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UK ID cards will be accepted in Europe

Updated Government working over other EU members for agreement
Fri Aug 21 2009, 14:50

ACCORDING TO the Home Office, ID cards will be accepted as travel documents across Europe when they are launched, whenever that is.

On Friday we reported that in an interview with the Oldham Evening Chronicle the UK's Identity Minister, Lord Brett, said the ID cards might not be recognised outside the UK by other EU member states.

But this morning, we got a call from a very nice but firm woman from the Home Office who told us the original story is inaccurate. Lord Brett, it appears, was misquoted and the write-up in the Chronicle has been heavily updated.

Nevertheless, Lord Brett is still saying, "When we do launch it, we want to make sure all our ducks are in a row. It is not just marketing and selling the card to people who want to have it but to make sure first of all that all the countries in Europe will accept it and understand it as a travel document." He added that unless this was the case there would be "no day one" for the cards, just like he did on Friday.

So does this mean the UK still has to twist the other member states' arms and will delay the launch of the UK card until they have all agreed?

Not so, says the Home Office spokeswoman: "There is no question. Discussions [with other member states] have been going on for a long time and [ID cards] will be accepted from day one."

We have been told. µ

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Comments
No ID your nicked

I'm afraid the police are already getting in to the swing of things by demanding ID from people and arresting them if they don't have any on them as you can see in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vEE1ue0qR4

posted by : Peter, 10 October 2009 Complain about this comment
How long ...

... will it be before they simply take DNA straight after you've been born and had your arse smacked?

Then at 16 years of age, you report for your first ID card and then every 10 years you get recalled for a re-issue. No ID card ... no citizenship, no rights, no nothing!

Welcome to 1984 ... 25 years late but thats about right for UK govenment officials.

posted by : Big Brothers Jockstrap, 25 August 2009 Complain about this comment
Guaranteed to....FAIL

Anything that this retarded government, under Gordo Brown dreams up,is,by definition, bound to cost £Billions & 100% certain to end in FAILURE.

posted by : Anon, 24 August 2009 Complain about this comment
Ducks in a row?!

Why must we always get our fowl feathered friends in a noisy commotion?
Down with the tyrantical sadists!
I suppose next he'll be wanting to get out kittens in the mower.

posted by : Pita Davuil, 24 August 2009 Complain about this comment
UK is Part of Europe

And they will be useless here too!
RFID fryers and cash will be popular though...

posted by : Tom, 24 August 2009 Complain about this comment
V for Vendetta

Oh dear. Its only a matter of time before the plot of the subj. movie goes in motion. I feel for you UK.

posted by : V, 24 August 2009 Complain about this comment
@slartybartfarst

im with you mate!

terrorists are a figment of our governments imagination and they are using it to slowly imprison the citizens

the government is constantly ignoring the views of the people (who fund their vast and abused expenses system)

posted by : stump, buffalo, 24 August 2009 Complain about this comment
Blunder'd Mission:heres' Link....

Ever get terroist In Your Sights & Then HAVE to Go to bathroom? Happens ALL time In Operations Central. well, After Sucking On Exhaust Pipe ALL Evening, Simply forgot to Pull trigger, errr, Mean Paste Link: Here IT Is:

http://gizmodo.com/5342713/this-is-how-the-cia-kills-terrorists-using-predators

Pretty Sure its vondrasher Fault.

signed:Dumbee'

posted by : C.I.A. AGENT...., 23 August 2009 Complain about this comment
C.I.A. Drone Operators Simulated Video....

Every wondered how cool people are that blow up others buildings & autos? heres simulated look. Most drones are radio controled from on site Field trailer. It is unlikely anything as far away as half world make final firing command, merely attack plan. However, they have to be trained somewhere before field bivouac.

Predator Bees' Sting children & even kill'd by their lovely pets, who knows when Drone will go off.

Teams hunta teams & its teamie thang.
vondrashek & Drashek Predator Commentos' Sig catch UP.

posted by : C.I.A. Operative...., 23 August 2009 Complain about this comment
the same happens here

the same happens here in the UK when I use my Spanish ID Card, they look up it and then tell me they accept only passports!

posted by : luis cesar, 22 August 2009 Complain about this comment
Err...

Actually, the paper mis-quoted and the article has been corrected. The truth is that "Lord Brett said that countries across Europe have already been contacted by the Identity and Passport Service to ensure they recognise and accept the cards once the first ones are issued". Schengen is actually irrelevant, it is all of the European Economic Area that the cards are valid for :)

posted by : swc, 22 August 2009 Complain about this comment
daisycutter

Ahh but that's where you're wrong! (At least according to Lord Brett...)

Everyone wants one, but most of them just don't know it yet!

posted by : Lindsay, 22 August 2009 Complain about this comment
charlton heston put his vest on

You can make me carry a card when you stick it between my cold dead fingers.

posted by : slartybartfarst, 22 August 2009 Complain about this comment
Wot!

You brits are almost as F@&ked as us Canucs! Yeh we are based on the same legal system as you! Sounds like something that would happen here?

posted by : trace, 22 August 2009 Complain about this comment
Voluntary

Increasingly the police do not enforce the law they "interpret" and "define" it as they see fit (often in direct contradiction to Court rulings).

It won't be long before police are demanding ID cards regardless of the fact that you have no obligation to carry one or show it.

posted by : Jon M., 21 August 2009 Complain about this comment
May well hinder terrorists...

...as no other country will accept it as a valid travel document, thus preventing them from travelling abroad to attend training camps.

posted by : A/C, 21 August 2009 Complain about this comment
Ducks in a row?!

The man in charge of this nonsense actually used that phrase?!

Actually said he wanted to get his ducks in a row?

Good lord, no wonder we're shafted...

posted by : Bob Monkfish, 21 August 2009 Complain about this comment
It's a matter of Schengen...

Had the UK been part of the Schengen treaty, it would have been possible to establish it's national ID cards as travel documents, replacing the standard passport in EU.

However that is not the case. Countries that singed up that treaty can travel across each other's borders with their national id cards, even if such cards are low tech, hand-written, greek language only, thus easy to reproduce and hard to read.

posted by : Alex Kambas, 21 August 2009 Complain about this comment
Join the queue

I wonder if Osama Bin Laden has received his card yet,lol.
8,000 isuued,cost £12 BILLION ..
they must be 24ct gold,encrusted with diamonds.
Now,where's that damn calculator that Gordon Brown sent me,the one that PRUDENCE used?
Erm! whar's the point, it didn't stop our Gordon getting his sums wrong,or was it the fault of deficit spending over 12 years?

posted by : Anon, 21 August 2009 Complain about this comment
control

oddly the card scheme still goes ahead even tho no-one wants it ..just as all the survelence cameras and traffic cameras ago ahead totally regardless of public opinion.

only to subdue your angst by claiming that it will help stop terrorism!

its purely voluntary of course! to have one but slowly but surely you will be required to produce it on government systems insurance purposes or anything else you find yourself registering with ..thin end of the wedge stuff!

posted by : daisycutter, 21 August 2009 Complain about this comment
where to sign up?

I live in Greater Manchester but there's been nothing through the letterbox, no adverts, no posters, in fact zero public info as to where and how to obtain an ID card. It's almost as if gov.uk wanted the trial to fail.

(Not that I want an ID card anyway.)

posted by : g lane, 21 August 2009 Complain about this comment
aboutus
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