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ID Cards / Identification Cards

So when a chicken gets older, they get another barcode on their comb? Or it's only one chicken, one barcode? So a reader has to grab a struggling cluck try to look at it's beak, then it's comb then each leg in the search for it's barcode?

Sounds like a security suggestion straight out of La La land to me.
 
Climbdown on compulsory ID cards

Home Secretary Alan Johnson has dropped plans to make ID cards compulsory for pilots and airside workers at Manchester and London City airports.

The cards were due to be trialled there - sparking trade union anger.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling said that the reverse in policy was "an absurd fudge" and "symbolic of a government in chaos".

But Mr Johnson said the ID card scheme was still very much alive - despite Tory and Lib Dem calls to scrap it.

He said the national roll-out of a voluntary scheme was being speeded-up - with London to get them a year early in 2010 and over-75s to get free cards.

As a result of Mr Johnson's announcement, foreign nationals living and working in the UK will be the only group of people who will have to have the cards, with 50,000 already having been issued.

BBC political correspondent Jo Coburn said the government's original vision for ID cards was that the scheme would eventually become compulsory.

The government has always insisted it would not make them compulsory for UK citizens without giving MPs a vote on the issue - and it would not be compulsory to carry them.

It had been planned to make them compulsory for all 200,000 airside workers from 2009 but instead the government announced there would be an 18-month trial, for airside workers at Manchester and London City airports only.

But the pilots union Balpa had complained that its members had effectively been forced into signing up for the cards.

ID cards were initially promoted as an anti-terror measure, but Mr Johnson said they should not have been sold as the "panacea for tackling terrorism" which he said had been responsible for "messing up" the debate.

etc...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8127081.stm
 
Home Office's annual bill for consultants rises 44% to £140m after ID card fiasco
By James Slack
Last updated at 1:11 AM on 31st August 2009

The Home Office spent an astonishing £140million on consultants last year, up 44 per cent on the previous year, as public finances spiralled into a debt crisis.
Large amounts of the money were lavished on seeking advice on the controversial £5billion ID cards project.
Consultants were also paid large sums for planning a vast Big Brother database to store the details of every internet click and telephone call made by UK residents, known as the Intercept Modernisation Programme (IMP).

Both policies have since been downgraded.

The ID cards will no longer be compulsory, while the IMP data will no longer be stored on one central computer system.

The Tories said the increase in spending was astonishing, particularly at a time when public spending was deep in the red and when cuts were being made to priority areas such as policing.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling said: ‘We’re now finding out more and more about the true cost of the Government’s abortive ID card project.
‘At a time when police forces are sacking officers because of financial problems, [the expenditure] underlines how much money Ministers have wasted pursuing their failed policies.’

The amount spent on the top two firms, PA Consulting and Deloitte & Touche, almost tripled between 2007-08 and 2008-09.

PA received £ 24.5million last year, and Deloitte £ 21million.

The Home Office admitted that the increase can largely be attributed to work on the ID cards scheme. More than £215million has been spent on the scheme so far.

The large sum paid to PA Consulting will be a particular surprise, given it was sacked from one lucrative contract by the Home Office last year, after the firm lost a memory stick containing the personal details of every prisoner in England and Wales.
After a short inquiry, then home secretary Jacqui Smith stripped PA of its contract. But other contracts were allowed to continue.

Despite the huge increase, the Home Office has defended its consultants’ bill.
A spokesman said: ‘The spend with consultancy firms is comparable with other large scale and complex service delivery organisations.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z0PkQ0I6G6
 
Identity cards launched in Manchester
Biometric identity cards are available to the general public for the first time in Britain after the scheme was launched in Manchester.
Published: 8:00AM GMT 30 Nov 2009

Home Secretary Alan Johnson showed off his card yesterday as he travelled to Brussels for a meeting of European Union ministers.

But critics sought to overshadow the launch by pointing out that the cards are available only to people who already have passports, or whose passports expired this year.

Everyone else wanting a £30 ID card will first have to sign up for a passport at a cost of £77.50. :roll:

Phil Booth from campaign group NO2ID said: ''The Government claims ID cards are a handy alternative to a passport is bogus.

''You have to have one already so you will pay another £30 and set yourself up for a lifetime of fees, penalties and compliance.

''Once you are on the database you will be obliged to update Whitehall's register on you for the rest of your life.''

Anyone in Greater Manchester wanting one from today can enrol at passport offices in Manchester city centre and at Manchester Airport.

Since applications opened a fortnight ago, 1,386 people living in the area have requested an application form, out of an eligible population of 1.7 million.

