It's never been a policy that wins and always flops
Plus no government has ever rolled out an IT project successfully
this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2025
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Thats because they are without fail massive grifts ran by the IT firms.
UK already has an ID system that about half of all adults already own that is fully integrated and trusted by the police and other services, the driving license. It even operates at a profit.
It would be pretty damn cheap in comparison to implementing a new system to just require everybody who doesn't have the driving license to get a special one thats a different colour and confers no driving privileges.
Of course that would be too simple and wouldn't allow scum to skim huge sums of money so here we are...
Obviously I don't actually want a mandatory ID but if we getting one then might as well make it cheap and already mostly implemented.
UK already has an ID system that about half of all adults already own that is fully integrated and trusted by the police and other services, the driving license. It even operates at a profit.
Is there an option for non drivers? In Canada you can get a photo ID card which is just basically a license but a different colour. Idk why the UK couldn't just have that
Yeah kind of - the provisional license is what you get so you can learn. It's a different colour
It's not technically for non-drivers, but a lot of non-drivers have one and use it for their ID. It's a convenient size, known format etc
You could get a provisional (learner) license and not bother learning to drive, doesn't seem to be a popular choice despite I te it being £14 for ten years
The UK rolled out an IT project that resulted in jail time for innocent people and thirteen suicides. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Post_Office_scandal
Wasn't there a bit in that old political documentary/comedy Yes Minister about how a mandatory ID scheme was one of the most politically suicidal things a politician could propose, much less actually attempt to implement?
Good luck enforcing it.
I remember not too long ago anyone criticizing New Labour in general, or Starmer specifically, would get lots of down votes and people calling you hysterical, or a conservative shill.
Er, I mean gee, who could have seen this coming?
Just because that's been proven to be the right approach now doesn't mean it was when they just took government. If I say "oh this movie is terrible no one should watch it" just as it hit theatres when no one's really given it a watch yet, I can't come back later if it turns out it was bad and say "I told you so", a lot of the early criticism was unfounded just because things weren't moving fast enough.
Papers please...
Remember, remember the fifth of November...
Was just gonna say how eerie is that our world is playing out like V for Vendetta.
How did they fuck this up so badly that Brexit seems not as bad as it is?
Whoever’s deciding to round up the geezers, boot out the disabled, restore the oil industry and begin The Panopticon needs to exit, pursued by a bear post haste. What the shit.
Starmer is just the continuation of Blair's new Labour. It was terrible 30 years ago, and it is still terrible now. Have fun next election when Reform steam rolls over Labour
Yeah that’s what it seems like. But it doesn’t seem like it started out that way, there was a bunch of good decisions and policies coming from the start of this one and then - what happened?
What do you think they did well? Because Labour only fame into power because the Tories became a bloated corpse.
Some early stuff basically starting to repair things from a generation or two of conservative rule. No I can’t think of them off the top of my head, I just remember seeing UK Politics posts and thinking “oh good - finally!” And now lately it’s . . . this.
I can't resist the feeling he's self destructing deliberately.
That or taking some very bad advice very frequently
A difference with too little distinction
Well, I suppose he's already one of the most unpopular politicians in history. Why not throw more things on the dumpster fire? Coming up next: Keir Starmer asks Parliament "What what so terrible about the poll tax then? Isn't it time for another go at it?". Meanwhile Rachel Reeves has started an investigation to find out if she can tax breathing.
Love seeing this second rate Tony Blair playing the hits. Do the one where we invade a country for no reason next!
Imagine complying with this crap.
Modernize? Bitch please. The state is already modern, the correct terms your looking for is "Exploit and Destroy" the privacy rights of your citizens.
oof
Who is advising him? ChatGPT?
Worse, it seems to be Tony Blair.
Id cards were one of Blair's most unpopular policies, and all the AI first stuff seems to be coming straight from the Tony Blair institute.
The Tony Blair institute for peace in the middle east?
I thought I heard Tom Scott say something on his lateral podcast about how compulsory ID in the UK is explicitly not allowed?
Presumably they'd change the law as part of this if that were the case.
Don’t think this will fly
The aversion the anglosphere has for something as simple as an ID card has always baffled me.
I think it's far less the card and far more the endless tracking it enables.
If done well, a government opperated digital ID could be very beneficial for society. Having a way to securely sign into different platforms using a trustless authenticator (that only shares the information you approve of) with a third party could be great.
Imagine signing onto a news site and knowing that every comment is actually a real person from your community and not a bot or a targeted influence campaign pushing an agenda.
The website doesn't have to know your name, the government doesn't have to know your username or track your activity, all what's shared is that you're an adult citizen from a particular region.
My only problem is I don't exactly trust that it would be setup in this sort of ideal way.
Big if. You are massively over-estimating the capability of the government to implement technology, infrastructure or piss ups in breweries.
This is something that will be abused, either by design or incompetence. I've said in another comment and I'll say it again, what will the reform party do with this set up?
I'm sure this will only bolster his popularity.
WTF!