Wow, weâre really seeing a far-right surge over here at the moment. Depressing.
They were talking a bit about this on the news today over here, saying that a series of protests are planned for this weekend all over the UKâŚ
yeah, that bbc article ends with:
The BBC has identified at least 30 demonstrations being planned by far-right activists around the UK over the weekend, including a new protest in Southport
( also: âactivistsâ )
Increasingly, they are nothing if not active.
Short story, UK firm wins contract to write software, hands the work over to Russian and Belarusian engineers.
Iâm completely fine with a national ID scheme. There are so many ways it would make modern life easier for navigating the wandering paths of government bureaucracy.
Britain and the USA are the only major countries which donât have a national scheme. Looking around the world, an ID scheme is just a thing which good governments use to help provide good government to residents. Or if you live in Russia itâs a way for a bad government to oppress you. Thatâs not the fault of the scheme.
Live facial recognition is a related matter, with pros and cons, but National ID could be done without it.
In the US an ID must be paid for and is tied to an address, which shuts out a not-insignificant portion of the population. Proof of address is typically in the form of a utility bill in oneâs name, again further restricting the pool
In the UK the proof of address tied to a utility bill is often a problem. Most utility bills these days are paperless, while various legal mechanisms demand original paper copies. My brother is caught in this trap right now. He could prove his address with his council tax bill, issued in March, except he shredded it for security purposes.
Thatâs kind of 1st world problems for ârespectableâ âmiddle-classâ people. Homeless people exist too, and have rights, and should be able to prove their identity without an extra barrier.
The pros and cons of a national id system aside, just the prospect of implementing such a scheme should be worrying. For it not to be a disaster, you have to trust the Westminster government with:
- Running a huge IT project.
- Not using this for every petty authoritarian purpose possible.
Just looking at their track record, Iâd be worried.
We Canadians are disappointed to find weâre not a âmajor countryâ 
.
Technically, we have something ânationalâ, but itâs used in a very few circumstances, which seldom/never involve uniquely identifying a personâdrivers licenses, provincial ids, and passports fill that role.
When it is used, itâs used after proving your identity: ânow that we know youâre you, please give us your id numberâ.
A national ID that did several jobs would be handy, as long as it didnât become mandatory to carry it at all times.
I love this gif
Somebody thought the salivating leopards had no interest in her faceâŚ
⌠and of course the barrier only goes one way
If we want to âprove who we are,â we canât, but if the authorities decide weâve done something wrong, suddenly they know all about us 
One minute, she was the favoured future leader of MPs on the pro-Brexit wing of the party. The next, she had been swapped out in favour of a candidate who one aide wryly notes âtalks like her but looks like David Cameronâ: her former political ally and Cambridge University friend, Robert Jenrick.
Fancy that!
I canât believe weâve now reached the point where I would prefer a candidate (in general, not just this particular case) who looks like her but talks like David Cameron. Sheâd still be several steps further to the right than what I would consider to be the bare minimum, but she wouldnât be irredeemably evil.
Sheâd also be more left wing than Keir Starmer, which would mean she had no chance in the Conservative party, and maybe the Labour party as well.
This is a good one, too!
Theyâre handing over NHS patient data to Palantir for fuck sake so no, i donât trust large government IT projects to be handled responsibly because given the dismal failure of previous in-house IT projects you just know they will outsource it to a company run by a sociopathic, narcissistic tech bro.
ETA: I fear that, given the far-right mobilising now, the gov are going to roll out some extremely draconian legislation to go along with all the authoritarian shit the Torys (remember them?) managed to inflict on us over 14 years.
I mean if you can get 5 years for climbing on a bridge and holding up traffic, what are they going to hand down for assaulting the police, smashing up buildings, burning cars, and generally terrorising peaceful neighbourhoods?
