Driving Tests

A 2nd cousin has Type 1 and they won't give her a driving licence.

She is mid 40's but has a bus pass instead.

How did your lad get a licence ?

My first WAS a 1960 Morris Minor - convertible! 6697 VW. And no, I don't have that as a security question.

Same here. Watch out for red flashy lights.

Depends how stable the condition is, I think. His is pretty predictable and stable, with clear advance warning if he's about to have a hypo.

He has to test half an hour before he gets in the car to drive. Every time.

Mum's was a 2-door saloon, UBL 242 (known as "Ubble"). Coincidentally I had a pedal car when I was little which had a fake numberplate LBL 424.

I remember that the tip-up seats (because it was 2-door) were lethal because the rear edge wasn't fastened to the floor so if the car stopped in an emergency the rear passenger catapulted the front passenger or the driver out of the seat as it tipped forwards. Also no seat belts or even provision for them, because the B pillars weren't strong enough; I suppose we could have had those stupid seatbelts that you used to get in 2-door cars which were anchored somewhere near the hip of the rear passenger (instead of on the B pillar) and were a trip hazard for anyone getting in or out of the rear seats.

That is at the moment. As soon as everyone has a national identity card, banks will insist on making all loses the retailers' responsibility ... unless they have checked the buyer's ID. Much like the risk with cheques unless they'd noted the cheque guarantee card number on the back.

I simply don't want to have to carry ID.

Tonight, I have come home from work, got changed into scruffy DIY clothes and then needed to nip out for something. I can pay by contactless with my phone, no need for me to go upstairs and retrieve my driving licence or other ID before going out. No need to turf my wife out of the shower to get to the trousers with it in, hung on the back of the bathroom door.

I don't object to ID, but simply do not want to be compelled to carry it, either by law or by necessity as banks and retailers latch onto a national system.

SteveW

Everyone is allowed not to carry ID, *as long as they accept that they won't be able to do anything which requires ID*.

Don't you do what I do: transfer wallet, keys and phone when I change from one pair of trousers to another. That way I always have everything I need, from when I get up until when I go to bed, and when I'm in bed, the trousers with the wallet and keys are right beside my bed, ready to be picked up if I need to leave the house in an emergency. It's not that I'm paranoid, but if I don't have my wallet and keys in my pocket, then I don't know where they are and have to think "where did I last have them" so it's easier to have them in a known place.

I only ever carry my wallet when I know I'll need it. Hence have never lost one - unlike so many I know. Find it easier to simply take enough cash for the things I'm likely to buy when out.

Keys are kept on a key safe in the kitchen. Well away from windows or doors.

The number of things that you would not be able to do without it would of course expand exponentially as soon as ID was mandatory.

Sometimes I transfer everything, sometimes I don't - particularly if I am going to be doing DIY that involves climbing ladders, lying on the floor or crawling under things. That way I don't lose my debit card while under the floor or get jabbed in the side by my keys while working on the car.

My wallet has that many cards, payment, loyalty, trade, etc. that it is

Keys stay near the front door and a spare set near the back, with another set in the conservatory, as none of the doors can be opened without a key in case of emergency.

SteveW

The authorities would have an irresistable temptation to make it illegal to go outside your house without it; and to arrest anyone who fails to carry it. Maybe not at first, but at the first moral panic where it seems to be an obvious solution.

That doesn't in fact happen in the UK even during a world war where there is a real incentive to be able to check ID easily.

I still have my WW II ID card. Not really any use in checking identity - it doesn't have a photgraph. Since it was issued when I was 19 days old, any photograph would have needed regular updating.

Everyone had identity cards during the war.

I was born after the war, but those cards continued to be issued for a few years. I still have mine (like yours, without a photo), plus my ration book.

Was it only children's WWII ID cards (where the photo would need to be updated frequently when the child was young) which did not have photos? Or was it all ID cards that had no photo?

I don't actually know the answer, but I suspect that with the technology available at the time it would have been prohibitively expensive. And certainly not in colour.

I don't know how often people were arrested as a result of failing to carry them, but the power was certainly avaiable.

Even those with type 1 can get a licence if it is controlled. I?m pretty sure a friend who was type 1 had an HGV licence at one stage. He certainly had a normal licence.

Unfortunately, not everyone?s can be controlled well enough.

In my friend?s case, he?d lived with the condition since his childhood/ teens and he was able to control it. He had to inject etc. The big C got him in his 70s.