‘This is serious’: Starmer orders move towards digital ID system

https://observer.co.uk/news/politics/article/this-is-serious-starmer-orders-move-towards-digital-id-system

by JayR_97

46 comments

  1. *The PM’s advisers believe an ID system could reduce friction between the public and the state*

    Yeah, that’s not gonna happen.

  2. We let them take an inch, now they are going to take a mile.

  4. they can shove that, but sheepy supporters of his will lap it up and do what they are told

  5. Of course I assume this means handing more fistfuls of cash to companies that have next to no impact on the economy. Surely if we keep handing money to tech and finance eventually it will trickle down to your average brit, it hasnt worked for 20 years but surely this time it will

  6. I really have never understood the opposition in this country to you know, basic acts of state organisation that so many other countries manage without turning into a dystopian hell?

    You can see how utterly cretinous objections are by the existence of photo card driving licenses and passports. The government already has this data about most people, who are the off-gridders concerned by this?

  7. As an example, when you have to start using you government ID to access websites, and insurers and mortgage providers can access your browsing history.

  8. They can piss off, i ain’t going down this slippery slope.

  9. I agree with a proper ID system but I bet it gets given to one of the usual government contractors who will massively overcharge and make a crap job of implementing it.

  10. >A new internal paper by the Tony Blair Institute

    It figures that *that* twat is involved in some way.

  11. How else will they hold you to account for your anonymous online posts via VPN about topics critical of government policy if you’re not using your name and your approved social media account linked to your digital ID.

  12. Starmer is a technocrat at heart. Which means he has not a scintilla political insight.

    Literally everything coming out of Downing Street is now based on numbers not feelings.

  13. This is a good thing, genuinely. This is also the correct way to establish online content restrictions in an anonymous way.

    I have a driver’s license looked after by one body, a passport by another, taxes by a third, health by a fourth, voting by a fifth… and they all need permission to talk to each other. This is silly. It can be centralised and streamlined.

    At the same time, a default national ID, like one’s National Insurance Number but better, can be used to generate a one time “this user is over-18” proof token that isn’t tied to any of my real IDs. This is a firewall between having your face scanned or passport scanned to see content.

    There’s no reason not to have a proper, modern, centralised, digital ID system.

  14. Between ID cards , OSA and the limits placed on the rights of trans people, the Starmer Government is shaping up to be the most socially conservative in YEARS.

    Even the Conservative governments before it, which you would expect to be pretty strict, did things like legalise gay marriage (extending it from civil partnerships) and reform abortion in Northern Ireland.

    That’s on top of the horrifically unpopular tax and spending choices they’ve been making. It’s almost like he’s got a job offer for the second half of 2029 and the last thing he wants is a second term.

  16. Labour are becoming the nazis with all this control

  17. So, a digital ID to control people who arrive on boats with zero ID is effective, how? Oh, wait think of the children

  18. Could you just issue an official approved Wank Card please and have done with it 👍

  19. Every time I see a savage put down of this increasingly incompetent and authoritarian government on reddit, in the back of my mind I sense clampdowns like this being their next agenda.

  20. I wonder if Keir Starmer has ever had a single independent thought

  22. These comments are absolutely unhinged which really proves what a bubble Reddit users are in.

    ID cards are used by most countries including most of Europe.

    Digital ID is absolutely needed for 21st century government services.

    ID card system can and would cut down on illegal immigration. 

  23. Christ, it’s been a nice year I’ve spent back here in the UK, but it has also really solidified why I left in the first place. I wish you all the best and hopefully some sanity can return to this island.

  24. How the fuck are they worse than the tories. How is that even possible?

  25. The digital ID isn’t to track the intimate details of your life. It’s to have a single profile for interacting with all government services. For example you break your leg and can’t work, within your profile are all the messages from the NHS and DWP if you had to get support. Or DVLA if you also take your car off the road. Some EU countries are miles ahead of this country digitally.

  26. With each day that passes the U18’s they’re going to give the vote to are going to be the group that brings them down.

    The exact opposite of what they planned.

  27. It seems like this country is doing everything backwards, a digital id that really worked and allowed to prove your age without revealing identifying information to third parties would have made OSA a lot easier to swallow.

    Instead they’ll force through two policies which no one likes.

