Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers

Having just paid a small fortune to renew my passport. I'm not super excited about this, especially as I live outside the UK.

I also don't trust them not to make a complete hash of all this, removing all potential utility while simultaneously increasing the chances of my ID being stolen.

sigh

As an American it seems to me that the UK government insists on finding a way to upset all sides on any given issue like illegal immigration. If anything it's the singular and unique skill of Whitehall.

A good compromise leaves everyone mad.

A good compromise leaves everyone dissatisfied. A bad deal leaves everyone mad.

like IPv6

whats wrong with ipv6? other than square brackets

To be fair though, complaining about 'things' is practically a British national sport.

Don't be misled by the reaction on HN. The general concept of a national ID card is not unpopular in the UK:

https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/trackers/support-for-th...

IMO this is a gimmick and probably won't have much effect either for good or bad. I would vote against it given the chance. But there aren't that many British people who feel especially strongly about this.

> I would vote against it given the chance.

Unfortunately the British people are rarely given a chance to vote and even more rarely listened to.

In the last 10 years the UK has had 4 general elections and the Brexit referendum. Some countries have more local democracy (e.g. direct elections of DAs in the US), but in terms of opportunities to change the national government or influence national policy, I don't think the UK is doing too badly.

It's more that the average Brit finds a way to be upset about everything any UK government does. Even just the test of the cell emergency alert system was met with fierce public criticism: what if people crash their car out of surprise?!

But being critical of your leaders isn't the worst thing in the world. It's fairly bipartisan too; most of the people who voted for our current PM just a year ago now disapprove of him. A high level of public scrutiny on one's leaders' is probably quite effective at preventing totalitarianism. Whatever can be (often justifiably) said about our ineffective leadership, what we do have is a good track record for stability.

However, sometimes it's really just cynicism for cynicism's sake.

Everything except for the part where the address space is bigger. We got a halfway migration now that everyone is angry about.