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Marshall Faulk

Marshall William Faulk (born February 26, 1973) is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons with the Indianapolis Colts and St. Louis Rams. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest running backs of all time.

Faulk played college football for the San Diego State Aztecs, with whom he was a two-time unanimous All-American. He was selected by the Colts as the second overall pick in the 1994 NFL draft; he was with the Colts for five seasons and played the last eight seasons of his career with the Rams. He was a member of the Greatest Show on Turf, a name given to the St. Louis Rams team that appeared in two Super Bowls and won Super Bowl XXXIV. In 2000, he was named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the NFL.

Faulk is one of only three NFL players to reach at least 10,000 rushing yards and 5,000 receiving yards and the only one to amass 12,000 yards rushing and 6,000 yards receiving. He was also an analyst for various programs on the NFL Network until December 2017. He was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 2017.

Early life
Faulk was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. He attended Carver High School in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, where he played for the Carver Rams high school football team. Also a standout track sprinter, Faulk was timed at 10.3 seconds in the 100 meters, 21.74 over 200 meters, and 49.4 in the 400 meters. While growing up he sold popcorn at New Orleans Saints games in the Louisiana Superdome.

During his final two years playing for Carver High, Faulk rushed 1,800 yards and scored thirty-two touchdowns. In his senior season, he also played defensive back, intercepting 11 passes and returning six of them for touchdowns.

College career

Faulk was heavily recruited by several major colleges, but due to his standout performance on defense, most of them recruited him to play the cornerback position. However, Faulk strongly desired to play the running back position in college. "I didn't love playing cornerback, so I knew I wouldn't be as successful in that position," Faulk told Sports Illustrated Kids. "You have to really love what you do to be a star." Ultimately he accepted an athletic scholarship to attend San Diego State University, because they were the first team to offer him a scholarship to play running back.

One of the best performances of his career was against the University of the Pacific on September 14, 1991, in just his second collegiate game. In 37 carries, he amassed 386 yards and scored seven touchdowns, both records for freshmen (the 386 yards were a then-NCAA record). "Faulk had scoring runs of 61, 7, 47, 9, 5, 8 and 25 yards." That performance sparked one of the greatest freshman seasons in NCAA history, gaining 1,429 yards rushing, with 1,630 total yards froom scrimmage, 23 total touchdowns (21 rushing), and 140 points scored. At the end of the year, Faulk joined Tony Dorsett and Herschel Walker as one of just three true freshmen ever selected to the College Football All-America Team by the Associated Press.

Faulk went on to better 1,600 yards rushing in his sophomore year. In Faulk's junior season in 1993, he was finally able to showcase his all-purpose ability by catching 47 passes for 640 yards and 3 touchdowns to go with 1,530 yards and 21 touchdowns on the ground. These numbers put Faulk 3rd in the nation in all-purpose yardage that year, and 2nd in scoring. Faulk left San Diego State University with many of the school's offensive records, among them 5,562 all-purpose yards and 62 career touchdowns, which is the 8th most in NCAA history.

After his 1992 season at SDSU, Faulk finished second in the Heisman Trophy award voting, losing to quarterback Gino Torretta in what was considered a notable snub in the history of the award. Torretta's 1992 Miami Hurricanes football team was undefeated in the regular season and ranked No. 1 in the country before the Heisman balloting, Faulk's team finished with a middling 5–5–1 record, continuing a trend of the Heisman going to the most notable player on one of the nation's best teams. ESPN analyst Lee Corso led a campaign supporting Torretta for the Heisman and left Marshall Faulk off of his ballot. Faulk was a Heisman finalist as well in 1991 (9th) and 1993 (4th).

In 1992, Faulk was named Arthur Ashe Sports Scholar Jr. by Diverse: Issues In Higher Education.

1994 NFL Draft
Along with defensive tackle Dan Wilkinson and quarterbacks Heath Shuler and Trent Dilfer, Faulk was regarded as "one of the four players who rank well above the others in this draft". and on March 31, he ran a 4.35 forty-yard time at the San Diego State Pro Day. The Bengals had the No. 1 pick in the 1994 NFL draft, and contemplated combining their heavy-duty runner Harold Green with the explosive Faulk, but picked Wilkinson, leaving Faulk for the Indianapolis Colts.

Indianapolis Colts (1994–1998)
Faulk was drafted in the first round with the second overall pick in the 1994 NFL draft by the Indianapolis Colts, who were in desperate need of a running game. On July 25, 1994, Faulk signed a seven-year $17.2 million contract and received a $5.1 million signing bonus. Faulk responded by rushing for 1,282 yards, 11 touchdowns, and one receiving touchdown. The Colts improved to 8–8. Marshall Faulk, later that season, would become the first NFL player to win both the Offensive Rookie of the Year Award and the Pro Bowl's Most Valuable Player Award in the same season. He was also the first rookie to win Pro Bowl MVP.

