An allegedly leaked document from the Passport Service shows that the government intends to use “coercion” to get people to sign up for an ID card. While this isn’t news per-se, as we knew they would anyway, it is probably the first time they have actually admitted it.
Typical tactics will include requiring people to get one when they renew their passports or get a driving licence. Luckily I already have a driving licence but I suppose I’ll have to renew my passport just before the requirement comes in, to get the maximum 10 years before being either forced to get one or unable to leave the EU. Well, probably more like unable to leave the UK, because even going over to France they still seem to want to see your passport.
Hopefully the scheme will die before it gets started, or within the first ten years so I won’t have to get one. Another interesting idea someone posted on /. is for people to boycott the ID cards. The poster suggested at first handing out information to people trying to use them, followed by refusing to serve people with them. Perhaps just refusing to accept them as proof of ID might be a better idea.
I’d bet serious money they will be cracked within one year anyway. That actually makes them worse than traditional non-biometric ID, because at least before people naturally distrusted single forms of ID (e.g. banks usually require multiple forms of ID to open an account). With biometric cards, if you pass the iris scan you will be in, as like finger prints and DNA biometrics are infallible. Any hay, if someone steals your identity, you can just get some new eyeballs.