I can't read the full article, but it says it'll be optional. That sounds like they're still wanting to develop it, spend the money, and then say "well now we've got it, it would be silly not to use it!"
this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2026
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Exactly, this is how Labour force ID, then on to verifying your ID before you can use the internet, all posts will be moderated by government AI produced by Palantir
From the BBC article:
The Liberal Democrats said the policy was "doomed to failure" from the start and called for "the billions of pounds earmarked for their mandatory digital ID scheme" to be spent "on the NHS and frontline policing instead".
Damn right. We want our money spent on something useful.
Good news! No doubt the next Labour government will try again though.
This same one will try for other bills that similarly surrender their populations to tech in other ways.
Quietly rolls back policy after the news cycle has moved on.... Interesting
I'm happy this has happened. I'm still pretty wary, though. Can there be a cross party debate and agreement on what the limits should be? I worry the "mandatory" part will just get pushed through later on, like the encryption backdoor clause of the OSA.
Oh sweet, I can hate labour slightly less. Drop the OSA next and I might even be able to reluctantly approve of them.
Drop the OSA, free all the non-violent protesters, drop the threat to Jury trials, and publicly apologise for being a complete fascist cunt. Then, maybe they deserve a second chance.
And stop sending weapons to israel
That was already stopped a while ago.
E: are people angry that it stopped?
Why do you still tell this lie. I put you straight on this a while back. Some 30 licenses were suspended in 2024, hundreds of licenses are still active. The UK still arms Israel.
You claimed this before, and I showed you the evidence that you were wrong. You are still repeating the claim. You are a liar.
Oh yeah, all the other bad things they did too...
Good. The gov.uk ‘one login’ they are already rolling out is plenty good enough without the massive overreach of digital id.
I'm not from the UK and also don't have any background on this, can you perhaps explain why it's overreach?
I would think that ID documents being digital is a logical step to digitisation.
Is there any major Labour policy that hasn't been U-turned on?
I'd rather they u-turned shitty ideas than waffle-stomp them through.
How the fuck the OSA seemed to just drift through is astounding
Because unfortunately, all our politicians want it, and the public wants it too.
Reddit and Lemmy are very much in the minority on OSA.
Which is a shame, because I find the OSA to be stupid and unworkable.
I genuinely don't understand everyone complaining about u-turns. Setting aside that this isn't really a u-turn, they're still doing it, just won't be mandatory.
Would you rather a government that dogmatically sticks to every single idea they have regardless of public opinion, or a government that changes its policies in response to feedback?
My issue is the government coming up with ideas that everyone can see from the outset are doomed to fail, for seemingly arbritray reasons, and then rolling them back when the inevitable happens.
Winter fuel being the most glaring: we need to show the banks we're fiscally responsible, we then have no material change in how the banks view the government but have a minor shift in the forecasts for 5 years time, we've done it, we're fiscally responsible now so pensioners can have their £500 back.
Since 2008 the banks themselves have had to prove they are fiscally responsible which I very doubt they are.
Yeah, I'd rather they did better in the first place too. But I'm not going to complain when they finally do the right thing. That's just going to lead to them not changing unpopular policies at all.
Support of genocide?
They publicly condemned Israel, committed to arresting Netanyahu if he ever came here, sanctioned much of the Israeli parliament, refused to join the US/Israel in attacking Iran, ramped up humanitarian aid for Palestine, stopped weapons exports to Israel, and formally recognised Palestine.
I struggle to see this rabid support of Israel that Lemmy posters always seem to talk about.
Nope. They publicly supported Israeli "right" to starve Gaza, criminalised the support of a direct action group that opposes the genocide, continue to arm Israel, allowed Israel to attack British boats and kidnap British citizens sailing on them, continue to fly spy planes for Israel and refuel their planes at Akrotiri.
The UK government is complicit in genocide.
criminalised the support of a direct action group that opposes the genocide,
No. They proscribed a group that ram raided factories with workers inside, advocated for genocide, trashed businesses for having Jewish owners, smashed a policewoman's back while she was incapacitated on the floor with a sledgehammer, and broke into an RAF base and destroyed the engines of two jets.
allowed Israel to attack British boats and kidnap British citizens
More bullshit
continue to fly spy planes for Israel
They warned Israel against targeting civilians and gave them information on Hamas installations in an attempt to lessen civilian casualties.
and refuel their planes at Akrotiri
Stop fucking lying. Israel and the UK don't even have compatible fueling systems.
The UK government is complicit in genocide.
If you believe that, you are brain-dead. Re-read the above comment.
Just outright lies! There's just not even a concession to the truth with you, is there.
Support for Brexit.
They did not support Brexit.
Could have fooled me...
I don't see how. Starmer is getting closer to the EU.
Tinkering around the edges is what it looks like. In the world we live in Starmer is happy to avoid putting the case to the people of the UK that we should be in the EU and instead is banking on "well we've already done deals with India and the US". India being a country that is extremely happy to buy Russian gas on the cheap to help fuel their war against Ukraine and the US being.... well the US.
I don't pretend it's easy for him to do. But he's not even trying in my mind.
The UK is getting closer to the EU. Just jumping back in isn't an option right now.
MP's first