What are your concerns about a potential Digital ID?

I crave drink and cigarettes every day of my life. I can't and won't go back to smoking, but i allow myself a drink on Saturday evenings. It is something i look forward to all week.

My concern is that it is another database that hackers can breach and get hold of all my details, also this is an additional cost to the already overburdened public purse and they will try and get the money from more disabled cuts.

A digital/physical hybrid and on a voluntary basis is something I would agree with. I never had an issue with an American style ID card and I suspect the Tories in 2010 were against physical ID because they wanted Digital ID rather than some Libertarian belief.

The Tories themselves put forth digital frameworks in a bill in 2022/2023, the framework was already being created before Labour got into government.

Everyone appears petrified of Big Brother watching them - but in my view - why on earth would BB be interested in the daily life of a normal human being ?

Unless that individual is doing something wrong/illegal - the technology still doesn't exist to "track every movement of **** million people going about there normal hum drum days" and if they did find an individual who had raised a suspicion - then yes, it could potentially save a life or two.

the downside is that like the driving licence you will have to pay for a new id every five or ten years

Its a NOpedy nope NOPE from me.

They herded the population down the digital bank route (and they went because it was more convenient and easier and less trouble, tappedy tap with the card and off you go, feels like you didn't spend anything.) For some people - like myself Cash is much easier to manage, I can physically hold and see that money in my hand and it makes me stop, think and consider before I buy. This is not just a "regular" problem I have ADHD, therefore if I have digital currency - its not really like spending money, I tap, don't think about it and spend more, can't budget and overspend because my brain doesn't really think about the consequences.

They touted this as convenience and practicality,. and the majority of people bought into that.

A Few but not all of The actual consequences are: Loss of High Street Banks, Cash machines making you pay for taking cash out, extra money on goods to make up for the cost of the machines you pay with. Having to go through multiple steps (this is especially relevant if you are Neurodivergent and can't do multi-steps) and then when the banking systems crash (as they have done more than once!) people can be left without heat, electric, transport, food and being unable to pay mortgages, rent and bills. Then there is the fraud connected with this, people getting scammed (especially the elderly and Neurodivergent people) theft of your bank details and the list goes on.

Now some shops are refusing to take cash, and the implications of this will deepen as time goes on. Costs WILL rise, we WILL pay more, and in the long run it will cost us more and more money for this convenience and inconvenience when it all goes wrong.

Add to that that the government bodies now have the legality to snoop into your personal affairs and to take action against you, and even if you haven't done anything wrong you will be GUILTY until you prove yourself innocent. Many people have found themselves locked out of their accounts, and the banking system refuses to even tell that customer why that happened. So expect the same from the Digital ID.

If you believe this is a "one off" apply The same princicples to self-service check outs. You may think you didn't vote for them but you likely did unaware that you were doing so. The deception was in the helpful member of staff who offered to "show you how it worked" to "scan your items in and help you pay" in doing so even though you were not using that till, you became one of the statistics and voted with your "feet".

Apply similar principles to the Organ donor "card/Scheme". Being an organ donor is 100% an amazing thing for anyone to volunteer for and I take my hats off to anyone who does this or donates blood or anything along those lines.

This should NEVER ever have been brought in as a mandatory thing, you should NEVER EVER have to opt out of anything. It should be Voluntary and a person WANTING to do this, not you are doing this until you opt out. I cannot be an organ donor as I have health problems which mean I can't BUT prior to that I was on the donor register and happy to be on it, but VOLUNTARILY. Once we give our rights away even for small issues such as this, they continue taking liberty with our liberties.. what seems like a small and convenient and understandable thing often spirals into us giving an inch and them taking a mile!

The Digital ID is not a surprising thing to me, like everything else that is happening, the banking, the self service check outs, the donor schemes and everything else has had the foundations laid for decades. it is the equivalent of the adage of the frog being slowly boiled to death in the pot by the water heated slowly.

Take a look at how easy it is for the masses to be controlled - the Covid scandal, and there really is no more appropriate word here "scandal". Now again do not get me wrong, this isn't about who or who did not take the vaccine nor is it talking about the implications or doing or not doing so. This is objectively looking past that at how easily the Government manipulated and coerced the public.. First they scared the population, ramping up the tactics to a crescendo, the point that the majority of the public were so terrified they just followed everything they were told, without being able to make or form a conscious, well rounded thought or opinion on what they wanted or didn't want. When people (especially a large group of people) are running for their lives in an adrenaline fuelled panic - they are automatically going to latch onto any hope of escape they can, therefore they did what they were told. Which, is generally a pretty safe and reasonable thing to do. But! it also means they do not think clearly, and overlooked the misinformation and were coerced into behaving and doing things they may not choose to do if in a rational state of mind.

I am Audhd - I have INSANE pattern recognition skills and I mean mine are exceptionally good, I may not always be focusing on them or listening to patterns but instinctively I am usually registering them in my subconscious. This means I see patterns that other people may not and connections instinctively between things that many people might miss unless its pointed out to them.

I am not a conspiracy theorist - although I may dive into those for a bit of "fun" just for a laugh and to expand my mind into some what ifs to ask some big questions about live, death and the universe.

When they brought in Microchipping for animals I was like uhoh! and my brain went Ping! (red flag) this was connected to a course I did in college which was on consumer and consumer law about 35 or more years ago when things like how the monetary systems would change over the years and what the projected outcome could end up looking like.

This immediately registered with me as a way of "test driving" a pilot scheme for humans. and here we are, humans are actually using chips in some countries instead of keys for their doors and so forth.

A few years ago the news ran some stories on child kidnapping and they ran a series of these over some time. I kept an eye on this to see where they were leading. And sure enough as soon as the public were aroused enough along came the "leading discussions" on forums and social media about microchipping children. And again, much like we saw during Covid, the same mob mentality is replicated. The circular arguments going round and around "If you love your Child you would get this done!" "if you don't do this you don't love your child you should have it taken off you" and so forth, pretty much the same arguments that were rehashed during the epidemic.

So here we have some things to consider, a wide view on various issues all connected in the sense that "we sign up for one thing, and we end up with another" and "critical thinking skills are pretty poor these days, and worse when there is fear and mob-mentality is achieved".

The question is, how objective can you be, how much effort is your freedom worth to you? is it the Blue pill or the Red pill that appeals to you more?

We've had DWP questioning people on what they've spent a tenner on just because they're on benefits, and people want to give the powers that be more power over us?