The next season Faulk rushed for 1,078 yards and 14 total touchdowns. The Colts made the postseason, going 9–7, and narrowly missed the Super Bowl after a close loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC Championship Game, which Faulk missed due to a nagging toe injury.

The next year was a miserable one for Faulk. Because of a toe injury he suffered earlier in the season, he rushed for only 587 yards, with a 3 yards-per-carry average. He led the Colts in yards from scrimmage with 1,015. He recovered from the injury and rushed for 1,000+ yards in each of the next two seasons, setting a new personal high with 1,319 in 1998. He also caught 86 passes for 906 yards that year (playing alongside rookie quarterback Peyton Manning) and was the NFL's leader in total yards from scrimmage with 2,227, beating out Denver's MVP running back Terrell Davis by 2 yards, while also finishing 4th in the league in receptions. It would also be the first of an NFL-record 4 consecutive 2,000+ total-yard seasons.

St. Louis Rams (1999–2006)
Faulk was traded to the St. Louis Rams the following season for second- and fifth-round picks in the upcoming draft (which the Colts used to draft LB Mike Peterson and DE Brad Scioli). The Colts moved on at the position, drafting Edgerrin James in the first round. Faulk held out for 12 days as the details of his contract were worked out. On August 4, 1999, Faulk signed a seven-year, $45.2 million contract with the Rams, which was the biggest deal in team history at the time. In it, Faulk was guaranteed $9.6 million including a $7-million signing bonus. The problem in negotiations was the proposed fifth year, in which Faulk would get $7 million in salary and a $5-million roster bonus. The deal was structured to prevent Faulk from ever being tagged a transition or franchise player.

In his first year in St. Louis, Faulk was the catalyst for "The Greatest Show on Turf", a nickname given to coordinator Mike Martz's aggressive Coryell-style offense. In this offense, he put up some of the best all-purpose numbers in the history of the NFL. Faulk's patience and diligence in learning the Rams' offense paid off when he totaled an NFL record 2,429 yards from scrimmage, eclipsing Barry Sanders's record of 2,358 yards set in 1997 (Faulk's mark has since been broken by Chris Johnson in 2009). With 1,381 yards rushing (5.5 yards-per-carry average), 1,048 receiving yards, and scoring 12 touchdowns, Faulk joined Roger Craig as the only men at that time to total 1,000+ yards in each category in a season. He also broke the NFL season record for most receiving yards by a running back, previously held by Lionel James. The Rams went on to win Super Bowl XXXIV. In the game, Faulk was contained on the ground by Tennessee Titans head coach Jeff Fisher's defensive scheme, limiting him to just 17 rushing yards. This was perhaps due to the Titans' inability to stop the Rams' passing game, of which Faulk was a major part, recording 5 receptions for 90 yards. His 90 receiving yards were the second-highest total by a running back in Super Bowl history. At the end of the season, he received the NFL Offensive Player of the Year Award and was a starter for the NFC squad in the 1999 Pro Bowl.

The following year, Faulk became the first running back in NFL history to lead his team in receptions five separate seasons (three in Indianapolis and twice in St. Louis). In addition, he was the NFL MVP and again the Offensive Player of the Year in 2000. He had 1,359 yards rushing in 14 games and set a new NFL record with 26 total touchdowns, (a record that would soon be broken by Priest Holmes and then later by Shaun Alexander and LaDainian Tomlinson), despite missing two games due to injury. He also averaged 5+ yards per carry again, this time with 5.4. The Rams, however, were not able to replicate the record they had the year prior. Even with the offense scoring the most points and yards during "The Greatest Show on Turf" era, the defense gave up 470 points.

The Rams returned to the Super Bowl the next year as their defense returned to form, allowing only 273 points, and the offense once again scored over 500 points, with 503. St. Louis lost on a late Adam Vinatieri field goal, 20-17, as Faulk totaled 76 rushing yards and 54 receiving yards. Faulk had another excellent season, rushing 260 times for a career-high 1,382 yards (5.3 yards per carry), and catching 83 passes for 765 yards, for an NFC-leading total of 2,147 yards from scrimmage (second in the NFL only to Priest Holmes, who totaled 2,169 yards) and scoring 21 touchdowns despite once again missing 2 games to injuries. Faulk won, for the third year in a row, the NFL's Offensive Player of the Year award, but finished second in a close vote to teammate Kurt Warner in the MVP vote. These years would be the climax of Faulk's career.

