They might see greater uptake if only...
...they started offering healthy amounts of cash to potential victims to acquire this much-tainted card. :-)
The government has made another attempt to invest some cachet into ID cards by revealing that civil servants working on the scheme will be able to apply for the cards early. Borders and immigration minister, Phil Woolas, told the Commons yesterday: "I am pleased to announce that provisions in the Identity Cards Act 2006 are …
Why not make it a requirement that:
All members of parliament and representative bodies (Welsh Assembly, Scottish Parliament & Westminster Parliament & Lords) have to have one before they can take their seat after the next Westminster parliament election.
All senior Civil Servant in local and national governments require one to access their offices.
There would be two benefits. We would have a massive increase in efficiency because the parliamentarians and civil servants couldn't access their places of work and or the ID Cards and database would stop in its tracks.
Silly me... The only people who could make this happen are the MPs and the Senior Civil servants and I've not heard of turkeys voting for Christmas.
One of the main reasons Legislators and Civil servants will be amongst the last to sign up is they know how insecure and poorly implemented the whole idea is. When/if it all gets working they might sign up if they can't get and exemption. Meanwhile Joe public has been reamed multiple times by the identity thieves and nerdowell rogues with the government saying 'Oh, its just teething troubles....'
And our Politicians wonder why the electorate is cynical and disengaged! Thank you Mr Blair, you dissembling, insane sophist!
Well if this takes off, then the Home Office civil servants could give their DNA samples to the police database as a way of selling the idea of being on the DNA database!
Phil Woolas could be 'pleased to announce' that the offer of the DNA database will be open to 'volunteers' from the Home Office. Since their jobs depend on selling that to the general public, it would be a natural extension of Mr Woolas' idea.
Why, this is brilliant! The group that would be in charge of the massive Internet Surveillance 'modernisation' program, could volunteer to have their families Internet monitored first, as a way of selling it to the general public.
Civil servants will love this! It's a way for them to show their loyalty to NuLabour!
It's just like when John Selwyn Gummer wanted to convince people that beef infected with BSE didn't cause the brain disease CJD in people, and so offered the burger.... to his daughter.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/16/newsid_2913000/2913807.stm
Perhaps Mr Woolas would have offered BSE burgers to civil servants in his department instead! Or would that be unpalatable?
Given the number of times that security at Parliament has been breached by protestors, the extreme sensitivity of the site, and the threat to national security it would cause if intruders get in, it seems quite right and proper that our esteemed representatives be the first to be forced to hold such a card. Of course, keeping their present address updated and correct under criminal penalties may prove quite onerous, given how often they flip, buy, and sell their main, second, and third homes.
Why force them on MSPs? Most of them have voted to do anything they can to stymie the whole idiot idea up this end of the country. Why not force the on all them MPs, MSP, MWA, etc that keep voting for the blasted things.
Oh yeah and all the consultants, etc that are making a mint out of them.
I hope that these civil servants send back their application forms with comments such as "I wouldn't apply for one of these things even if you paid me £30"
Hopefully the Tories will win the next election and scrap the whole sorry scheme. Labour please note, I regard scrapping the ID database as so important for my future liberty, that there is no other issue that will convince me to give you my vote.
"Are these ID cards going to be usable as travel documents within the EU instead of passports ... in which case £30 vs £77.50 might be seen as a good deal."
Good luck with that one.
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1529775/uk-id-cards-useless-europe
UK opted out of the treaty that guarantees entry to the EU on the id card. So it's up to the goodwill of EU countries as to whether they decide to accept it or not. Hence Lord Bretts comments about 'marketing the card as a travel document to EU partners'.
As for other countries, no they want a passport, so you'll just end up paying for both.
'It's just like when John Selwyn Gummer wanted to convince people that beef infected with BSE didn't cause the brain disease CJD in people, and so offered the burger.... to his daughter.'
