The ID Card debate

[Paddy]

Im bored. Here until 9pm tonight.

I'm sorting through my USB sticks... Creating my booty data base for scripts etc used on the project ready to abanon ship.

[Diver]

You make me feel so much better.

[BrilloPad]

I'm sorting through my USB sticks... Creating my booty data base for scripts etc used on the project ready to abanon ship.

Once I get home tonight I am going to get my chequebook and write 2010 on every page......

What a crazy life I lead. I was young once. A blade. A rogerer. A puker. And look at me now.

<sobs>

[Numpty]

What a crazy life I lead. I was young once. A blade. A rogerer. A puker. And look at me now.

GreatestOfDads

[BrilloPad]

Indeed. I was thinking that. While my kids still think Im wonderful then I am happy.

[threaded]

I believe that ID cards will be so invasive, you'll need them for even simple stuff like bank transactions, and at the same time such a monstrous fsck up, that it'll keep the likes of us on a gravy train for years. Well, until they finally give up or move the goal posts to something that could work...

I can imagine there'll be tasks like you have at telcos when you're trying to pair up CDRs: most can be automated, many can be fixed manually, but there'll be a good few that do nasty things to the database and require highly skilled intervention.

Most of the work can be offshored, but TPTB won't like it up 'em when they find themselves cloned.

Fill yer boots.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

I believe that ID cards will be so invasive, you'll need them for even simple stuff like bank transactions, and at the same time such a monstrous fsck up, that it'll keep the likes of us on a gravy train for years. Well, until they finally give up or move the goal posts to something that could work...

I can imagine there'll be tasks like you have at telcos when you're trying to pair up CDRs: most can be automated, many can be fixed manually, but there'll be a good few that do nasty things to the database and require highly skilled intervention.

Most of the work can be offshored, but TPTB won't like it up 'em when they find themselves cloned.

Fill yer boots.

Sounds about right. Oh and no-one has deployed a single viable argument for why we need them - which means they are fairly high up the Civil Servants list of priorities.

[HairyArsedBloke]

Threaded, will you PLEASE fix that bug in your time machine.

These threads keep reappearing from the past. Mark my words; someone is going to get hurt.

[Board Game Geek]

**** Incoming Message ****
++2055 yeardate ++
++Sender : DNABioCode attached+++

Hello !

I was trawling through some old posts of mine, and thought you might like to know how things panned out with the ID Cards, that you were discussing back then.

Well, it’s been a mixed blessing to be honest, so I’ll fill you in on how things went.

2010-2012

This was quite an important period, with a lot of political activity by the new government to delay or stall their introduction. Various proponents on both sides of the story argued passionately for and against their introduction.

The EU wanted to mandate ID Cards as a requirement for all citizens of Europe, citing ease of travel between member states, reduction in economic immigration by non-card holders, and a whole raft of other benefits that would become “apparent in time”. A stalemate of sorts was reached, until the latter end of 2012.

The occupation of both Iraq and Afghanistan started to dwindle down, with large numbers of military units returning to their host countries, namely the USA and the UK. UN Peacekeeping forces remained. Al-Quaeda activity went quiet for a while as well.

Then the Armageddon Strike began. 2012 was prophesised by a number of crack pot seers as being a year of reckoning, with meterorites, plagues of locusts and the like smiting the Earth. Except it wasn’t quite like that.

Almost near-simultaneous bombings around the western world, struck London, Brussels, Berlin and New York. The “New Dawn of Terrorism” had begun, as the media frenziedly reminded us in nearly every broadcast over the following weeks.

Various groups claimed responsibility, but our political masters reported that a new Alliance of Disaffected Nations was cooperating to bring ruin to our Western World. A New Axis of Evil was drawn up by the US, incorporating many more nations than before, and world politics took a decidedly nasty turn for the worse, with accusation and counter accusation between nations, breaking previously fragile alliances, and straining even stronger ones.

The upshot of all this, was that various groups were rounded up, paraded on TV, and in almost all cases, were non nationals with no identity in the nations they targeted. Travel for the general public became even more ponderous and subject to delaying searches, plus with the cost of oil having gone through the roof, additional “security taxes” were needed on most forms of transport.

