Fans of digital ID cards argue that you will accelerate Britain into a digital future by giving everyone the opportunity to prove who they are.
What is confusing This argument is that we can do that.
We have physical ID cards in the form of passports and driving licenses. We also have an extensive system of digital identification and a whole series of laws, according to which you have to detect your identity, sometimes several times a week.
If you have been busy someone for a few days recently, you know that you have to check the right to work documents either physically or digitally.
It is the same when you open a bank account, hire a lawyer, submit a tax return, submit in a choice or apply for state services such as Universal Credit. Now even access pornographic content online requires an identity examination.
From the state's point of view, the problem is that none of these systems are connected to each other, which enables the gaps to be thwarted.
Despite all the checks, illegal immigrants regularly have access to bank accounts. The Home Office should share its data with banks and construction companies to stop this, but the information is often incomplete or simply wrong Windrush scandal came to light.
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A really efficient system would clean this type of data, link it and combine it in a comprehensive overview. However, this would require the creaking public service to access information that is often difficult to find, let alone share.
Much easier – or in such a way that supporters of ID cards say – sweep the old bureaucracy aside and start again with a single central system.
The result would be a system that is faster and more reliable for citizens. However, this is mainly a piece of infrastructure that its supporters hope that the government will work as it should.
All of this raises the question – do we actually want that?
Do we want a government that can pursue us in every part of our lives? The law can actually enforce this, as there is currently no hope?
The government believes that the answer is. Your focus groups and surveys tell you that people are fed up with lacking government systems and desperately according to crucial action. Especially when immigration.
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Are we in a cyber attack “epidemic”?
Therefore, the greater risk in all of this is not politics, but the delivery.
Can you ensure that this system is based on budget and without massive delays? Can you have it worked on a scale without having a hack or a big technical error?
Can you show people that the problem is the current system, not the way it is used?
This is a task through which Google or Amazon also watches. One that makes HS2 look just.
Nevertheless, Whitehall – not known for his technical know -how – could be asked to accept it, maybe in time for the next election.
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