Biggest British firms could make ID cards compulsory for staff
The Scotsman reports that large companies could immediately force employees and job applicants to register for an identity card if parliament legislates for “voluntary” ID cards:
An identity card could become a prerequisite to being hired by many of Britain’s biggest employers, in a move that would undermine the supposedly voluntary nature of the controversial scheme.
Thirty of Britain’s largest companies are in talks with the government about making the possession of ID cards – likely to cost at least £100 each – a central part of their employment practices.
The vast government-run database supporting the ID card system could also be tied into companies’ payroll and benefits networks. Serving employees could also face identity checks against the information stored on the register.
The outcome of the discussions between the Home Office and companies including the Royal Bank of Scotland, HBOS and Tesco, could severely curtail the options for people who choose not to have a card when they are introduced on a voluntary basis in 2008.
Given the recent news that the Home Office is also considering making a Criminal Records bureau letter a “designated document” (thus forcing teachers and anyone else working with children to get an ID card), can anyone now doubt that the initial “voluntary” stage of the scheme would be a sham, and the cards would in fact be compulsory for most people right from the start?
September 27th, 2005 at 12:15
Of course these things will become compulsory. The sham of them being optional is exactly that, a sham. ALL the so called benefits of these cards simply don’t stand up unless these things are made compulsory. There is absolutley NO use in an optional ID card.
September 30th, 2005 at 05:14
Come on guys: Stop whining. You have two options: Either accept all the infringements of civil liberties that come with a police state, or emigrate. You surely realise you’ll be driven to emigration eventually, so why not make it sooner and beat the rush. You start to wonder if encouraging the middle age, middle class segment of the population to leave is government policy. They have already made postal voting difficult, which is a form of disenfranchisement. Even though emigrants become invisible imports, switching their ill-gotton gains into other currencies, the government still saves on the NHS. Depending where you go, the state pension is frozen at retirement date. They never learn: Peter Wright (Spycatcher) only blew the whistle because he’d been cheated over his pension. So anyone with a whistle to blow will be encourages to get into print. And don’t forget the immigrants will more than replace those emigrating. Labour importing their own voters. Seriously, what do you think will prevent Police State UK? Americans have got firearms, they’ve got patriotism and they’ve got vast wilderness areas. What has Britain got? A load of disgruntled spare bedroom bloggers. Well, that ain’t going to cut it. The irony is that in escaping from Police State UK, you are likely to fetch up in an even less democratic country. But trust me, it’s not an issue. You reception in your host country is what’s important, and the English gentleman still plays well in most of Asia. So if you ever find yourself in downtown ….
October 3rd, 2005 at 20:50
So, one way or another the Government of the day (do you really think any of them gaining power will let this opportunity go) is working all angles to ensure that we must all obtain ID cards, at our own cost if we wish to live in theUK, feed ourselves and our families, have medical support and so on.
I never imagined I would be forced out of my own country. And for the authorities who no doubt monitor traffic to and on this site – this is hypothetical analysis of the possibilities. While at present there are thousands of ‘backroom bloggers’ what would happen if they all woke up one day, heard about police raids on innocent people and so on and the fored introduction of ID cards… This is the modern world, people are well informed and can think for themselves today. Communications would be hard to kill off. If 1 million people decided they had had enough of ‘Police State UK’ – well, I wouldn’t want to get caught up in the middle of it. Imaging; transportation routes closed, power outages and so on. 1 million pissed off people is a lot of potential trouble, trouble that even the army on the streets could not stop once it got going.
I will never condone violence, but I’m damn sure someone somewhere will ‘loose it’ on day when he/she sees their family starving, is disallowed from a job, sees their child die for lack of medical treatment… and what for… so a power hungry government can have as much information on innocent individuals as possible. Knowledge is power they say… but concent of the people is even more powerful.
I don’t want forced out of my country, I don’t want to live in a dangerously potential police state, I don’t want children to suffer. neither do I want to see our taxes squandered, I want to see an even hand given to new comers and longterm residents of this country. I have witnessed the power of the UK secret court system already and suffered for that glance. The future is far more dangerous for Joe public than he realises and the major threat is from within, from within the authoritative power base. It is human nature to take advantage where possible – politicians, military types etc.. are ambitious, pushy whatever you want to call it. I suppose they need to be – but then the danger amplifies when those traits are combined with information (knowledge).
In 10 yrs we could find the countries ‘we’ democritise today will turn around and disown the UK as a non-democratic country.
To think I have worked all my life to support this country, now… it is happy to list the likes of me (outspoken) as a terroist (see last weeks Labour Conference goings on) and take action against me because I disagree openly with the orders from above. I am ashamed to have been born British, but I still think there is hope for this country.
Throughout 30 yrs of ‘Troubles’ in N Ireland the authorities refused to introduce ID cards as it would be useless against terrorism – What’s Changed? But the ideas put forward so far… DNA printing new born babies???? So much for Human Rights – Oh sorry I forgot. Mr Clark says we will opt out of that so his new laws can operate unhindered. Then there is also the time a Crown Court Judge in the UK told me in open court I had no Human Rights after he was challenged for declaring me guilty before evidence was given… And in the years since the authorities have protected him and his statement with tooth and nail. Oh yes, my ‘crime’.. I spoke to my son outside the strict times of a contact order when I met him in the street and I compounded matters by buying him sweets at the same time.
A taste of the future for many many more I dare say as the same protocols are now moving into the mainstream courts, and we are all terrorists until we can prove otherwise!!!
October 5th, 2005 at 22:21
Who would have thought that the new face of smartcard fascism would be none other than ‘Red’ Ken Livingstone.
Yesterday ‘Red’ Ken announced a 100% increase in the price of train fares for tube passengers who opt to pay cash for their tickets while slashing the price for Oyster Card holders to half of the cash price.
Stopping people from using cash on London’s public transport and forcing them instead to use credit and Oyster cards that track their every journey around London’s transport systems “is the ultimate objective” of the new public transport price hikes say ‘Red’ Ken.
As ‘Red’ Ken forces tracking smartcards onto Londoners it is perhaps worth reminding him of a few choice words from some leftie doctrine or another:
“All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses, his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.”