Stefek Zaba wrote:
The govt don't have to make them overtly compulsory - they will become
the standard for all occasions where identity is desired (even if not
neeed),
Indeed. But I can't see most of these simpler "ID checks" being done by
Fully Authorised Users with biometric readers and links to the Central
DB. (To be specific: enrol at NHS provider: yes, but emergency treatment
won't need an ID card; evg classes - no;

It'll be required 'for the safety of other students' - applicants
already have to declare criminal convictions

rent a flat - no;

Landlords and letting agents would be daft to let without some proof of
ID; if there's an ID Card they can ask for that. Not legally demand, but
there will be no penalty on them refusing to let to someone without an
ID Card.

rent a car - not at most sites, *expecially* airports (short-stay
overseas visitors won't carry a UK-issued ID card);

Short-stay overseas visitors will have a passport or National Identity
Card from their own country.

start new job - no,

Already required, to some extent.

All of which suggests to me that there will be a great deal of purely
visual ID-card "checking" - "yup, that looks like your photo on that bit
of laminated plastic". Which will make trivial forgery well worth while:
and because the majority, law-abiding population would (if the
legislation came to pass) carry genuine Govt-issue ID, the aura of
Officially Issued ID would make using non-reader-checked use of
forgeries *more*, not less, attractive to fraudsters.

I agree, but the number of places asking for or insisting on ID Card
will mean that most people will decide it's less hassle to forget their
principles and get one.

Stefek, appearing to drift from uk.d-i-y topics - but what's more d-i-y
than forging plausible-looking State ID cards? Oh, silly me, it'll be
*illegal*; so that'll stop everyone, expecially criminals, from doing it...

Why bother forging a card - if the system is based on existing records
(passports, driving licences, birth certificates) those are already all
compromised. Just apply for a new card with false info. The biometric
/might/ mean you can only get one card and duplicates will be detected,
but possibly not.

Owain