To be fair to John Selwyn Gummer (and when was the last time you read that combination of words?), eating a BSE-laden burger only resulted in a very slight chance of contracting the disease; whereas getting an ID card guarantees your life will be fucked shortly afterwards.
... to workout who is for ID cards and who is against ID cards. Career defining choice for them. If they dare to oppose their masters, then sooner or later, they will be out of their job or others will be moved up the career ladder before them. Plus if any leaks occur, then the opponents are the first under the spot light to workout who leaked the info.
I can hear it now "We can't trust opponents in our ranks. I only want people working for me who I can trust and do what I say. In other words, I am the boss and what I say must be done. Oppose me and I don't want you working for me". Which is why bosses like yes men because they can see they are crawlers, but don't care because they like having people doing exactly what they want. Freedom of thought doesn't come into it.
Anyway there is no real freedom in a job. We work in companies run like dictatorships not democracies. (Plus even democracies are a lie and at best a fools paradise, as they are really run and undermined by powerful lobbying groups. Same in companies only the powerful choose and everyone else must do what the bosses want or you will be sidelined and then sooner or later out of a job). It all comes back to power and most employees have very little power... so make you move Home Office staff, want an ID card? ... want to keep your job? ... whats that, they can't fire you over it, of course they can't ... they will just make it uncomfortable for you, hold you back and then isolate you until you leave. Want your ID card now? ... no pressure, honest ;) ... by the way, we want to put out a press release in a week saying 99% of people have got their ID cards so hurry up, last ones on the list are as bad as the people not wanting to be on the list.
So much for freedom and liberty.
"All members of parliament and representative bodies (Welsh Assembly, Scottish Parliament & Westminster Parliament & Lords) have to have one before they can take their seat after the next Westminster parliament election."
Wouldn't it be better to demand they have one before they are allowed to claim any expenses or allowances?
If they make the ID Card compulsory for sections of employment then they should be tax deductible. I suspect that MP's will just put it on the expenses sheet anyway so we (taxpayers) will end up forking out for them.
Personally I have nothing to hide and anyone can look into any aspect of my life that they wish to. I am however still against having to have an ID Card purely on the grounds that everyone will then know that I have nothing to hide and therefore a totally boring person.
Apart from that, I pay an exorbitant amount of tax already and the IR seem to have no problem with my identity, why the hell should I fork out another £30; if the Government want to impose this totally impractical idea on 65 million tax payers, they should at least pay for it - perhaps by claiming a little less on their expenses would help.
Of course it won't affect your annual pay bonus and performance review.
Tthat you have failed to uphold departmental policy and are little better than a grovelling little traitor who *dares" to suggest your superiors are a bunch of thieves and incompetents hell bent on liniing their pockets with cushy "consultancy" jobs to the companies they have bunged the contracts to when they retire (or in the case of the politicians loose their seat).
Suck it up boys and girls, this is after all the bright future you have planned for us.
Manchester NO2ID are holding a public meeting and series of campaign stalls this Saturday to inform people about the ID Card Con - details at http://manchester.no2id.net/story/id-card-con-public-meeting-dont-be-guinea-pig
Everyone can get involved - print off some flyers from http://www.idcardcon.org/ and hand them out at work, leave some down the pub, or take them to your mosque or social club!
Let all your friends know - don't be a guinea pig, stop the ID card con! #idcardcon
That's right, start with all the institutions that are pushing for ID cards - MPs, civil servants, police, etc. etc. Make it anonymous (to stop people being pressurised into signing up) and then see how many of their own people take advantage of the early bird 'privilege'.
You could do the same with the DNA database. Start by populating it with DNA of all police, as obviously they are often present at crime scenes and therefore the information is useful for elimination purposes. See how they like that...
"Personally I have nothing to hide and anyone can look into any aspect of my life that they wish to"
You sir, to coin a phrase, are a fucking tool of the first order.
Why don't you post your personal details on #4chan or something and see what happens. Fuck me, you read the Register and still come out with shit like this, unless...oh wait..
oh well trolled sir :) well trolled.