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

I didn't post number 130.

Try 138 then.

I'm just going to presume you mean 139.

I have not created my own argument. It is a valid concern raised by civil liberties pressure groups and other people on this thread: Fraud.

In England I only needed ID when opening a bank account or (bizarrely) a Blockbuster account. There's just no need. Creating another tier of beaurocracy will not cut down beaurocracy, it will just pile it on top.

You cannot sell civil liberties down the river to "tidy up the years in between". It is fundamentally *wrong*.

Oh, and please do not assume everyone on this thread is just adressing you alone. It's no wonder you're getting upset when people don't strictly answer Post 1. It's an open debate and one that was making progress.

I'm glad that I got you to read two or three of the previous postings.
I only wish that I could find some way of getting you to stick to the point. I realise now that the (Just Now)suffix to your name means that you do not look back. Unfortunately it also seems that you have no intention of looking forward. Would you please outline the progress that you say has been made in this 'open debate' and the contribution that you have made other than to act as spokesman for the civil liberties pressure group.
For the record out of courtesy I responded directly to postings that are addressed to me. You choose to ignore the points specifically put to you in posting 140 (or there abouts..).

Dear AncientBrit,

Kelli didn't reprimand you for anything. She merely pointed out to you that it's not at all usual for an h2g2 conversation to have reached Post 124 and still be on-topic - which is, if anything, understating the case.

AncientBrit, if a remark of yours was instrumental in starting a discussion between a dozen people in a pub would you really be surprised if they drifted from the original topic occasionally, or if little enclaves broke off to argue between themselves without reference to you?

(locked out of my account )

Thanks Madam Kat, was about to make the same comment but you beat me to it, and spelt my name right too

AncientBrit, yes I have read the entire thread, and thought about each new post when it arrived regardless of whether it responds precisely to post 1 or post 100.

k

Not at all but I may well try to bring the conversation back on line from time to time.
If the conversation became too noisy and hard to follow I could easily mistake Kelly for Kelli. I may even switch off my deaf aid..

Personally, I think that the conversation has been kept pretty much on target, at least through the posts I've read. The points brought up are valid points and I feel they need to be taken into consideration when talking about the 'necessity' of carrying an ID card. Before trying to find out how to get people to carry them, we need to find out if it's really necessary to have them issued to people.

Also, AncientBrit, I posted a question a bit earlier about the use of ID cards like you proposed in Post 1. You wanted people with ID cards to get soem sort of a rebate or some benefits for carrying it. What about people who live in this country, who are not UK citizens, but have ID cards from their home countries? Should they then get the same benefits as the UK citizens that are carrying an ID card, or would the foreign ID card not be valid?

In response to a number of previous postings aimed at me - here goes:

Tefkat - my point was that I dont need ID in the UK, I can merrily go about my daily life with only a pocket full of cash and at no time do I need to prove who I am.

Ancient Brit - Duh ..... I got my passport the same way as you did - filled in the form and sent it off with the piccies and supporting documentation. This has little if anything to do with your assertion that we need to have an ID card.

I have never needed one - dont need one now - see no reason (other than the desire of the authorities to further erode my civil liberties, criminalise me etc.) why I would need one in the future.

>I only wish that I could find some way of getting you to stick to the point.

You can't make us stick to the point. You can't make us want to carry cards simply by bribery

Sorry, I thought my last post addressed post 1 quite directly. Perhaps I have misunderstood post 1? In which case, perhaps you might restate your case rather than getting aggressive?

I am not sure from your post what views you think I hold, but I am an opponent of ID cards. I do not understand why you think I might wish to carry a sandwich board stating either side of the case.

Gif

Putting all your eggs in one basket..... I put all my cards in one wallet at the moment, surely this is the same, only it take longer to cancel them all and get them all replaced if they get stolen.

Mel

And there would still be the passport. Speaking of which, how do you get a new one of those if it gets stolen?

That happened to a friend of mine. If you're at home, you just re-apply. If you're abroad, you need to go to your embassy. Either way, they charge you (about sixty quid, I think). If you have a note of your passport number, they can check your photo quite quickly, otherwise it can take a few days.

Gif

But how do you go about proving you are the right person?

I lost my passport while in the US a couple of years ago, and I got an 'Emergency Passport' issued within a couple of hours of me contacting the Swedish Consulate in New York. All I had to do was to bring some photos and fill in a form and they got everything sorted. I think they charged me something like $19 for that.

It was an ugly, bright pink, passport that the passport control should take off me once I reached my home destination, but they never did. That passport was only calid for about 2 weeks, though.

Simulpost there, Xanatic... When I needed that emergency passport, I used my handy drivers licence as an ID card.

But what I want to know is, if you loose your passport, and you have no credit cards and no drivers license, what do you do? Are you just lost for society for good?

I dunno.. Luckily, I didn't have to worry about that, since I had an ID. But I guess you'd have to give your social security number and they could check up on that.

When you apply for a passport, you need to give them 2 photos. One goes in your passport and the other is kept in the Ministry of Infomation Storage or something. When you apply for a replacement, they fax through a copy of the photo, presumably with instructions only to give the passport to someone who looks like the photo.

At least, that was what happened to my friend. That is also why it's quicker if you know your passport number, they don't have to sort through thousands of alphabetical files.

Gif

Fingerprinting schholchildren?
See:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/26305.html