Interviews started this morning and the first cards will be issued within 10 days, officials said.

Each card costs £30 and can be used to travel passport-free across the EU.

etc...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... ester.html
 
You can have one if you have a passport. You still pay. You only have to present this - and not your passport - to leave or re-enter the country.

So why not present your passport (which is cheaper) and do exactly the same thing?
Don't get me started on the "ID Cards are great against terrorism" angle. Worked in Spain, didn't it? Works in Pakistan, doesn't it? NO, IT DOESN'T!
Sell the UK on ID Cards by any contrived reason but not the anti-terrorism bullshit!
 
The idea still hasn't gone away...

Could an ID card replace the bus pass for over-60s?
By Kirsty Walker
Last updated at 7:44 AM on 18th March 2010

Bus passes for over-60s could be axed and replaced with ID cards.
Home Office Minister Meg Hillier suggested millions of elderly people could be asked to carry the controversial cards to prove their age when they travel.
But civil liberty campaigners have accused the Government of targeting vulnerable people to widen the unpopular scheme.

Around 11million people over 60 enjoy the use of bus passes for free travel around the country.

But Miss Hillier said councils and transport groups want ministers to swap them for ID cards. These contain a microchip that stores details such as name, date of birth, a facial scan and fingerprints.
Home Secretary Alan Johnson is considering plans to give free ID cards to over-75s. But in an interview, Miss Hillier hinted this could be extended to over-60s.
She said: 'I have always resisted adding lots of things to the card.
'But what we have had tentatively from local authorities and transport groups is, "If the card proves age, why do we need bus passes for 60-year-olds?"'

Ministers were last year forced to drop plans to make the ID cards compulsory following cost fears and widespread opposition.
Last night, Tory immigration spokesman Damian Green said: 'This Government will stop at nothing to introduce ID cards by the back door. It is deplorable to use such underhand methods to foist identity cards on people.'

Alex Deane, Director of Big Brother Watch, said: 'This is another sneaky, underhand suggestion from the Government to force people to carry ID cards, which are far more intrusive than bus passes have ever been.
'Many people affected by this measure will remember being coerced to carry their ID card during the War and will be dismayed to see that this bullying surveillance is coming back into fashion.
'Some will resent this idea so much that to avoid carrying an ID card they will stop taking the bus altogether - perhaps that's exactly the sort of budget-saving Meg Hillier wants.'

Phil Booth, from the campaign group NO2ID, added: 'The Government has reached the end of the road with ID cards and is now desperately dreaming up new ways to sell them to the public.
'The minister is indulging in wild fantasy and speculation.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z0iWcpCxeB

:evil:

Will ID cards actually show your age? I doubt it. DOB I suppose, but then the poor old bus driver needs to calculate your age each time! What bollocks!

Having a bus pass shows you are over 60 because this is checked when you apply.
 
The election is not far away now...
 
The government may well be trying to peddle a new, less fear-mongering, more patronising argument in favour of the introduction of ID cards; the 'won't someone think of the under-privileged?' gambit. There's an interesting discussion of this at the Liberal Conspiracy blog.

Liberal Conspiracy

The new reasoning centres around access to public services. Many people, the poorest people, don’t have any form of identification at all: no passport, credit card, driving licence, or even household bills in their name. ID cards, says Hillier, will provide a solution for these people, guaranteeing that they can quickly access the public services they need. The idea that a robust and trusted form of identification can be a tool for empowerment is something that the liberal left, instinctively against ID cards, needs to consider.

The approach is not without problems. Hillier says that people may miss out on a job, because employers are legally required to check you have the right to work in the UK, and inadequate identification might hinder this process. Likewise, she says people may miss out on renting a flat, or be refused a bank account, due to lack of ID. This may be so, but the hurdles that ID cards are designed to solve are actually regulations put in place by the government! Why not lower the hurdles? Why not create a new, entry-level type of bank account, with less overdraft and laundering possibilities? That way, ID barriers and credit checks could be safely reduced (perhaps some economists amongst our readers could comment on the practicalities of this, or whether such accounts already exist).
Click to expand...
 
An ID card nation by stealth
Now the Home Office is suggesting the ID card could replace the bus pass for the over 60s – insinuating it into national life

Leading Labour's pre-election push on the ID card is Home Office minister Meg Hillier, a former mayor of Islington and an MP since just 2005. According to Theyworkforyou.com, Hillier has voted strongly in favour of a smoking ban, replacing Trident, terror laws and – naturally – ID cards, while voting against an investigation into the Iraq war and climate change laws: so, a bright New Labour high-flyer who balances her busy political life with the demands of a young family, or a dreary knuckle-dragging authoritarian, according to your point of view. 8)

Hillier's attempt to embed the ID card into British life has a desperate ingenuity about it. First the Home Office tries – without much success – to persuade young people that the card is a hip accessory that will allow them to prove their age when buying alcohol or clubbing, now Hillier targets old people with a suggestion that the ID card will replace the bus pass, as part of a plan where the elderly are given the card free.

