What's particularly civilised about it? In the current system we often have to use driving licences as 'ID' — which is especially odd considering not all of us drive. It seems obvious that having a standard form of identification would make all sorts of things easier and include the benefits mentioned above.

i think this is my point - i don't have a driving licence. i don't see why i should need to identify myself to anybody, or why a driving license/id card/passport even reliably does that. it is just bad methods of control from them not even competently in-charge.