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It’s arguable whether ID cards could help to either deter illegal immigration or persuade Reform-curious voters to swing back to Labour (Digital ID cards would be good for Britain – and a secret weapon for Labour against Reform, 9 June). On the first, actors in the informal economy are adept at getting around new mechanisms. On the second, a canny political operator like Nigel Farage is just as likely to turn any such move to Labour’s disadvantage.
Maybe the benefits of ID cards would outweigh the costs if they could be introduced at the flick of a switch. But the cost and effort would be huge. (The costings produced by Labour Together look more than optimistic.) So, ID cards might be a “nice-to-have” if the government was on an even keel, with the luxury of time and resources to spare – but it isn’t. The government needs to be much better at focusing finite resources – especially delivery expertise – on the problems that really matter (the NHS, housing, schools) and stop wasting time on things that don’t.
Simon Rew
London
ID cards are the slippery slope to control. When everything in your life is connected to a digital ID, it is simple to ensure that you comply. I am a tax-paying, law-abiding citizen, and if an authority (ie the police) wishes to know my name and address, I am happy to tell them. If they are not happy with my answer and deem that I am committing some offence, they can arrest me.
I feel no obligation to prove who I am. What I get very concerned about is giving some authority the ability to control me. I might be part of a peaceful demonstration, protesting against a government decision that I do not agree with. With universal ID, it would be very easy to request a person’s card, record it and then mark someone as a possible dissenter. Let’s not usher something along these lines in to appease the likes of Nigel Farage. Call him out for what he is.
My mother, who had to deal with the Nazis in Holland (she was hustled to a German work camp as slave labour) said to me: “Never live in a country that demands you carry an ID.”
Anthony Baylis
Egham, Surrey
Good luck with the proposals for a digital identity system. Recently I tried to log into my HMRC account to give my bank details to obtain a tax refund. Although I have had the account since Covid, I was told that I now needed to verify my identity by providing a passport or driving licence. I do not drive and my passport expired a while ago. I am therefore excluded from the app. Will people like me also be excluded from applying for a universal ID?
Teresa Loyd-Jones
Nottingham
Polly Toynbee blithely deals with the obvious risks of identity cards in a couple of lines. She writes that a fairly serious problem like having your “access to everything” cut off would have to be “dealt with instantly by senior enough officials to make robust decisions with rapid appeal to courts not blocked by backlogs”. Since none of that happens in pretty much any part of our society, a lot needs to change before I’d be happy with the BritCard as advertised.
Ian Dawson
Heywood, Lancashire
Surely Polly Toynbee was pulling her readers’ collective legs? Every thought in this article appears to pander to Reform’s anti-immigrant prejudices rather than make any kind of argument against them. ID cards, especially on smartphones, are wide open to abuse by any possible future authoritarian government. Is this the Polly I’ve admired for so many years?
Dirk van Schie
Reigate, Surrey
