I'm missing something there Ben. The whole point of providing a photo is because the photo doesn't exist or is out of date - so what comparative?
If I don't have a passport, don't have photo ID driver's licence and apply for a voter card - what can anyone check against? OK, I agree that they can check electoral rolls, banking details, utility stuff etc to do a rough check of who lives where - fine - but that doesn't validate images of those people does it?
A couple of family members used to work at Peterborough Passport Office ... they said that the checks carried out 'behind the scenes' were pretty extensive.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Punkdoc,I spent 5 years on and off in the ED in the days when it was called Casualty,have seen the problem for myself. No ID,any allergies, medical conditions!! Patient goes into cardiac arrest,do they have a DNAR in place,do they want organ donation,who do we contact
So now the ID cards will include allergies, medical conditions and next of kin details as well as organ donation preferences. Anything else?
Judging by the efficiency of all other government departments I expect this will all run smoothly and create not a single problem or issue. There would never be a situation where ID cards were unavailable or not working properly that would impact anyone’s right to vote!! Perish the thought.
@Stevetu, aren’t you over complicating the discussion of getting a voter ID card from the local council?
As has been said, it is a very small group of people who do not already hold acceptable photo ID. If I am in that group and want one of the cards I would have to be on the electoral roll anyway. I think it is robust enough for the council to ask for a couple of official letters containing my name and address as confirmation. You say those letters could be forged. Maybe, but not by me they couldn’t and nor by a big chunk of the population whose IT skills are just rudimentary.
It seems to me to be a big expenditure of effort to forge documents to get an ID card that entitles you to a single vote. If I wanted to indulge in electoral malpractice I would look to explore weaknesses in postal voting processes which strike me as being not totally robust.
@Nanny Beach Today’s students, what are they like? It must be such fun going up to a person you don’t know and saying ‘My name is Faisal Ahmed [when it is really Chloë Arbuthnot] and here is my voter registration card to prove it’. That’s quite a jape. I might try something similar tomorrow at the Adult Education Centre. When I present my pass at the front desk I am going to stick a postage stamp over my photo and see if they call me ‘Your Majesty’. 🙂
I don't think that's what's being said - there's the voter ID bit, which I think most people seem to support and the other related branched posts about general personal ID. The card itself (in both cases - voter ID and general ID) doesn't have to carry much data at all - for a voter card, it seems they're talking about just a link between a photo and a name for a visual check (or that's how I've read it). For 'other' ID, I'm for anything that makes life simpler - so if the gov wanted a general ID card, I'd be lost if they didn't include medical data. That doesn't have to be on the card itself - but the card has to be able to be used to pull up that data (within secure, trusted environments). I would see that card carrying roughly the same data - the name,photo and some form of ID number to access the stored data. Where the two cards get conflated, is you wouldn't need a voter card if you had a general ID card - they would be one and the same. Clear as mud eh?
My first passport I originally got in the 70's (British Visitors and valid for 1 year) so all my passports since then have I suppose been based on that one. When my son needed a full passport some years ago he had to attend an interview and I think took the photos with him. As he has Aspergers Syndrome I was allowed to accompany him into the interview room but was told I could not speak for him as all answers had to be his own. We got the passport for ID purposes as he lives with me but held no form of recognisable ID (Drivers Licence ,Utility bill etc) and he needed some to open a bank account, benefits etc. He has never used the passport to travel anywhere but remains his main form of ID.
“Every day is ordinary, until it isn't.” - Bernard Cornwell-Death of Kings
Posts
Oh lighten up
'The power of accurate observation .... is commonly called cynicism by those that have not got it.
George Bernard Shaw'
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Really?
Hilarious
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
As has been said, it is a very small group of people who do not already hold acceptable photo ID. If I am in that group and want one of the cards I would have to be on the electoral roll anyway. I think it is robust enough for the council to ask for a couple of official letters containing my name and address as confirmation. You say those letters could be forged. Maybe, but not by me they couldn’t and nor by a big chunk of the population whose IT skills are just rudimentary.
It seems to me to be a big expenditure of effort to forge documents to get an ID card that entitles you to a single vote. If I wanted to indulge in electoral malpractice I would look to explore weaknesses in postal voting processes which strike me as being not totally robust.
@Nanny Beach Today’s students, what are they like? It must be such fun going up to a person you don’t know and saying ‘My name is Faisal Ahmed [when it is really Chloë Arbuthnot] and here is my voter registration card to prove it’. That’s quite a jape. I might try something similar tomorrow at the Adult Education Centre. When I present my pass at the front desk I am going to stick a postage stamp over my photo and see if they call me ‘Your Majesty’. 🙂
When my son needed a full passport some years ago he had to attend an interview and I think took the photos with him.
As he has Aspergers Syndrome I was allowed to accompany him into the interview room but was told I could not speak for him as all answers had to be his own.
We got the passport for ID purposes as he lives with me but held no form of recognisable ID (Drivers Licence ,Utility bill etc) and he needed some to open a bank account, benefits etc.
He has never used the passport to travel anywhere but remains his main form of ID.