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Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers

reuters.com

91–100 of 809 posts

Re: Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers

#91
post #53
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I watched the video and the suggestion is that this makes it easier for employers to verify that someone is authorized to work. Is that actually true? Yes. The rules are complex, and currently the government essentially deputizes employers and banks to enforce them; anyone running e.g. a restaurant is having to essentially guess whether a potential employee is in the UK legally or not, on pain of criminal charges i…

> anyone running e.g. a restaurant is having to essentially guess whether a potential employee is in the UK legally or not, on pain of criminal charges if they get it wrong in one direction and discrimination lawsuits if they get it wrong in the other. I don't get this. Is there nothing like some sort of number to register any tax withholding or the like? I imagine that tax authorities and immigration authorities don…

> Is there nothing like some sort of number to register any tax withholding or the like?

There is, but it's not tied to any strong identity verification process, and so there's a thriving fraud where unemployed citizens will rent out their numbers to working illegals. It's not something that the tax office has ever really worried about, since if anything it tends to increase the amount of tax paid (if several people are sharing the same tax ID they'll pay a higher tax rate), and while they might bat an eye at someone with 5 different salaried jobs it's not particularly suspicious when it's gig economy work.

Re: Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers

#92

>The proposals are the government's latest bid to tackle illegal immigration, with the new ID being a form of proof of a citizen's right to live and work in the UK. How does a digital ID solve an illegal immigration problem? I watched the video and the suggestion is that this makes it easier for employers to verify that someone is authorized to work. Is that actually true? I don't live in the UK and have not visited…

> How does a digital ID solve an illegal immigration problem

It does not. That is not what this is for. It is just how they are selling it to the public. Just like with age verification for porn sites to supposedly protect the children or how they limit your cache and financial transactions to supposedly fight money laundering and financing terrorism(what a joke).

It's all about monitoring and controlling citizens offline and online to gain full control over their lives. Yes, it sounds Orwellian and no, it is not a joke.

Digital wallets and money comes next. This way the government will be able to actually control your behavior.

Why do they do that? Why not. It makes their lives easier as they do not have to be accountable to the people that voted for these public servants to manage the country and instead can push unpopular agendas by their puppeteers whom have private agendas of their own that usually, essentially always, goes against the well being of the population and nation itself.

Politics has not changed since we first discovered fire. This is nothing new. We just have better technology.

Re: Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers

#93

Reminder that the UK arrests 12000/year for online posts, by far the most in the West. The UK already has government issued ID, the proof of age card. This is about tying your identity to your online behaviour.

"But it’s not just “online comments” as Yaxley-Lennon seems to imply. A police officer quoted deep within the article explains that these acts include “any form of communication,” and can relate to “serious domestic abuse-related crimes.” " https://www.standard.co.uk/news/tommy-robinson-uk-speech-cla... Yeah, not really online posts though is it.

"can relate to" is weasely. What are the actual numbers?

Re: Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers

#94

I didn't watch the video, but have read other reports, and it's worth noting that the context for this is the Labour Party conference, which starts on Sunday. The UK govt are under pressure from the tories and Reform to do something about people entering the UK from France by crossing the channel in small boats. Nothing much seems to be working. So this announcement is about trying to control the narrative by making…

“Nothing much seems to be working” because the government is completely unserious about stopping the boats and is unwilling to do any of the things that might actually work. They could stop them in a week if they actually wanted to.

[dead]

Re: Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers

#95

I didn't watch the video, but have read other reports, and it's worth noting that the context for this is the Labour Party conference, which starts on Sunday. The UK govt are under pressure from the tories and Reform to do something about people entering the UK from France by crossing the channel in small boats. Nothing much seems to be working. So this announcement is about trying to control the narrative by making…

“Nothing much seems to be working” because the government is completely unserious about stopping the boats and is unwilling to do any of the things that might actually work. They could stop them in a week if they actually wanted to.

The larger problem is 10 times as many arrive via Heathrow. That’s what causes the pressure on local services, from housing to GPs to transport.

Re: Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers

#96
Headline (here and on Sky) is clickbait - should read that this is a PROPOSAL.

This is a proposal at a party conference, not law. Previous initiatives along these lines have not come to pass, and this is unlikely to as well.

Expect universal rejection by the tories, lib dems and reform in parliament, purely because it’s a Labour initiative, and expect plenty of Labour MPs to disobey the whip.

From the BBC this morning:

“Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch calls it a "desperate gimmick", while the Lib Dems fear it would force people to turn over their private data”

If it does somehow get beyond the commons, expect lords to quash it.

I give this about a 20% chance of actually coming to pass.

Re: Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers

#97

I didn't watch the video, but have read other reports, and it's worth noting that the context for this is the Labour Party conference, which starts on Sunday. The UK govt are under pressure from the tories and Reform to do something about people entering the UK from France by crossing the channel in small boats. Nothing much seems to be working. So this announcement is about trying to control the narrative by making…

[deleted]

Re: Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers

#98

I didn't watch the video, but have read other reports, and it's worth noting that the context for this is the Labour Party conference, which starts on Sunday. The UK govt are under pressure from the tories and Reform to do something about people entering the UK from France by crossing the channel in small boats. Nothing much seems to be working. So this announcement is about trying to control the narrative by making…

The small boats crossing are a small fraction of immigration. Some Google number claims 37k people got in this way in 2024. With net migration hovering around 0.8-1m people per year, arrivals must be well above this number (surely some people are leaving, making the net number smaller). But even then, this is less than 5% of the legal immigration, and probably a lot less than that.

I'm not saying it doesn't need addressing or isn't serious, but I think it's a convenient topic for politicians. It's a lot more media-friendly than the arrivals queue at Luton Airport. And the illegal immigrants aren't the ones putting pressure on NHS, housing market or train driver unions.

Re: Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers

#99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How does a digital ID solve an illegal immigration problem? It's presumably harder to forge a cryptographic signature than paper documents? Not saying it's a good tradeoff. But executed competently, it makes sense in theory.

But it's not very hard to forge the application papers. Passport fraud is already not uncommon in Britain, people are getting authentic passports with cryptographic signatures using dishonest applications every single day.

So a forged or stolen id card will be impossible?

Re: Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers

#100
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the "life hack", as far as I understand, is not living in Uk's govt temporary accommodation waiting for a decision, it's rather leaving your temporary accommodation without any way for the government to track you, then work illegal, cash in hand jobs, which are still more remunerative than what you had back home. In this case, seeking asylum is not the goal: it's just a loop-hole to not get deported immediately.

Everyone can do that if its that great. Some years ago I met a Palestinian guy in who was staying in hostels in London, receiving something like 800GBP as aid and illegally working his ass off in constructions for something around the min wage. I've seen him only in the late evenings as he was working all the other times. He was living the dream I guess. Hacked the life. Anyway, I have him on Facebook and occasionall…

That is beside the point. The point is that they are using a loophole in the asylum process to stay illegally for more time than they're allowed. After they successfully do that, they of course have to work illegally (endangering themselves and others), they don't (can't) pay taxes, and they end up sending all the money they earned abroad. All attempts to close this loophole by various governments have been unfruitful, mainly because of strenuous left-wing opposition: Italian government tried to fingerprint them years ago (in order to make them more easily identifiable) but the law was killed. British government tried to move them in other (third world) countries during the asylum process (to make escaping their accommodation less appealing) but they couldn't do that. Now they're trying to shorten the asylum decision waiting window (which is ~1 year iirc), but that again is something that will be appealed to death.
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