The efforts to roll out the £5bn scheme when government departments are so strapped for funds tell us much about the deep, pathological needs of the state when it comes to "identity management". The Home Office has responded to the widespread hostility to the card by identifying different groups' needs and devising ways of subtly implanting the card and making it seem indispensable. As I have written many times, the primary motive is not to allow you to identify yourself, but to allow the state to identify you and furthermore track your life in the records accumulated by the National Identity Register. :evil:

Phil Booth of NO2ID may be right when he says in response to Hillier's latest idea that the government has reached the end of the road on the policy and that "the minister is indulging in wild fantasy and speculation", but he knows well how determined the Home Office is to get the universal ID card and if it does, as night follows day, police officers will eventually be allowed to demand to see someone's card on the street.

You only have to look at the abuse of Section 44 to understand that, or read this young man's story about being stopped by police with sniffer dogs on the way to work and being told that the fact that he had been searched would appear on a database, although nothing was found. Without protest we already accept incredible curtailment of our freedoms. Think how it will be with the ID card.

The particular gleam in the eye of Hillier and IPS officials at the moment is the prospect of putting an electronic identifier in a person's mobile phone – which they seem to have forgotten is one of the most frequently stolen items. :roll: Typically, this was presented as satisfying the needs of another social group – the poor. At a Social Market Foundation event recently, Hillier talked of the needs of the "socially disadvantaged" in her constituency who had no other form of identity documents.

In response to a councillor at the event who asked why the government kept on changing its argument for the ID card, she said that "9/11 has put the cast on the ID card", but that the card had always been a multifaceted project. Whatever that means, the government has failed to make the case for the card and every time it thinks of a new reason is soundly beaten by the logic of civil liberties groups. So now the policy is not to make the argument but to insinuate the card into national life. Well, at least we have a chance to say something about that in a few weeks' time.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... eg-hillier
 
It warms the cockles of my heart:

IPSwebpage.jpg
 
Result! :D

(And, to go off-thread for a sec, no third runway at Heathrow, or any more runways at Gatwick and Stanstead.)
 
Yes, it's an excellent outcome.
I hope the new government reverses a few other dodgy decisions like this that were made by the previous lot.
 
Not everybody's happy...

I might sue over scrapped ID card, says Blunkett
By Andrew Woodcock, Press Association
Friday, 28 May 2010

Former home secretary David Blunkett said today he was considering suing the Government for the £30 cost of his ID card, after it was announced that holders of the documents will not be compensated when they are abolished.

Home Secretary Theresa May announced yesterday that the national identity register will be scrapped within 100 days, and existing cards will become invalid.

Thousands of people are believed to have been issued with ID cards, which could be used to prove their identity or travel within Europe.

Mr Blunkett, who first announced plans for ID cards in 2003, dismissed suggestions that they formed part of a "surveillance state".

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I have got a card and it's very useful and I don't believe anyone has surveilled anything about me.

"Unfortunately, nobody is getting their money back. I'm thinking of suing them, but it might cost me more than £30." 8)

Mr Blunkett accused Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg of "exaggeration and hyperbole and self-deception" over the supposed intrusiveness of the national identity register and the savings available from abolishing it.

He said that scrapping the cards "won't change anything for anyone out there" but will make it harder for security services to fight terrorism and for the Government to clamp down on fraud and misuse of the NHS.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/po ... 85447.html
 
Hahaha, what a sore loser. To me that's equivalent to buying a copy of your own record then demanding a refund when it doesn't get to number one.

Also I agree with Nick Clegg entirely, the whole ID card was deeply suspicious on the 'surveillance' front.
 
I would truly like for someone to demonstrate how ID cards can help 'fight terrorism'. Would such a system have prevented 7/7 in London? I really do not think so.
 
jeff544 said:
I would truly like for someone to demonstrate how ID cards can help 'fight terrorism'. Would such a system have prevented 7/7 in London? I really do not think so.
Click to expand...

Well, the cards could have sharp edges so you could flip them at terrorists or random Brazilians.
 
ramonmercado said:
Well, the cards could have sharp edges so you could flip them at terrorists or random Brazilians.
Click to expand...
Careful - you'll have someone's eye out!
Didn't your mother tell you not to throw ID cards at people in the street?
They're not toys, you know.
 
