Comment Re:Differs from a drvier's license, how? (Score 1) 374
Differences:
1) National biometric database. If you were just being asked to tootle down the police station for fingerprinting, would you be so unconcerned? Because that is what is necessary for this scheme.
2) Production on demand. You can be stopped in the street and have your ID demanded of you. If you do not produce it within X days at a police station, you are breaking the law.
There are many more differences, but these are the enormous ones. As Blunkett himself says, the difference is not the card, it is that the legislation means the police will have the power to make you prove that you're not "up to no good". Of course, it doesn't even do this; it just proves you have a card, but never mind. When did it become incumbent upon me to prove my good nature?
Ask yourself this: if there were truly no significant difference between a driving licence and an ID card, why are we spending billions of pounds on the latter? This is a licence not to drive, but simply to live in our own country. IMHO, the government should exist at our convenience, and not vice versa.
