Comments on: Immigration, some more

By: Alan Johnson’s trousers ignite « bella gerens

Alan Johnson’s trousers ignite « bella gerens — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:00:42 +0000

[...] to say that you would make identity cards ‘wholly voluntary’ is a big fat fucking lie, as I pointed out a few days ago: It will remain compulsory for foreign nationals staying the UK long term to have an ID cards but [...]

By: bellagerens

bellagerens — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:42:48 +0000

@ Surreptitious Evil – I’m not sure claiming religious persecution would work, unless I was a member of my own, tiny, self-invented Church of Jesus Christ teh Awesome or something. They are, theoretically, throwing me out, but I’m trying my damnedest not to go without a fight. And I’m still paying my taxes!

By: Surreptitious Evil

Surreptitious Evil — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 05:59:05 +0000

I thought the evil nuLabour state was throwing you out anyway – or have you claimed that you will suffer religious persecution (as recommended ) and everything is now okay-ish?

By: Otto

Otto — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 02:04:28 +0000

Relax you won’t be branded or tattoo’d; Chipping is just so much more modern, and it’s been trialed on pets for years.

By: bellagerens

bellagerens — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:33:59 +0000

You’re probably right. That, or the government has truly begun to realise that it can happily get away with charging for services that tax revenue is already supposed to have paid for. The only difference between ‘administration fees’ here and ‘bribes’ abroad is the nomenclature – and the fact that the government here has absolutely zero shame about it.

By: Alastair Green

Alastair Green — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:30:03 +0000

It is the underlying database, rather than the cards themselves that has always been my main concern. I believe that this database is also used by the passport office and that this has been used to hide some of the costs of the ID cards, hence the massive increase in the cost of a passport. This means that they will already have the details of most citizens on the system, even if we are not obliged to carry the cards.