Re: Pros and Cons @Andy Davies
Touu wrote: "During WWII everyone in the UK had a National Identity Number (and a NI card). At the end of the war the government conceded to liberal (small l) concerns and announced that they were abolished. Fairly soon after that it was announced that they were needed after all - to use the new NHS - they became NHS numbers."
That's all balderdash.
National Identity cards were not dropped at the end of the war, they were dropped seven years later in 1952; although several members of Atlee's cabinet spoke against them, but did nothing to eliminate them, and voted in favour of renewing the 1939 act when it came up for review in 1947. Opposition to them was fuelled by blatant abuse by the police of their powers under section 6, sub-section 4 of the 1939 National Registration act, with even Lord Chief Justice Goddard recognising the abuse and making it clear that the courts would not support the police's abuse - his strong comments on a 1951 case helped ensure the end of the system in 1952.
The NHS number had been the NI number from the beginning of the NHS, long before the National Registration act lapsed, so NHS numbers certainly didn't cause any announcement soon after identity cards were abolished that the numbers were still needed - that was obvious since the numbers had been used as NHS numbers for years.