I see.

Im not in favour of ID cards, but as a vunerable adult, I would like a government to take a little more notice of me.
 
You want a government to take notice of you?

Start breaking its laws, making a "political scene".
You could always vote - that is, in it's most pure form, a political opinion that counts.

Having an ID card doesn't mean the government notices you - in fact, it means it doesn't. It means you join a pool of statistics which negates the need for ruling over an individual and the ability to "play" with the lives of the governed without any form of accountability, apart from "we did it because the latest figures showed we were unpopular. So we changed the statistics."

I don't mind being part of a statistical count, an opinion poll, to gauge opinion, but I'd like my intellectual choice to take part in my choice of government.
 
This is a funny story..I was getting my health card photo taken and I started sneezing and the woman started taking my photo while I was doing it so it turned out bad. She had to take another one. People who deal with the public are always so weird :S
 
Stormkhan said:
You want a government to take notice of you?

Start breaking its laws, making a "political scene".
You could always vote - that is, in it's most pure form, a political opinion that counts.

Having an ID card doesn't mean the government notices you - in fact, it means it doesn't. It means you join a pool of statistics which negates the need for ruling over an individual and the ability to "play" with the lives of the governed without any form of accountability, apart from "we did it because the latest figures showed we were unpopular. So we changed the statistics."

I don't mind being part of a statistical count, an opinion poll, to gauge opinion, but I'd like my intellectual choice to take part in my choice of government.
Click to expand...

Abso flaming lutely :D
 
Blunkett and another "citizen" who was moaning that she'd taken part in a "trial" of the ID card in Manchester.

You paid £30 for what? You weren't required to by law; you didn't have to buy a card to access any services or items which are yours by right. You coughed up £30 to state that you were 100% behind the Labour government's financially-led (not anti-terrorism-led) fuckwit scheme. Labour lost it's control of the government, the scheme has been shelved. Get over it!

When we moan about how much the country is in debt, just take a look at how much the Labour Government paid out to private companies just to propose versions of their systems in the ID card nonsense ... and now Labour or out, the firms walk away with a lot of money for doing nothing!
Be warned - while a government needs private finance, it's policies cannot be considered to be free of influence unless it's completely open about its funding. I can accept using private companies to provide public services as long as doing so proves to be beneficial to the state.
 
We may have fought off the dreaded ID card, but retailers are still out to get us:

Why does retail want my details?
Nosey cashiers have turned shopping into a Stalinist nightmare for Wendy Holden
Published: 7:00AM BST 11 Aug 2010

What do an ironing board, a haircut and a case of wine have in common? In order to get them, I was expected to hand over information I’d think twice about giving a policeman.

It was on a sunny Friday morning in Majestic Wine Warehouse that my problems began. I’d popped in to replenish our stocks of Côtes de Provence rosé. When I handed over my debit card at the till, the assistant asked for all my details – address, phone number, email, mobile phone – to put on a computer. When I asked why, as I didn’t need credit or to have the stuff delivered, he said it was so I could receive information about Majestic events, plus a copy of the company magazine.

Luckily, my social life is full enough not to depend on promotional events by wine retailers, and I buy more glossy magazines than I ever get through, even if the Majestic one has Catherine Zeta-Jones on the cover. So I politely turned him down. His evident amazement was less surprising than the implication that my act was unprecedented in the history of the store. 8)

....

My identity crisis came to a head, as it were, in a hair salon in Cornwall last week. Having a rare hour to myself (husband and children having gone off to see Toy Story 3), I decided to get my hoary locks trimmed. Scene as follows:

Me (entering salon): Could you trim my hair, please?

Spiky-haired middle-youth on reception desk: Yeah, sure, no problem. I’ll just take a few details down on the computer [fingers poised over keyboard]. Name, address?

Me: Do you mind if I don’t? I just want a haircut.

Him (clearly stunned): But we always take people’s details. We need them to keep in touch with our customers.

Me: I’d rather not. All I want is a haircut.

By now the whole salon was staring at me and it was tempting to turn on my flip-flopped heel. However, I felt my position was reasonable and I wanted my hair cut. Whereupon the following conversation took place:

Haircutter (called Don, snip-snipping with his scissors): Look, about that computer thing, we only take personal details to keep in touch with our customers, OK? Build up a relationship. Keep them informed.

Me: Yes. But I just didn’t want to, that was all.

Don (still agitated): We’re not going to do anything with it. This information you don’t want to give us. Nothing funny or anything. [I don’t reply.] So, you on holiday?

