Never quite got all the fuss about what was so wrong about this scheme and always thought the civil liberties issues were vastly over-exaggated by those opposed to it, helped by the likes of The Mail / The Sun, etc.
So you had no objection to a £2,000 fine because you forgot to inform the government of a change of address then? Ora £2,000 fine because you
did inform them but there was a cockup, you cant prove you did, so its your fault?
The cards weren't a waste of money before
Self evidently they were, when many travel organizations wouldnt accept them, when the means of checking validity was to flick one and listen if it made the right noise (no, really, I am not making that up),and there was no way at all of reading them so anyone could easily have had a faked one in your name and cause you issues.
Interested to know though, do the cards become useless now, even though they presumably have long expiry dates?
Yes and good riddance, amongst many other flaws they were a way of criminalising the entire population. Oh, no ID card on you sir? You'd better come to the police station. Oh, changed your address? £2K. Oh you lost it? Another £85 please. Better come in for questioning, there was a burglary and the suspect had previously bought something with a credit card and validated that with an ID card with your name on it. We are sure it was valid and thus must have been you as it definitely made the right noise when we flick it. DOnt just think about your ID cards in your hands, think about a fake ID card with your name on it, in a crims hands. How easy to produce a fake one? Dead easy, because there was no way to check if it was real !
If you want a "passport lite" IMO its foolish to think that the multiple flaws of ID cards could be overlooked because of the fact it can also be used as such. If you want a passport lite, ask your MP to campaign for one, that would obviously be trivial and very low cost to produce at the same time as your passport. The last govt had such ludicrous, unimplementable plans for ID cards that that has likely scuppered such a thing though.