@craiggrannell I come from a background where having photo ID is “normal”. Possibly because wherever I’ve been — since childhood — I have been an immigrant.
So, can you please explain why having photo ID is such a contentious ask in this country? I understand what the Tories are doing, but what I don’t is why having any form of ID in general may be considered unreasonable. Pardon my ignorance, but I would love to be educated.
@bardi The UK is very anti papers, please. But the problem isn’t so much photo ID, but which types are acceptable. In short, it’s skewed heavily towards what pensioners will have and omits ID that younger people will have. So it’s another way to mess with the vote in favour of Tories.
Now, there are ways to get free govt ID, but the messaging has been terrible (to the degree our local Tories have for two years now lied about what ID is acceptable).
@bardi Also, when Labour tried to bring in ID cards during the late 1990s/early 2000s, there was massive overreach in the information they would contain. It was dozens of date sets and the onus would be on the individual to ensure their data was accurate or be prosecuted. So civil liberty groups were all: fuck no.
FWIW, I lived in Iceland for a while, and there’s the ID system there that works perfectly well. But it’s much simpler and far more stripped back. I’d be OK with that in the UK too.
Note all the local travel cards, mostly for pensioners. Beyond that, it’s basically driving licence or passport (which not everyone has), or a govt doc.
And that’s the problem. There was no evidence of electoral fraud being a problem in the UK. It’s not even a rounding error. But now thousands of people aren’t voting – and those are skewed ‘not Tory’. Note also that the Tories changed how mayors are elected too, from pref to FPTP…
@craiggrannell@bardi personally I’m hoping it turns out to be a “hoisted by own petard” moment for the Tories, where a large contingent of their voters who routinely ignore government advice and flip their lid about mild inconveniences also forget their photo ID, and are so aggrieved by the experience that they never vote for the Tories again.
@trechnex@bardi There were suggestions that happened last time, to some degree. JRM grumbling that it didn’t help the Tories and may even have hindered them.
Personally, I’m not anti-ID. But I don’t see the point in ID for elections in the UK when there’s scant to zero evidence of electoral reform even in generals, let alone widespread abuse of the system.
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