The UK government scored yet another PR own goal when it was announced today that they would trial the national ID card scheme in Manchester. This idea is frankly bonkers on almost every possible level.
The ID cards will be £30 and ‘voluntary’. My experience of Mancunians suggests it is unlikely that we’d volunteer to part with civil liberties and pay for the privilege. I can hear the conversation in the newsagents as we speak “…sod it cancel the paper and the lottery tickets for the next few weeks, I’ll have one of them ID cards instead. Cheers mate.”
I posted a poll on Twitter this morning - it’s a modest response but resolute (over 86% at the last count) in the view that we should resist the introduction of the scheme. Even the Labour candidate for Withington Lucy Powell doesn’t think that there will be much uptake.
What is more, we citizens of the Republic of Mancunia are not overly keen on being told what to do, especially if it’s one rule for them and another for us. Come on Jacqui take a trip up to Manchester and we’ll tell you exactly what we think.
This Thursday (7th April) I will be presenting on the “PR Challenges of the Social Web,” at the KMP Digitata & How Do Seminar in Manchester. I will look at how reputations can be affected, how reputations are built and lost and how you can manage your brand’s reputation through the use of PR and social media.
Another Friday and another five blogs that you might want to take a look at and even add to your reader, or your web favourites, if readers aren’t your thing. They are all worth a visit and I’ll put my shirt on that.
