What do people think of identity cards? Anyone got any ideas how they can be used to reduce crime in general and specific bits of criminal behavior, given that the consequences of some crime is far worse than any subsequent punishment..
quote: Mr Blunkett admitted the cards would offer no guarantee against a Madrid-style terrorist attack in Britain, but insisted they would help tackle serious crimes including terrorism, drug trafficking, money laundering, identity theft, illegal working and illegal immigration.
He said: "The primary reason for having ID cards is not because we believe they will stop terrorists. It will contribute towards the overall task of prevention but it will not guarantee that we will not be hit."
- muslim women don't need to put their faces on cards.
- would everyday retailers need to see your id before selling things to you?
- the intended punishment for not having an id card is 10 years jail [can police really spend the time required to check on people who may not exist?]
- under 16's don't need cards (presumably they don't get involved in organised crime)

[I guess they'll award the it contract to run the database of 60million uk residents to a separate company that runs the databases of NHS records, which is a separate company to the one that runs the criminal records buraeu.. well more money for IT anyway :-)]