Re:Steve Wozniak used to tip from printed sheets of $2 bills
by iso1210 on Sunday January 29, 2023 @11:00AM
(#34569244)
Still the case in the UK, no law saying you have to provide any ID on a domestic flight (although you'll need a boarding pass), certainly I don't whenever I fly domestically (rarely). Some airlines require ID for ticket purposes (to prevent you from selling your ticket to someone else). Flights between the UK and Ireland are a little trickier, you don't need a passport, as long as you can prove you are either British or Irish. If you don't have a photo ID you can fly from the UK to Belfast and then drive/train/bus to the Republic.
The requirement for a passport and appropriate visa on international flights departing from the UK is I think solely an airline requirement, as if you land in a country you don't have a right to immigrate to the airline gets fined. If you're flying privately it's a different matter.
Obviously you need a passport or other authority to travel when you get to the border of another country (Ireland being the obvious exception for the UK).
And at some early points when you did, it was more just like kind of informally showing you were the ticket-holder, not really about security. His "fake ID" saying he was a "laser inspector" is really just an employee ID for a very unsuccesful business he started, right? If they take an employee ID, what's the difference. it just... wasn't actually a big deal back then.
But yeah, in general... it's kind of painful to remember how much less we interacted with security checkpoints 30 years ago, and how much we've gotten used to living in a security state. The phrase "show me your papers" used to be a kind of shorthand for the idea that in a "fascist" state threatening law enforcement is always asking you for ID, but in "America" we can live our lives without interacting with such security apparatus. I doubt people think about it like that, as we live it now too, it's totally normalized.
that the reader may find it hard to believe that you didn't really have to show official ID to get on a plane, or that you could use a homemade employee ID... just demonstrates how normalized and forever-seeming the security state has become.
Although last I checked, you could actually still fly without ID, you need to fill out a form and get extra screening/pat down. Don't know if the "Real ID" stuff has changed that or what.