  28. Authoritarian rule under torys and authoritarian rule under labour.

  29. I might be absolutely dense but is this not in a sense a good idea?

    It makes immigration control easier as it would I assume for immigrants be directly connected to the HO and thus you can show easily your right to stay. If people are here illegally then they would not have access.

    Citizenship records can be easily proven and registered and it means having everything in one place. Less chance of fraud and easier to keep track of people.

    I am happy to be proven wrong if needed

  30. This is what they do.

    Rather than fix the underlying issues that people are getting frustrated about, Labour just seem intent on silencing any criticism through whatever means possible

    Feels like the U.K. is heading into a really dark place

  31. Absolutely fucking not, get fucked Labour. Don’t act shocked if Farage gets in.

  32. This is getting more and more dystopian by the second.

  33. The Government should serve the people, not the other way round.

  34. >The scheme aims to tackle illegal migration.

    Create the problem, provide the solution.

    This has nothing to so with immigration and everything to do with population control.

  35. I can see a path forward where this could be implemented in such a way that is genuinely beneficial to us all, by being based on sound computer science principals, public/private key encryption to establish whether a particular ID is a member of a particular group (e.g. UK adults over the age of 18 in the case of OSA) using anonymous tokens without giving away any personal information in the process.

    I’m worried that that they won’t go down that route. Instead my concern would be that they’ll contract it out to Serco or Capita or whoever bid lowest and all the information about everyone would just get held in a big Oracle database.

  36. I was manually switching my vpn on and off for ages, so I suppose it’ll just be on permanently with a killswitch after this.

  37. [Digital ID](https://itif.org/publications/2024/09/23/path-to-digital-identity-in-the-united-states/) seems to be coming to every major UN country. It seems to be part of the [UN Sustainable Development Goal 16.9](https://www.biometricupdate.com/id-for-all), as shown on UN pages [here](https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal16#targets_and_indicators).. “By 2030, provide legal identity for all, including birth registration’.

    To achieve it and most of all, to keep information of the public forever updated, countries will do so by going digital. As you can see on that biometric website I link to above, it covers current digital id attempts across multiple nations.

  38. Can’t wait for the data to be held on non-UK servers further jeopardising our security 🙂

  39. Starmer, “we should never forget that politics should tread lightly on people’s lives. That our job is to shoulder the burden for working people, carry the load, not add to it.”

    Also Starmer, “Why won’t your neck break, how much more do I need to stamp!”

  40. If done correctly, this could reduce fraud. It could make some public services more efficient and save tax payer money.

    I’ve lived in a country which had ID cards, and I preferred it.

    To the critics, it isn’t as if you are anonymous. The government knows who you are and where you live. If you have a passport they have biometric data.

  41. I mean, there are situations where you obviously need to identify yourself to the state, and current methods are flaky, insecure and often inconvenient. There is nothing wrong in principle with having a secure digital identity.

    There is a massive problem though. If it becomes very easy to identify yourself, then the state and even private businesses will naturally try to find any excuse to require you to identify yourself every time you do anything or go anywhere.

    We can see that with the Online Safety Act. A properly implemented digital ID would allow you to prove your age online without having to identify yourself. But you can bet that they will implement a system where you have to reveal your identity at the same time that you prove your age. That is what businesses will want, and that is what they will lobby for.

  42. This is pretty much exactly what killed Blair’s new labour. Time is a circle.

  43. Anything but fixing the UK. Lukewarm taxation policy from the budget and then a load if stupid bills. You cant seem to vote for change

  44. All Labour have done so far is increase taxes and infringe on peoples liberties ffs.

  45. I do find it weird how much of a controversial topic this is in here compared to the other countries.

    Most other European contries have ID cards, many of them digitalised. Yet, anytime it is brought up in the UK, it is seen by many people as a very dystopian measure. I’m not sure where this difference comes from, it just seems to be a part of the political tradition of common law, English speaking countries.

    I actually agree about some points against ID cards and I don’t really feel strongly either way on this topic – but the discussion around it seems to completely ignore that they are a normal thing on the continent and haven’t led to a catastrophe.

    The assumption seems to be that either:

    * The UK is uniquely unsuited for an ID system (why?)

    * The UK goverments are uniquely untrustworthy (are politicians in other European countries *really* more trustworthy?)

    * All the continental countries are already dystopian hellholes (I just completely disagree)

  46. Reddit has lost the plot. All other European countries have IDs, why would Britain be special enough not to introduce it?

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