ID Cards v Social Security

Solving two problems with one plan?

ID cards for Britain are in the news as Boris contemplates getting out of the Covid emergency and hitting the sunny uplands of freedom.  So, what’s all the fuss about?  On the surface it seems a no-brainer.  You get your Covid vaccine, you apply for a card (with photo ID - maybe just like a driving license), you go to the pub or cinema and show your card, you get in.  Painless? Were it only so simple? 

The British aversion to anything that even smells like, let alone looks like a government required ID card has a long history. Oddly up until 2011 there were cards, first introduced during World War II. The legislation requiring them was allowed to lapse. However, if you ask John Q Public they will persuade you that ID cards are a EU invention and, as we know, anything that smacks of Europe is simply toxic. So, when Boris semi-suggested that ID cards might be useful in the post Covid world you might have thought that he suggested incest as a recreational activity or a penchant for sodomy as a prerequisite to register to vote. 

What has always struck me as odd is the public’s lack of understanding of how ID cards affect illegal immigration.  The British, chiefly the English, are obsessed with the idea that illegal immigrants are flooding the country and stretching an already over-stretched public service, milking the tax payer in the process. This single issue was the most telling in the Brexit debate, particularly for the over 50’s who did most of the voting.  The English have always had an ambivalent relationship with “Johnny Foreigner” or Wogs as they used to be known.  Most “oldies” still subscribe to the theory that Wogs begin at Dover, the French are dirty and duplicitous, the Germans bombed our chippy, the Spanish and Italians are just lazy Dagos and the Greeks are - well they are subject to all the ills known to mankind.  Best just get rid of them and keep England for the English.  Lest you think I’m joking, I’m not.  Most polls will show that my summation is just about right.  So, you might well think, the first folks who would be all in for ID cards would be the Brexit supporting numpties who voted to get out of the EU in the first place.

Error.

This is the amazing bit.  ID cards would go a long way towards eliminating fraud for benefits.  No ID card, no benefits and also no access to the NHS.  Solves a lot of problems without much pain.  Why not just do it?

Boris succinctly puts the view forward that it’s just not the done thing.  It’s too much like the state interfering in the rights of the people to be assh****. (That’s Tory policy in case you were in any doubt.)  Despite the fact that it makes a lot of sense and is relatively easy to do, Boris is very sceptical and for all the wrong reasons.

Contrast this with the Social Security system in the US. It is almost impossible to work legally in the US without a social security number. (That is not to say, of course, that the black economy of cash in hand payments to low paid, low skilled (perhaps illegal) immigrants is not known or not a problem.)  But, The Social Security system goes a long way towards bringing everyone into the known economy.

Latest news has Boris and the Tories warming to the idea of some kind of ID system once we exit from the Covid nightmare.  Let’s hope the reports are close to the mark: I for one would welcome a system which not only help people access their local pub, but also helps to mitigate the worst excess of an illegal immigration.