Proof of identity


There have been a lot of mutterings recently about the Government's determination to introduce national Identity Cards as some point in the future. Well, I'm ahead of the game - I still have my wartime identity card, issued when I was born. I assume the 'MF' stamps on the back are Ministry of Food, probably to do with free powdered milk (some of the tins for this were still lying about a few years later, in use for other things, and I can remember seeing them).



No photo inside, just some personal details - I have blurred out the actual date of birth for obvious reasons (and I no longer live at that address). The QMQA number later became my National Health number when that was set up after the war (it's since been replaced by a more modern numbering system).



Note that the name is in the American format, 'Roger F. Wilmut' - this was unusual at the time in Britain: normal practice would have been both initials or both names in full. This was quite deliberate: I gather a number of people with forged identity cards were caught because their names were in the more common British formats.

Of course the proposed cards would have a photo and a chip presumably containing a lot of personal data, linked to computers all over the place. We are assured that it wouldn't be hackable, and that no loss of data would be possible. Given the recent spate of data losses from the National Health Service and the Prison Service, I have to say one wonders.

Posted: Tue - October 7, 2008 at 09:26 AM by Roger Wilmut          

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Published On: Mar 11, 2016 05:00 PM



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