5 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

I was trying to get him to say WHY ......... I suspect he doesn't know himself.

It's like the COVID pro-vaxxers, they insist we have it as well as them.

Lefties don't really think much about anything, it's just parroting the idealogy.

Nobody forced you to have a COVID Vaccine.

5 hours ago, JonnyF said:

We can add that to the ever growing list of things you really don't understand.

A list which will never reach the length of your own.

Et voilà .... as if further proof were needed. More irrational nonsense.

5 hours ago, JonnyF said:

Because he's a radical leftist. He thinks it is the job of the state to control you, your children, your children's future children.

Of course he supports digital ID.

The thinks Orwell's 1984 is an instruction manual.

4 hours ago, BritManToo said:

I was trying to get him to say WHY ......... I suspect he doesn't know himself.

It's like the COVID pro-vaxxers, they insist we have it as well as them.

Lefties don't really think much about anything, it's just parroting the idealogy.

If you've got a question for me then it's easier if you address it to me directly, not someone else.

I told you WHY. Imo in many ways an ID card makes life a whole lot simpler and I don't buy the totalitarian conspiracy theory nonsense.

If you want to go through life without trying to mitigate risks to your health, then you crack on.

Right-wing conspiracy theorists: The English language has a rich vocabulary, but sadly the word has not yet been coined which illustrates the strength of my contempt for them.

Edited July 21Jul 21 by RayC

4 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Nobody forced you to have a COVID Vaccine.

Oh how dare you. This is the worst example of the evil left denying their evil doings. Shame on you Higgot. We are not goldfish😅

I don't see anything wrong with having an I.D. card if you are legal and entitled to be in the UK what's the problem.

Perhaps the Gov.uk one app could serve as one.

At the moment I have my veterans card on it but it is planned for driving licences as well as other things NHS etc. to be added in the future.

9 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

The objections arise for both cultural and historical reasons that related to relationship between citizens and the state.

The UK has had national ID during war time, but it was an emergency war power that was abandoned at the end of the war.

A common refrain is “citizens choose the government, the government doesn’t choose the citizens”.

An alternative, deeply routed cultural and legal principal is, if you are legally going about your own business, who you are and what you are doing is nobody else’s business.

However, there are other issues at play, in particular the use of ‘wedge issues’ to ferment division in society.

Interestingly, those claiming a totalitarian Government might use digital ID to control citizens, use digital ID to switch off their rights are frequently the same people demanding the UK leave the ECHR and that the UK Government will be the safe guardian of citizens rights.

Two diametrically opposing wedge issues frequently found rattling around in the same head.

I personally see both the advantages and the disadvantages. I have a very vivid memory of being assigned to a duty post in Singapore, after arriving and registering with the Singapore government I had to wait a few days for my ID to show up.

During this time I was unable to register a new phone, internet service, sign a rental contract, buy a season travel ticket, the list goes on. I was effectively a ‘non-person’.

The very real risk of Digital ID is that those not entitled to register or unable to register for reasons of age, ability, become ‘non-persons’ open to abuse and manipulation by criminal gangs and criminal individuals.

It’s one of those ideas that look great on paper but that are fraught with serious risks.

I agree that much of the antipathy to ID cards in the UK is cultural.

Some objections have more merit than others. I used to live in Belgium where ID cards are required and was able to go about my daily business as freely as I would have been able to do so in the UK. Another similar objection - not made by you - that somehow not having an ID card offers some protection against state persecution is also imo bogus.

Those not entitled to register should, by definition, not be in the country and should be dealt with accordingly. Of course, there should be safeguards put in place to ensure that those unable/ unwilling to enrôlé in the scheme are protected.

Burnham is probably right. Given the current climate, there are probably better ways to spend the money, however, I cannot understand the outright hostility shown by some to the idea.

9 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

The battle over the right to work past the age of 65 comes to mind.

It started as extending the right to those who wished to do so.

Imo a better analogy would be the introduction of ATM cards. Started out and there was resistance but eventually almost 100% of bank customers had, and used, one (Their usage is now being reduced by digital banking of course).

Imo the introduction of (digital) ID cards is inevitable at some point and its' usage will follow the same trajectory as bank cards.

1 hour ago, RayC said:

Imo in many ways an ID card makes life a whole lot simpler and I don't buy the totalitarian conspiracy theory nonsense.

ID cards and the Internet!

I assume from your ID cards make life simpler concept that you never visit websites where you do not want to provide your true identity and that any and all of your social network sites have your full ID. Would you be happy to have to use your ID card to sign up for sites like AN etc etc!

8 minutes ago, scottiejohn said:

ID cards and the Internet!

I assume from your ID cards make life simpler concept that you never visit websites where you do not want to provide your true identity and that any and all of your social network sites have your full ID. Would you be happy to have to use your ID card to sign up for sites like AN etc etc!

No. Why would I be? If sites such as AN asked for my ID card/ passport I wouldn't sign up to them.

1 hour ago, RayC said:

Imo a better analogy would be the introduction of ATM cards. Started out and there was resistance but eventually almost 100% of bank customers had, and used, one (Their usage is now being reduced by digital banking of course).

Imo the introduction of (digital) ID cards is inevitable at some point and its' usage will follow the same trajectory as bank cards.

Yes I can see how you wouldn’t like a voluntary option morphing into a completely different compulsion.

But likewise, the banks then replaced branch services with ATM machines, the old, people with learning difficulties and other customer groups lost out.

On 7/20/2026 at 11:45 AM, RayC said:

And yet no reports of that happening anywhere else in the world where digital IDs are used?

Is this type of totalitarianism unique to the UK?

Martin Sellner (Austria) and Tommy Robinson have both been debanked.

So was Nigel Farage for a while!

55 minutes ago, nexus7 said:

Martin Sellner (Austria) and Tommy Robinson have both been debanked.

So was Nigel Farage for a while!

Robinson's problems were of his own making (insolvency, bankruptcy, unpaid debts). Farage had a dispute with one bank (Coutts). Hardly evidence of a totalitarian UK state.

I don't know anything about the circumstances concerning Sellner's debanking but the Austrians and Germans are a bit twitchy about far-right extremists nowadays.

15 hours ago, RayC said:

No. Why would I be? If sites such as AN asked for my ID card/ passport I wouldn't sign up to them.

Probably a good idea given the absolute hate you pump out every day.

10 minutes ago, JonnyF said:

Probably a good idea given the absolute hate you pump out every day.

As opposed to the compassion, understanding, and respect one reads in all of your posts. Obviously someone that builds bridges instead of walls.

5 hours ago, JonnyF said:

Probably a good idea given the absolute hate you pump out every day.

Argo