It’s wrong to say that the people didn’t care if their cities were blown up. It’s wrong to say that they didn’t care if some of their fellow citizens lost their lives in the attacks. But it isn’t wrong to say that it wasn’t until the average person’s daily routine of travel to work and going about their business was severely hampered, that people began to protest daily.

The ID Card debate reopened with a renewed vigour, and this time the proponents were stronger and more skilful in their advocacy.

Instead of the usual 4 hours check-in time for security at airports, and the new 2 hours at major train stations (1 hour in the towns as well), the advocates promised that ID Card introduction would negate these delays.

Opponents asked how, and the response was through Vetted Profiling.

Each citizen wanting an ID Card would be asked to attend a Vetting Centre, where they would undergo a number of profiling questions. DNA would be taken. Deeply personal questions would be asked.
After that, extensive background checks would be made about the individual, where they worked, their criminal record, and so on.

After 8 weeks, they would either be issued an ID Card (containing their own DNABioCode), or not. The one’s who were not issued a card would be placed on a “Watch List”. Various people called this the “NPL” (Non Persons List)

For people with cards, life returned to a modicum of normality. They were able to “Fast Track” as they went through security at airports and stations. Just a quick scan of luggage on moving conveyors, and minimum disruption.

Meanwhile they had the opportunity to watch the hordes of NPL’s, queuing up in droves for hours, just to get a train to work.

Of course, the law of unintended consequences always has a habit of rearing its ugly head when major changes are made to the way a society works.

A lot of people gave up work. The cost, time and stress was too much for many of them. Getting up at 4 am, to get to the station for 5am, then having a 2-3 hour wait for security checking for an NPL, then getting to work for 9am, then leaving for the station coming home at 6pm and having to go through everything in reverse was too much for some.

The job market wavered, but it soon transpired that the only people eventually able to work were the CID’s (Citizens with ID). Companies started to make a CID a basic requirement for employment, starting with those professions where contact with vulnerable adults and children was expected. They started the trend.

As the Welfare state now groaned under the number of NPL’s, and couldn’t manage the cost, the CID’s started to get vocal in having to support a new underclass through their tax and NI.

A two tier system of healthcare was introduced. Peversely, the NHS was to remain free at the point of care for CID’s. A benefit for “good citizens” if you will.

For the NPL’s, a system akin to the healthcare framework for the poor in the USA was introduced.

Thus, in one fell swoop, the UK went from being an almost classless society, to one divided by ID or no ID.
NPL’s became almost a criminal underclass, the new “Chav’s” of the millennium. Yet for many of them, their only crime was perhaps joining the wrong society at Uni. Or having too many speeding tickets. Or nicking a bag of sweets in a shop when they were 16 and stupid.

Restricted, bound and forced in to a life in the shadows, it was too late to realise what we had sacrificed in our pursuit for freedom.

We had sacrificed the freedom of our fellow man, and in doing so, we created a new generation of terrorists.

I need to go now.

The power is flickering again, and it’s the 3rd time this week they’ve attacked the local power plant, so I shall have to get the candles out and read a book in the darkness instead. At least I am safe. For now.

[Diver]

**** Incoming Message ****
++2055 yeardate ++
++Sender : DNABioCode attached+++

Hello !

I was trawling through some old posts of mine, and thought you might like to know how things panned out with the ID Cards, that you were discussing back then.

Well, it’s been a mixed blessing to be honest, so I’ll fill you in on how things went.

2010-2012

This was quite an important period, with a lot of political activity by the new government to delay or stall their introduction. Various proponents on both sides of the story argued passionately for and against their introduction.

The EU wanted to mandate ID Cards as a requirement for all citizens of Europe, citing ease of travel between member states, reduction in economic immigration by non-card holders, and a whole raft of other benefits that would become “apparent in time”. A stalemate of sorts was reached, until the latter end of 2012, when the world ended as predicted by the Mayans.

FTFY