I am a final year student and this year I have to write my dissertation.
I have chosen to write about the "Identity Card in Modern Britain".
The aim of this research is to try and understand why many Britons are against the Identity Card.
I am from Belgium and I have always had an ID card since the age of 12. There is no debate in Belgium about having the ID card so for me it's quite odd for a country not to have one.
Also part of my research is to emphasise the increasing use of loyalty cards and such other cards on a daily basis.
Cards such as the Oyster card, which allows the TFL group to see where you are going and when, the Nectar card, which sets a routine on your purchases in stores and Library cards, which can see what you read. These cards hold as much, if not more, power than the ID card.
Could anyone please explain to me the dislike for the ID card in Modern Britain?
ColdAsIce_79
i don't think that the dislike is for the card itself, but more for what the information on the card will be used for. The fact that it is a government initiative does not help either since the government has a penchant for losing valuable information on a somewhat regular basis. As a nation of consumers, not far behind the americans, the brits do not really care about who finds out what we buy. However, the is a very deep level of mistrust in the capabilities of the government to keep information secret. Plus there is also the fact that no matter what this government says with regards to the information on ID cards, there is a chance that the next government might shift the goalposts a little... and then the next... and what follows next?
There is also the desire to at least have the illusion that we are free, and ID cards will make that illusion a little more blurred