Support for the UK's national ID card programme continues to plummet, with one quarter of people saying they are strongly opposed to the scheme.
According to an ICM poll, 25 percent of those surveyed thought it was a "very bad" idea — up from 17 percent in September last year.
Opponents of the ID card scheme said the survey of just over 1,000 people, commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, showed the government would be "unable to impose" the cards on the population.
But, while 50 percent said the cards were a bad idea in the ICM poll, 47 percent of those questioned still thought they were a good idea. And 12 percent of that group thought they were a "very good" idea.
Phil Booth, national co-ordinator with pressure group No2ID, said: "It shows that more people don't want ID cards than do, as is clearly the case across the population."
Booth added: "The number of people who look like they will refuse to have one has gone up massively; a quarter of the population are vehemently against them."
The idea of the government taking data submitted for one use and sharing it between departments also made 52 percent of respondents uncomfortable.
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The poll found the majority of respondents support creating a separate database of every child in the UK, creating a central identity register and collecting personal travel details on everyone coming in and out of the UK.
The first ID cards will be introduced for foreign nationals by the end of this year.
The widespread rollout to UK citizens, known as "Borders Phase II", is now slated to begin in 2012 — two years later than indicated in an earlier government action plan.
Talkback
So a lot Apposed To ID Cards
Dont You know Most Drivers Have Already got one,
But What Does it matter, If You Have Nothing To Hide
Then You Dont Have To Worry
But If You Have, Then By Having An ID Card, You Might Not Get away
So Easily, But Same Old Story
Does Everybody Have To Have One
Or Is It Another Excuse For Racism ?? To Get Out Of Having One ??
As someone who has supported no2id from it's very early days, I can say that when out and about talking to people about this issue I have met only two classes of people:
1 - Those that already know about the issues and are opposed.
2 - Those that know only the government line, if that, and initially dismiss opposition to the scheme.
I have never actually met anyone in the other theoretical class of those that know what the issues are and still support the scheme. That's not to say they don't exist, just that of all the many people I have spoken to, none have expressed themselves as being in this group.
Oh and those in class 2) who's interest is piqued enough to stick around for a little while become more and more anti the longer the conversation continues. I can be quite convincing I suppose, but I have NEVER had anywhere NEAR that level of success with any other political issues I have campaigned on. I'm afraid it's like shooting fish in a barrel.
It really doesn't surprise me that the anti-ID vote is climbing hard. It is simply following the track of expanding knowledge of the problems with the scheme.
NuLabour should sit down and have a really good think about this. I know that modern politicians make a virtue out of complete intransigence and of ignoring new information (no U turns !!), but sometimes an issue comes along that turns into pure political poison.
Remember the Poll Tax?
Sorry Mr Tiddy, but we both have something to hide and what's more we both have an automatic expectation that we will be allowed to hide it.
Privacy is a word that is defined as the hiding of our personal private information from those that we don't want to have it.
Thought experiment.
The government have just passed a new law that means you are required on pain of a £1000 fine to make a copy of all your keys (house, car, garage, office) and take them along with your birth certificate and passport to the nearest cop shop (assuming you still have one) and hand them in. Any civil servant, or agency employee would then be allowed to wander into your house or wherever, whenever they feel like it without telling you in advance .. or even after they have left.
No problem with that?
After all, if you have nothing to hide you have nothing fear!
The NIR is pretty much exactly this, but in the data domain. It is an awesome breach of our privacy. It is totally unprecedented in human history. Even the likes of China, North Vietnam and don't have anything close to this. Furthermore the only times any comparable precursor has even been attempted has been just prior to a totalitarian takeover .. many of which this country has been instrumental in tearing down.
That isn't the Britain our forefathers fought and died for.
Sorry.
I agree What I was Doing was to see if I Could get a reply, It Worked#
The Thing is If They Enforce It we british Will Just Take It
BUT What about Certain Denominations Who Will Cry RACISM
We Had Had All The Dominations Going in this Country For Years
But ask Yourself When Did this racism Start & By Who
We British are Not Allowed To Do Anything Without It Been Questioned As Racism, No Little Piggies, No Ba ba B**** Sheep
These Are the People Who Is Causing Problems All Over The Globe
& Take It From Me, They Are Taking The British Isles Over
& The Goverment Do Nothing, Only Bow Down to them
They Have no Guts to Tell Them To go to H***
If They Come here Then we Are The Law Not them
But The Government Just try To Cover Up with ID Cards Etc Etc etc
I quite agree that the American inspired Political Correctness mania is dangerous, anti-democratic and a pile of other bad things.
What I'm not sure about is the link with ID cards other than that, the fact of it's existence makes the public more susceptible to the un-reasons dished out as it's advantages.
I challenge you all to become naturists and to go live in greenhouses. Then maybe you will finally appreciate something the rest of us call "privacy".
I like your radical proposal!
It certainly doesn't feel comfirtable for the government to know everything about the individual. We've already had breaches in various departments, how can we trust that our personal details won't fall into the wrong hands?
I might support the I.D. cards if they contain limited information and are only used to know who's in the country and who's not, but then we already have passports for that!
As a senior citizen, I've been trying think of how to say something on this subject for quite a while but couldn't find the words.
I would, however, like to reinforce the fact that our fathers fought and died for the ideal of FREEDOM and that this is the basis of their value standards, handed on to us not to be squandered lightly.
"The poll found the majority of respondents support creating a separate database of every child in the UK, creating a central identity register"
No! Absolutely not! That commits our children who had no say in the matter, and makes the I.D. system and Nation Register a 'Fait Accompli'
"I might support the I.D. cards if they contain limited information and are only used to know who's in the country and who's not, but then we already have passports for that!"
The plan seems to be to merge ID cards and Passports into virtually identical instruments, but the core issue has never been the ID cards themselves. The problem is the fact that the card is just the part of the iceberg that pokes out of the water.
The massive database underneath is the real problem and the core of that problem is the single unique identifier and the fact that the intention is to "Data Clean" a whole raft of other databases by using the NIR number as a unique reference; and thereafter a index key to allow all of these databases to be aggregated into a single picture.