h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

How does the general community feel about this creeping irritation into our society?

If you want to even speak to a Lawyer now you must prove your id by producing your passport (or equivalent id)

If you want to buy a house you need to be id'd by your mortgage broker, the estate agents _and_ the lawyers.

I had to produce a passport to id myself to my current employers when I first started here.

It begins to get very irritating and the excuse is always the same - it's to prevent money laundering (Yeah right).

Am I the only one who finds the whole thing not just irritating but actually very restrictive - how many business deals have gone s up because of this?

We're currently struggling to persuade our lawyer we are who we say we are on a house purchase because my partner cannot give them sufficient id. She's given them her passport but we need to produce for her a utility bill or bank statement for the last three months that shows our current address. Well that's jsut dandy but we've only just sold our old house and so have been here less than 3 months, we don't get bank statements as we;ve opted for paperless internet banking only and her name's not on any bills
Apparently a mobile phone bill and savings account bank statement (from and ISA) is not accetable

Are we soon going to need to produce our M15 vetting profile in order to get an appointment at the hairdressers?

or MI5 even ;-0

I've also found it bloody ridiculous. I do have utility bills in my name (unfortunately), but having to produce them every time I want to do something with my own money is really annoying.

These days I am expected to produce my passport to collect my Open Uni parcels if I'm out. I have one at the moment, but it's due to run out in September and I won't be renewing it because I haven't used it for most of its life. I don't have a photo driving licence either.

So you're not the only one.

If I were being cynical, I might think it's a co-ordinated effort to make carrying just one piece of ID in the future more palatable.

but I really really can't work out the objection to carrying ID.

I realise that the amount of info that's apparently going to be put on the national ID cards is too much (even I might balk at that) but ... i live in a very liberal democracy. It has been for years. Yet the citizens all carry an ID card, and are more than happy to register with the local town hall when they move somewhere.

Most of them don't have passports as they can travel between EU countries with the ID card and they are often very when they read about the way British people get so up in arms about it. (admittedly, these ID cards don't carry too much in the way of info)

Anyway, it doesn't bother me. I'm not German so I don't qualify for the ID card, and apparently as a non-resident Brit I won't be obliged to carry one of theirs either.

Thinking it's co-ordinated might be closer to paranoia than cynicism. Thinking that the effect of business holding and demanding more of our data will have some eroding effect resistance to the ID card is less cynicism and more like realism.

Money laundering is a massive problem, though, and there's hell to pay if someone catches it happening on your watch. Most of these people are probably just covering themselves.
Not that this is a good thing, but it's a slightly different argument.

I wouldn't mind having one id card, as long as it's not compulsory to carry it at all times and doesn't have too much info visible on it. I'd also like all gov computers linked up, so when I fill in forms I only have to do it once, not loads of times, and don't have to ring loads of different numbers to talk to the *same* department, just because the benefit has a different name.

And I bet that if we *do* get id cards, they'll still want something to prove our address, because I won't carry anything with my address on, in case my bag is snatched. I don't have much to steal, but I still don't want a stranger smashing the place up to find that out.

Having a bloody id card wouldn't help. My driving License, passport and uni photo id card for work aren't sufficient. You need to prove your address and in the last three months.

And I don't believe for a second it's all about preventing money laundering.
How does my other half habing to prove where she lives in order to get a divorce from her ex prevent money laundering?
How does me producing a passport to get a job in a country where I am a citizen born and bred prevent money laundering?
Total cobblers. I can believe they're trying to restrict illegal immigration on the latter but that's not the excuse they use. I wouldn't mind so much if they didn't come up with a pile of bull as an excuse.

>> I'd also like all gov computers linked up, so when I fill in forms I only have to do it once, not loads of times <<

The government can't even get a single computer system to work properly...the chances of them being able to join them up is almost zero.

One of the arguments against ID cards in the UK, quite apart from the invasion of privacy and loss of freedom issues, is the fact that it is almost guaranteed to be an almighty cock-up.

RF

>>The government can't even get a single computer system to work properly<<

The government can't even get a single computer to work. Or at least the local council can't.

i heard on radio earlier that in sweden they have an id card system run and paid for by the banks (the main benificiaries), the gov. pays them a (much smaller than cost of whole system) fee to join in, everyone is happywith it.

>> everyone is happywith it <<

How many criminals did they ask?

RF

I work in WHSmith's and we have to idea kids buying 12 or 15 certificate DVD's. Of course they never have any ID on them and I can see how embarassing it is for them having to come back with their parents. For some reason I feel unable to get much joy out of asking pubescent boys for ID, I just feel sorry for them.

Mrs SWL runs a cinema nowadays. The bane of her life is dealing with kids trying to see films they are too young to see. The kids are bad enough, but quite often parents who are dropping them off get quite irate when their kids aren't allowed in. The perception is that the final decision should be with the parents and they get very upset to be told that the law takes precedence

The best one was when a kid was trying to get into a 15 film, but looked about 12. The father arrived and kicked up a fuss, which Mrs SWL spotted on cctv. She went out to sort it out and found the father quite livid. She explained the law, so the guy sighed and said, "I'm sorry to have to do this, but..." and pulled out his warrant card!!! Mrs SWL just smiled, noted down his ID and said "You should be ashamed of yourself and I'm sure your boss will have something to say when I tell him. Now get out"

You´re saying the kids can´t see a movie over their age even if they have parent´s permission? Sheesh.

That's the law

I'm pleased to say that I reckon ID cards are just a complete no-goer here. We have a traditon of bolshiness and awkwardness here, and a traditon of individuality that the whole concept of ID cards goes right against. If Thatcher in her hey day couldn't make something similar work with football supporters in order to identify hooligans, I doubt anyone else will make it work.

A country which produced the cult classic, The Prisoner, which is still widely shown and re-shown, will hardly tolerate the nonsence of ID cards.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/classic/prisoner/

I am not a number. I am a free man.

I did let J see 12s in the last year or so before he was 12, but only if I'd already seen them and thought them ok for him - obviously at home on DVD. When the afterschool club let him see one I went bonkers. They said there was a form I could fill in to give permission to see older films! I appreciate that there were older children there, but that was out of order. I told them in no uncertain terms that he was not to watch older films, and that if I found out it had happened again I would report them.

At the weekend I was running the entrance to a show, and it had the disgusting cheek to make over 12s pay for an adult ticket. So anyone with borderline kids I saw I made sure to tell them it was under 12s who could get in cheap, so that they could lie if they needed to! All the others were asking the kids ages so that they couldn't get away with it.

Kids can't even get a job until they are 13, so why they should be classed as 'adult' I don't know. I will be investigating.

It *is* about money laundering, whether you like or believe it.

It was all introduced at the same time as the Proceeds of Crime Act.