Some people are already signing up to refuse having an ID card: http://www.pledgebank.com/refuse.

You don’t need to be British to sign there, besides we are all affected because every resident will have to have it.

There has also been talking about the ID scheme, scheduled to be in place in about… 18 months! and what incidence it would have in fighting terrorism. Well, there have been questions asked to people from other countries and this is what I have to answer:

In Spain there have been ID cards since the 1940s, from what my elder remember. They have not been an obstacle for terrorism. Having the card with you is mandatory; you are taken to a police station detained if you fail to show on demand a valid ID card. J. told me last year that valid Spanish passports are not accepted by certain police bodies, so you may be arrested if all you have on you is a Spanish passport.

There is a national registry, or database with all information, including financial information for taxes purposes (in theory), it seems to include face picture, index and thumb digital prints, name and address and yearly income.

I believe it is free if you renew it before 3 (or 6?) months before it expires. But I think I have always been charged, mainly for renewing it late.

One argument in favour of ID cards is that it would stop benefit fraud, illegal immigration, etc, which seem to be important problems in Britain.

Benefit fraud is not reported in Spain; I suspect it is because benefits don’t really exist. The system, the state, relies on the family, as an institution, to take on the needed when they have no income. It also relies on migration since there was a kind of exodus in the 60s. I am an example of migration forced by unemployment and the lack of personal benefits.

Yes there are illegal immigrants. A new police body was created to stop them from reaching the coast from Africa – they come in home-made boats, called ‘pateras’. Immigrants from Spanish America arrive as tourists and then they stay, and work as waiters/waitresses and other jobs that locals would rather do in London than in Madrid, for instance. The rural agriculture also benefits from illegal immigration – some says it relies on it and would be in serious difficulties if immigration from Africa didn’t exist.