The End Of Cummings?

[SueEllen]

Downing Street plans new digital ID cards for British citizens | Daily Mail Online


Downing Street is planning new digital ID cards for British citizens as Dominic Cummings bids to transform the Government's use of data despite privacy fears.

People will get an online identity that can be used for daily activities such as proving ones age, registering with a GP and buying properties from a different location.

It comes after issues emerged in identifying people during the Covid-19 pandemic, such as during the self-employment income support scheme.

The government did not have any details on half of the 2.6million who applied for support at the start of the crisis.


[Note: Every time the government has tried to introduce ID cards back in the UK it's failed and there have been loads of protests.]

[Old Greg]

The Irish government got itself in a mess over the similar Public Services Card a few years ago. A government Minister described is as mandatory but not compulsory (!). It's required for all new immigrants and benefit applicants, so it catches new mothers applying for Child Benefit etc. The government then tried to force its use for passport and driving licence applications and then came unstuck with the Data Protection Commissioner.

Having said all that, it's not quite an ID card. There's no obligation to carry ID or prove ID to the police etc. as there is in much of continental Europe, but there's a suspicion among privacy campaigners that it's a wedge to move on that direction. The Irish populace has a similar distrust (although perhaps with a different root) of such cards as the British population does.

Having said all that, it caused some political heat, but it's still there.

[NotAllThere]

An Englishman's word should be sufficient.

Mind you, my wife and a friend of hers were walking near the border of Germany, and the Swiss border patrol challenged them and demanded to see their ID cards. My wife's friend stood her ground and told them in no uncertain terms in dialect "I'm Swiss. I don't have to show you my id". They apologised and left. Unlike other countries where you have national id cards, Switzerland doesn't require you to carry it. Even foreigners don't have to.

[Old Greg]

Harry Willcock - Wikipedia

Willcock v. MuckleCompulsory identity cards had been re-introduced in World War II under the National Registration Act 1939.[2] After the war, in 1945, the Attlee Ministry chose to continue them.


On 7 December 1950, Willcock was stopped for speeding on Ballard's Lane, North Finchley, London. Police Constable Harold Muckle asked him to produce his card. Willcock refused, reportedly saying "I am a Liberal, and I am against this sort of thing". Muckle gave Willcock a form to produce his card at any police station within two days, to which Willcock replied "I will not produce it at any police station and I will not accept the form".[3] He then threw the form on the ground. Willcock failed to produce the form within this time, and was prosecuted under the Act.[1]


To the Highgate justices, he argued that the power to require the production of such a card had lapsed when the state of emergency which led to the passage of the Act had expired.[1] The justices rejected this, but gave him an absolute discharge.[1] Separately, he was fined 30s for speeding.


He appealed the guilty but no-reprimand verdict to the High Court by way of case stated (meaning the bench agreed a certified point of law had arisen).[3] Unusually, this was heard by a bench of seven judges in the divisional court, including Lord Chief Justice, Lord Goddard, and Sir Raymond Evershed MR.[3] His defence team comprised prominent Liberals including Archibald Pellow Marshall KC, Emrys Roberts MP, and Basil Wigoder, who offered their services free. Sir Frank Soskice, the Attorney General, appeared as amicus curiae.[3]


The verdict was upheld. A majority of the Court (Lord Goddard CJ, Somervell and Jenkins LJJ, Hilbery and Lynskey JJ; against Evershed MR and Devlin J dubitantibus (doubting but not wholly dissenting)) held that the Act remained in force, as no Order in Council had specifically terminated it. However, Lord Goddard was critical of the Government:


"This Act was passed for security purposes; it was never passed for the purposes for which it is now apparently being used. To use Acts of Parliament passed for particular purposes in wartime when the war is a thing of the past—except for the technicality that a state of war exists—tends to turn law-abiding subjects into lawbreakers, which is a most undesirable state of affairs. Further, in this country we have always prided ourselves on the good feeling that exists between the police and the public, and such action tends to make the people resentful of the acts of the police, and inclines them to obstruct the police instead of assisting them. For these reasons I hope that if a similar case comes before any other bench of justices, they will deal with it as did the Highgate bench and grant the defendant an absolute discharge, except, of course, where there is a real reason for demanding sight of the registration card."[3]


The Court dismissed the appeal, but did not award costs against Willcock.

[SueEllen]

I only posted this thread as a warning as not everyone in this country has ID that government departments deem proper* and bringing in ID cards will not solve this issue.

It is actually up to the Chancellor to fix the tax system and bringing in blank ID cards won't fix that as they don't actually know who is actually in the country.


*Windrush is the most obvious example.

[cojak]

Johnson and Cummings are joined at the hip.

If one goes down, they both go down. So no, I don't think that it's the end of Cummings (yet).

[cojak]

But ID's are the very antithesis of what the Rees-Mogg's and the ERG of this world stand for, so I don't think that it's going to happen.

[BR14]

We already have digital ID's, although somewhat limited.
NI no, passport no, driver's license.
they're just not integrated.
I don't see a problem with EU style ID's, but i did live there for 16 years, and it's the norm, mostly.

[scooterscot]

Carry my Ausweis with me all the time, can no biggy.

I suspect the UK version will be connected to the new digital GBP. That would allow the socialist tory party the type of control you voted for.

[mjcp]

Johnson and Cummings are joined at the hip.

If one goes down, they both go down. So no, I don't think that it's the end of Cummings (yet).

The Daily express is even running a poll on who should be PM next... I'm not so sure Bozo is as safe as some would like to think... Linky-> DE