit - but then the silly bovine I guess approved this stupid site, knowing what would happen to it.

  18. Steen Hive
    Dead Vulture

    @What?!

    Jeez, right on! That's a whole 2 days work there.

    Obviously it's not just in Yankee wars that they say "contractor" when they mean "mercenary"

  19. Brian Drury

    I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole

    Saatchi had better be really, really careful about this one.

    There are so many legitimate, practical, technical, moral and financial arguments AGAINST this insane scheme that they could loose all credibility and become a target of ridicule.

    To emphasize the minuscule benefits of New Labour's ID Card scheme necessitates concealing/ignoring the massive dangers it represents to British society.

    It is a task not dissimilar, and morally equivalent, to promoting the use of Heroin to schoolchildren.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @ Elfatbob

    Elfatbob: "NuLabour dismantled our borders......."

    This is a common fallacy (one which the crypto-fascists of migrationwatch commonly propogate). Actually the UK Govt. only dismantled our borders for those coming from the EU. If you are from outside the EU (i.e any of this countries former colonies, remember them?) then expect to get a tougher time of it than ever before.

    The UK government IS tough on immigration, just not tough on probably the greatest source of immigration to this country in the last few years, whatever some might tell you.

    ID cards for Non-EU immigrants is just a very expensive and pointless sop to hysterical racist tabloid-readers.

This topic is closed for new posts.