June 16, 2005

• Don't just sit there laughing at the puppy! Register with No2ID and sign the pledge against this ridiculous legislation. You know it makes sense. Now, papers please.
• I would kitfisto, but I am from Americastan.
• It's a general call to arms, Squiddy, to my fellow Englishmen still a-bed.
• Uh? Wha? Nice animation, squid - thanks. My daughter liked it too: she watched it solemnly and said "Well, the person who did this obviously likes Mr Clarke"
• If I wear three uniform buttons sewen inside my disguise, will be taken back to the camp instead of shot?
• This is excellent political satire. We need more like this - funny, actually in tune, and pointing out the problems without completely hitting you over the head. What were the rumours I heard about it costing L300? (Please, forgive my homemade pound symbol). And how will this affect people in Britain on visas?
• jb, they'll probably charge visa-holders more for a card. They're already asking an arm and a leg for visas and more for visa extensions, why not milk the foreigner cash-cow for this as well? Why, yes, I am rather bitter about them charging what they do for visa! How did you guess?
• They didn't talk to me about charges for a visa - I should remember to ask. I was lucky the first two times, to be on a visa waiver program as a tourist from a rich country. But I have to get a full visa for next year.
• jb, you'll need a visa to get married as well now, in the UK (as of February 2005). The Home Office really knows how to squeeze blood out of stones.
• This is all linked to the drive to equip us all with passports containing biometric data - ID cards will initially be issued along with passports, though eventually ID cards will be compulsory. I imagine that for people in the UK on visas your own biometric passport will be sufficient (I understand that the US is going down the biometric passport route and that's why we have to do the same - and the UK govt in their wisdom are riding ID cards on the back of the initiative). The £300 figure came from research from the London School of Economics - the govt are quoting £93 - and the LSE haven't revealed the basis of their research. I heard someone from LSE on the radio, and he said that costs had been severely underestimated by the govt. But £300 presumably would represent the unit cost of one of these - not necessarily the cost to the individual, if the govt chooses to subsidise them.
• But most places don't have biometric passports - I'm Canadian, and we definitely don't. Though they did make us stop smiling. Apparently smiling is bad. It's just one more thing to figure out. Alnedra - Not meaning to derail, but yes, we're in the process of trying to get a visa. Actually, getting a fiance visa is much easier than getting a spousal for us (we were suposed to be married in Canada), because we might not have the certificate in time, but I think I can also qualify for an academic visitor visa on my own right, because a graduate student doing research and don't intend to work.
• Said altolinguistic: But £300 presumably would represent the unit cost of one of these - not necessarily the cost to the individual, if the govt chooses to subsidise them. You do know where the Govt gets its money from, right?
• Ummm, it prints more when it needs it, right?
• yes, ok, I managed to make the Govt sound rather magnanimous and generous. Oops. But we have elected a govt which had ID cards in its manifesto, and thus given some form of consent for this to happen with our (taxpayers') money. The costs being argued about now are presumably what it will cost us out of pocket, in addition to the unquantifiable proportion of our tax money that will already have gone into the project.
• Well I didn't vote for them - this being one of the main reasons I didn't vote Labour for the first time in my life. Simply winning the election doesn't mean we can't call them on subjects we disagree with. I refere my honourable monkeys to the links I posted at the start of this thread.