Faulk's injuries and age would soon catch up to him; 2001 was the last of his 1,000-yard rushing seasons, and though he was still employed as the Rams' primary running back following the 2001 season, he was no longer the player he was in his prime, despite remaining a respected and effective player.

On July 29, 2002, Faulk signed a new seven-year, $43.95 million contract with the Rams. Faulk was about to enter the fourth year of his 1999 contract. In this new contract Faulk received a $10.7 million signing bonus. In the 2002 season the Rams struggled and finished the year at 7–9. Faulk played in 14 games and started 10 and ended with 953 yards and 80 receptions. The following season, he played in and started 11 games, finishing with 818 yards and 45 receptions as the Rams rebounded with a 12–4 record.

In 2004, Faulk split time with rookie Steven Jackson and played in 14 games and rushing for 774 yards. In February 2005, Faulk agreed to a restructured contract to reduce his contract cap number. He was scheduled to make about $7.5 million in 2005. With the new contract he received a total of $6 million in the next two seasons and a $2 million signing bonus was included. The 2005 season was Faulk's last in the NFL. He rushed for only 292 yards on 65 carries and caught 44 passes for 291 yards and one touchdown. This marked the only time in his career where he did not have a rushing touchdown.

Injuries and retirement
On July 21, the Rams announced that Faulk would undergo reconstructive knee surgery and miss the entire 2006 NFL season. During the season Faulk served as an analyst for the NFL Network's NFL Total Access.

During an NBC Sunday Night Football halftime show, Faulk was asked by one of the announcers, "So are you retired or not?" Faulk said that he was still a Ram, and would be a Ram for the rest of his life. He then said that if the Rams would have him back, he would play next year, as he was able to run full speed on his re-built knees, but on March 26, 2007, Faulk announced his retirement from football.

On November 29, 2007, the Rams announced that they would be retiring Faulk's number. The ceremony was held during halftime of a Thursday night game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on December 20, 2007. In 2010 on the NFL Network's The Top 100: NFL's Greatest Players, Faulk was voted the number 70 player of all time.

In 2011, Faulk's first year of eligibility, he was elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. As a running back, he placed first in receiving yards (6,875), second in pass receptions (767), second in receiving touchdowns (36), third in yards from scrimmage (19,154), and tenth in rushing yards (12,280).

NFL records

 * Fastest player to gain 16,000 yards from scrimmage 129 games
 * Fastest player to gain 17,000 yards from scrimmage: 142 games
 * Fastest player to gain 1,000 yards from scrimmage in a season: 6 (1083 yards in 2000, tied with Jim Brown)
 * Most two point conversions, career: 7
 * Most consecutive seasons with 2,000 yards from scrimmage: 4
 * Most consecutive seasons with 5+ rushing touchdowns: 10 (1994-2003, tied with LaDainian Tomlinson)
 * Most consecutive games with 4+ touchdowns: 2 (tied with Jim Taylor and LaDainian Tomlinson)
 * Most receiving yards by a running back in a season: 1,048
 * Most consecutive games with a reception by a running back (min. 5 carries per game): 158
 * Most games with 200 yards from scrimmage: 14
 * Most games with 250 yards from scrimmage: 5
 * Most games with both a rushing and receiving touchdown, career: 15
 * Only player with 70+ rushing TDs and 30+ receiving TDs
 * Only player with 12,000 yards rushing and 6,000 yards receiving in a career
 * Only player to have 200 yards receiving and 50 yards rushing in the same game - December 26, 1999
 * Only player to have 200 yards receiving and 10 rushing attempts in the same game - December 26, 1999

NFL

 * Super Bowl champion (XXXIV)
 * NFL Most Valuable Player (2000)
 * 3× NFL Offensive Player of the Year (1999–2001)
 * NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year (1994)
 * 3× First-team All-Pro (1999–2001)
 * 3× Second-team All-Pro (1994, 1995, 1998)
 * 7× Pro Bowl (1994, 1995, 1998–2002)
 * NFL rushing touchdowns leader (2000)
 * 2× NFL scoring leader
 * PFWA All-Rookie Team (1994)
 * St. Louis Football Ring of Fame
 * Indianapolis Colts Ring of Honor
 * Los Angeles Rams No. 28 retired
 * Bert Bell Award (2001)

College

 * WAC Offensive Player of the Year (1992)
 * 3× First-team All-American (1991–1993)
 * 3× First-team All-WAC (1991-1993)
 * San Diego State Aztecs No. 28 retired

Post-NFL career
Faulk was a longtime NFL Network analyst. He served as an analyst on NFL Total Access, where he provided a player's perspective on today's game. He also appeared on Thursday Night Football's pre-game, halftime and post-game shows, and Sunday's NFL GameDay Morning. Faulk was suspended from the network on December 12, 2017, along with fellow ex-players Heath Evans and Ike Taylor, after sexual harassment allegations were made against the three by a former network wardrobe stylist.

