I think that the problem isn't insincerity but a general British lack of interest in anything that is happening in the rest of Europe, which is compensated for by an overriding interest in the United States. Even the most ardent remainers seem to be remarkably uninterested in what actually happens in the EU. Its tempting to blame language competence, but there are lots of English language sources available anyway. Despite living next door and using the same language, people know enormously more about politics in the US than they do about Ireland.IvanV wrote: ↑Mon Mar 13, 2023 1:23 pmThis is why I don't believe the civil liberties argument against ID cards, and that people making such arguments must have another real reason. It is an obvious and straightforward observation that lots of countries with good civil liberties have ID cards. Clearly ID cards can be abused, as they are in various less good countries, but this is not an argument against having them unless you believe we are such a less good country. In fact there is even a concept of ID discrimination in such countries - you disenfranchise sub-populations by making it difficult for them to get the ID cards they need to have normal function in the country.Woodchopper wrote: ↑Sun Mar 12, 2023 3:03 pmOn the population registers it does seem that this is an issue where there does seem to be a profound difference in political culture between the UK and US on one hand and most of Europe on the other.
Population registers are run centrally or at the municipal level in the great majority of EEA states and in my experience they are not controversial. Certainly they could be misused or hacked, but then there are also benefits. I remember during the Brexit debates having to explain to incredulous Europeans and that the UK didn't know how many people were lawfully resident, and it had to organize a Roman style census every decade to find out.
The Blair ID card project was being sold on various ideas that standard ID cards didn't provide, and which made it difficult and expensive to implement. It wasn't a standard good EU country ID card project. It isn't an argument against a standard ID card project.
Thanks for splitting the thread BTW
So someone sees a suggestion about Britain on ID cards or a population register, then reads opinions form the US, and concludes that its one step toward fascism that couldn't be taken by any liberal or progressive nation.