The populist battle cries echoing throughout modern Britain in 2025. Everywhere you look there’s nothing but wars, riots, outrage or hatred. I’ve not seen this level of civil discontent since the 1970s. When will it all end? More importantly, where will it all end?
Digital ID cards for all workers – apparently. This is the newest answer to whatever the problem is much to the consternation of the purse-lipped, finger wagging, bleeding-heart do-gooding fraternity. Even before the ink of their latest civil liberties infringement petition has barely dried, the nutter lobby is already proclaiming an Orwellian Big Brother state.
Pause to think a mo before you jump on a soapbox screaming that your personal freedom is being eroded faster than a stick of seaside rock being sucked away by a trout-pout teenager. How can these people even suggest such a thing when every one of us has a birth certificate registering our existence lodged in some super computer/ledger/filing cabinet somewhere.
So, you don’t mind carrying a smartphone with you every minute of the day (ie a personal GPS tracker by any other name) but there’s no way you’d carry an ID card. Oh the delicious irony of it all!
NI number, NHS number, phone number, driving licence, passport, store or bank cards, etc, etc – mate it’s too late to start moaning that you’re just a number and not a free man because whether you like it or not society is built on numerical parameters. For law. For order. For the means of locating anyone or anything. It’s just the way it is.
Still Here Keir is desperately trying to shut the stable door albeit all the donkeys have bolted. Let’s at least give the man a fighting chance. If you’ve got nothing to hide then what’s the problem? Although according to my paranoid family they’ve already arrived at the conclusion that these ID cards (likely to be renewable) may be something else we will all have to pay for in future thus creating a lucrative money spinner for the Treasury.
As I see it, if you want to know exactly WHO is in your country then rather than digital ID cards for all workers perhaps the Government should consider the following:
Digital or plastic ID cards for all persons arriving illegally in the UK that include a unique identifying number, photo and finger-print. Even whilst they wait for their asylum claims to be processed, they could still be made identifiable particularly as I suspect that any relevant documents pertaining to new arrivals are likely to be nothing more than a soggy mass floating in the English Channel. Come on – they don’t really want us to properly identify them because that makes it easier to slip into the murky black market economy like thieves in the night.
Ellis Island in the US was historically an immigration inspection and processing station and I can’t understand why Britain has not set up an equivalent to deal with the process of documenting all those who have arrived illegally on our shores. This would at least provide much needed jobs and tax revenues for the nation.
Re-introduce the requirement that all those with one of the above ID cards report to their local Police Station every six months. Back in the 1960s this is exactly what LEGAL migrants like my parents had to do in order to maintain their right to stay and work in the UK.
Legislate accordingly. Establish a Right to Work in the UK Act then roll out a system to every employer in the land whereby they have to list all new recruits and affirm they’ve carried out all necessary checks under this new UK legislation. Non-compliance to be punishable with a hefty fine used to offset the costs of migrant processing or issuing ID cards.
Abolish ‘cash in hand’ jobs or cash only establishments by including this requirement in any current employment or tax legislation. Spot check those industries where this type of employment is rife. If employers (including small businesses) cannot produce a payroll substantiating who is on their books then close them down.
Scrap NI numbers and instead introduce individually numbered mini birth certificates so that everyone born on this turf is registered from day 1. These could act as ID cards and the unique number could then supersede the existing system of NI numbers once you begin earning. You will become a number not a name but at least this system would allow all relevant agencies to keep consistent standardised records along your lifetime.
I do think national ID cards are a good idea and long overdue. I’m all for it. Happy to be a number since I’m already a number to just about every important establishment in my life – employer, doctor, tax man, bank etc. Other countries have been using national ID cards for decades with no major insurrections or qualms about civil liberties being infringed so why is it only the UK that gets so uppity about this issue?
Honestly, I do believe there are some people whose sole purpose in life is to continually throw spanners in the works. In my experience problems only get solved with a straight forward common-sense approach that allows no room for loop-holes or errors.
Perhaps all those who sign civil liberties petitions could be asked to provide their suggestions for how the documentation/identification of illegals should be dealt with or maybe they’ve just got too much to hide. When push comes to shove, it’s always 'cat got your tongue' for the previously most vocal.
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