Me (relieved he has changed subject): Yes

Don (sarcastically): Incognito, eh?

Me: Look, Don, I think you should just get over me not wanting to give you all my details. It isn’t necessary.

Don (aggressively): OK, OK, I am over it, OK. I am. Over it. Look, I’ll just cut in complete silence, shall I? Happy?

Actually, as Don’s sharp scissors were millimetres from my neck, I wasn’t that happy. I didn’t want to be the first martyr to the cause of the right of the individual to shop without full disclosure. The cut was finished in sulky silence. I paid – cash – and left.

I will go on with my campaign against this invasive lunacy, however. And I invite you all to join me. When you’re asked for personal details, do as I do. Just say no.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/news ... tails.html
 
I will go on with my campaign against this invasive lunacy, however. And I invite you all to join me. When you’re asked for personal details, do as I do. Just say no.
Click to expand...

Absolutely. This isn't a new thing - I remember being asked for my name and address when buying a power lead for my computer in an electronics store about 10 years ago. More recently, I had a lengthy argument with a woman in a small local shoe shop shoe shop where I was attempting to purchase some slippers for my elderly (now sadly deceased) grandmother. She seemed unable to fathom why I did not want to provide my name, address, DNA sample etc simply to make a small cash purchase.
 
Quake42 said:
Absolutely. This isn't a new thing - I remember being asked for my name and address when buying a power lead for my computer in an electronics store about 10 years ago.
Click to expand...

Was it a Tandy (Radio Shack) store?
I remember being asked for my details 20-odd years ago, so they could send me catalogues etc.
 
Yep, no big conspiracy they just want to send you advertising. After all advertising without the name of the occupant in some places doesn´t get delivered anymore. Though naturally I´d also tell them to f off.
 
This is in a couple of the newspapers this morning:-

From the Daily Mail

Report a crime and end up on a secret database: Police force has logged 180,000 names

By Rebecca Camber

Last updated at 8:12 AM on 12th August 2010

Tens of thousands of innocent members of the public who report crimes are having their personal details stored on a 'secret' police database.

Those calling 999 about an incident or witnesses to crimes are routinely being asked for their ethnicity and date of birth, it has emerged.

The details are being kept without their knowledge on a 'Big Brother' file - where thousands of suspected criminals' details are also held.
Secret database: The details of thousands of people who report crimes to the police are being stored without them knowing (file photo)
On the database of one force alone, the personal details of 180,000 people who phoned police were recorded - four times more than the number of suspected criminals listed on the site.

North Yorkshire Police's information management system contained data on 181,917 innocent informants, 38,259 suspects and 107,566 victims recorded as aggrieved or 'vulnerable aggrieved'.

The figures, released under the Freedom of Information Act, have outraged privacy campaigners who say that many people will refuse to report crimes if they think their personal details are being kept.

But North Yorkshire Police claim they are simply following national guidance, raising fears that many other forces may be doing the same. The information is held for a minimum of 15 years, and can be stored for up to 100 years in the most serious cases.

Personal details can also be passed from North Yorkshire Police to other forces.

Gus Hosein, of pressure group Privacy International, said: 'I cannot understand what kind of relationship they are trying to establish with the public where now a member of the public has to worry about approaching the police for fear of being put on a secret database with suspects.

'I never thought this would happen in this country. It's like Big Brother. '

Phil Booth, of the campaign NO2ID, said: 'This is a database that intermingles criminal suspects with victims, with random members of the public. There is potential for some sort of mix-up.'

A spokesman for North Yorkshire Police confirmed that callers are routinely asked their name, date of birth and ethnicity.

Assistant Chief Constable Sue Cross said it was 'categorically wrong' to suggest that the force was operating a 'secret database'.
She said: 'Data quality is an essential factor in being effective, which is why we request that individuals who come into contact with North Yorkshire Police provide additional information regarding their date of birth and ethnicity.

'Whilst this is completely voluntary on the part of each person, this desirable information allows the police to create a unique person record which can help to accurately identify repeat callers who may be subject of ongoing problems with crime and anti-social behaviour or other issues such as domestic violence.'

A spokesman for the National Policing Improvement Agency, which issued the guidance on information management to forces across the country, said officers should only record details proportionate to the offence.

He added: 'For example, more information may be required for a murder compared to a witness to shoplifting. And ethnicity may be an issue in a race hate crime.'

The police system of record keeping was reformed following the Bichard inquiry into the Soham murders, which saw Humberside and Cambridgeshire police being heavily criticised for their failings in maintaining intelligence records on Ian Huntley

Source:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... abase.html
 
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