There is a huge (and to my mind unwarranted) resistance to ID cards in the UK. We only tend to use them in times of war. The Government did try to bring in a complicated system spent £millions on it and failed, so I don't see much chance in the near future. Branding with a hot iron might work!
Mike.X
I agree and the next step would be everyone having to produce their ID to the police and such like. Failure to hand over your ID would then be a criminal action. I certainly don't agree to having to carry my ID around on the off chance that I get stopped on the street.
Besides which I know of many that actually have at least two aliases for different bank accounts, driving licences etc. And it's not that difficult to get a genuine UK passport in a different name either.
I actually have an alias which is my true name but includes my father's first name as my second Christian name.
There are ways around everything and having a dodgy alias helps a lot.
Way back in time I tested the DVLA system by applying for a provisional licence in a slightly different name.
There was no problem - the 'new' licence arrived and if I had wanted to use it as ID I would either have had to pass my driving test again or had someone pass it for me.
Even simpler was having an affidavit stating that I had passed my car and motorcycle tests as when the DVLA moved over from the old red book to the paper licence I forgot to reapply for the new type licence. By the time I got round to it all of the old red book records had been destroyed consequently there was no record anywhere that said that I had passed those tests. The DVLA accepted my sworn statement that I had done and issued me with a new paper version. I could have had numerous driving licences in different names by using that system.