We had them after WWII until sometime in the 50's when they were removed due to abuse by the authorities. Hence there is still a distrust of them. The scheme recently introduced and then scrapped could have had some interesting consequences.
This is part of why we have such "fun" with the free movement provisions, in that we do not have a population register. Nor a requirement to keep the authorities notified of where we live.
Hence unlike the other EU countries, we can not enforce the 90 day limit on EU folks being here without means to support themselves.
I think it was when the wartime id cards where up for renewal the civil service wanted it - but parliament thought it smacked to much of "Gestapo" as Churchill put it.
It was killed by a Motorist refusing to present an ID card to the police, and the resultant court case. That is what lead to Parliament being "forced" to scrap them.
FYI, any non-British citizens living in the UK (excepting EU for now) are being forced towards getting Biometric Residence Permits with any visas/renewals... a plastic card containing photos/biometrics and a big ID number on it. And biometrics are collected every time you cross the border.
Yes, that has been going on for a little while now. It started with refugees having to have such, and is getting rolled out wider now.
It is rather a pointless exercise, since people can slip past the border, and once within the country there is no need to carry or produce ID. So as long as one avoids interactions with the authorities, one will not be tracked.
About all it will do is allow a count to be kept of the number of law abiding (non EEA & non Swiss) foreigners within the country.
If Brexit ever does occur, it may then also include the EEA countries and Switzerland (depending upon what reciprocal travel arrangements develop), but would not include the Irish.
We had them after WWII until sometime in the 50's when they were removed due to abuse by the authorities. Hence there is still a distrust of them. The scheme recently introduced and then scrapped could have had some interesting consequences.
This is part of why we have such "fun" with the free movement provisions, in that we do not have a population register. Nor a requirement to keep the authorities notified of where we live.
Hence unlike the other EU countries, we can not enforce the 90 day limit on EU folks being here without means to support themselves.