There was a time when i was at uni that i didn't have a in date passport or drivers license - ended up getting a passport so i had ID for pubs etc but the reason i had neither was very much for the reasons FLT pointed out so i can assure you the argument has footing. Couldn't afford to maintain a car and i think my holiday that year was to Wales.
I agree there Archers, if only because an ID card introduces the probability that people will be asked to show them on demand at some time in the future. I can't say I'm relishing the prospect of being stopped in the street and asked to produce ID, for no other reason in my case than it's nobody's damn business so the Big Brother aspect of it is relevant to me.
In my immediate family of 11 adults, none has a passport and of the 8 drivers, 2 have photo licenses.
And in my family, myself, my wife, my brothers and cousins, all my many in-laws, my parents and my adult kids, their spouses and in-laws all have both - except my mother-in-law who only has a passport. They're a right old mixture of differing backgrounds, political leanings, education and relative wealth so probably represent a reasonable cross-section.
I agree with you in principle about ID cards giving an opportunity to invade personal freedom, but the reality in the UK is that it’s not necessary to have ID cards to do that. We have the most CCTV cameras per head of population in the world I believe, so if Big Brother wants to keep an eye on any of us, he can.
It's not the being watched Chilco, it's the probable stop and produce scenarios that would emerge, and the abuses thereof.
) so it would annoy me to think someone might ask. I can understand a need to show a driving license, when you are a driver but not so struck on a license to be a citizen.
I agree entirely. The chances are that the cards would be chipped like bank cards, and contain personal details which could be scanned without you even knowing it was happening, so the “stop and produce” scenario would probably only need to happen if the technology couldn’t detect a working card on someone. On top of the “Big Brother” idea of the state keeping tabs on you, the thought of data on the whereabouts of masses of people being used for commercial means is pretty scary.It's not the being watched Chilco, it's the probable stop and produce scenarios that would emerge, and the abuses thereof.
I have nothing to hide (well, not much anyway
The bit in bold is the crux of the matter, not the owning of the card but the need to carry it when you are just out and about. It's only a step away from chipping humans.