Faulk played himself in season 1, episode 12 of the sitcom Life in Pieces. This episode first aired on January 7, 2016, on CBS.

Faulk was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011 in his first year of eligibility. He was also inducted into the Indianapolis Colts Ring of Honor during the week 15 game against the Houston Texans on December 15, 2013, along with Eric Dickerson, another former Colt running back (who also played for the Rams, albeit when they were in Los Angeles).

Personal life
Faulk was married to Lindsay Stoudt from 2006 to 2014. He has six children, including three with Stoudt. His son, Marshall Faulk Jr., played running back for the Central Washington Wildcats.

Faulk has a charitable foundation in San Diego. His childhood friend Tyrone Wilson helped him start his foundation. Faulk is a cousin of Kevin Faulk, a former NFL running back.

In 2009, Faulk was inducted into the San Diego Hall of Champions.

title: Marshall Faulk


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Identity Cards Act 2006

The Identity Cards Act 2006 (c. 15) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was repealed in 2011. It created National Identity Cards, a personal identification document and European Economic Area travel document, which were voluntarily issued to British citizens. It also created a resident registry database known as the National Identity Register (NIR), which has since been destroyed. In all around 15,000 National Identity Cards were issued until the act was repealed in 2011. The Identity Card for Foreign nationals was continued in the form of Biometric Residence Permits after 2011 under the provisions of the UK Borders Act 2007 and the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009.

The introduction of the scheme by the Labour government was much debated, and civil liberty concerns focused primarily on the database underlying the identity cards rather than the cards themselves. The Act specified fifty categories of information that the National Identity Register could hold on each citizen. The legislation further said that those renewing or applying for passports must be entered on to the NIR.

The Conservative/Liberal Democrat Coalition formed after the 2010 general election announced that the ID card scheme would be scrapped. The Identity Cards Act was repealed by the Identity Documents Act 2010 on 21 January 2011, and the cards were invalidated with no refunds to purchasers.

Nobody in the UK is required to carry any form of ID. Therefore, driving licences and passports are the most widely used ID documents in the United Kingdom. Young people are able to apply and be issued a provisional driving licence usually without any preconditions, and under most circumstances can be used as ID in the same way as a standard driving licence. Utility bills are used the primary document as evidence of residency. Authorities and police generally don't make spot checks of identification for individuals, although they may do so in instances of arrest.

Reasons given for the need for introduction
Initial attempts to introduce a voluntary identity card were made under the Conservative government of John Major, under then Home Secretary Michael Howard. At the Labour Party conference in 1995, Tony Blair demanded that "instead of wasting hundreds of millions of pounds on compulsory ID cards as the Tory Right demand, let that money provide thousands more police officers on the beat in our local communities." It was included in the Conservative election manifesto for the 1997 general election, in which Labour returned to office.

A proposal for ID cards, to be called "entitlement cards", was initially revived by the Home Secretary at the time, David Blunkett, following the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, but was reportedly opposed by Cabinet colleagues. However, rising concerns about identity theft and the misuse of public services led to a proposal in February 2002 for the introduction of entitlement cards to be used to obtain social security services, and a consultation paper, Entitlement Cards and Identity Fraud, was published by the Home Office on 3 July 2002. A public consultation process followed, which resulted in a majority of submissions by organisations being in favour of a scheme to verify a person's identity accurately. However, it was clear that the ability to properly identify a person to their true identity was central to the proposal's operation, with wider implications for operations against crime and terrorism.

In 2003, Blunkett announced that the Government intended to introduce a "British national identity card" linked to a national identity database, the National Identity Register. The proposals were included in the November 2003 Queen's Speech, despite doubts over the ability of the scheme to prevent terrorism. Feedback from the consultation exercise indicated that the term "entitlement card" was superficially softer and warmer, but less familiar and "weaselly", and consequently the euphemism was dropped in favour of "identity card".

During a private seminar for the Fabian Society in August 2005, Tony McNulty, the minister in charge of the scheme, stated "perhaps in the past the government, in its enthusiasm, oversold the advantages of identity cards", and that they "did suggest, or at least implied, that they might well be a panacea for identity fraud, for benefit fraud, terrorism, entitlement and access to public services". He suggested that they should be seen as "a gold standard in proving your identity". Documentation released by the Home Office demonstrated analysis conducted with the private and public sector showed the benefits of the proposed identity card scheme could be quantified at £650m to £1.1bn a year, with a number of other, less quantifiable, strategic benefits — such as disrupting the activities of organised crime and terrorist groups.

Legislative progress
The Identity Cards Bill was included in the Queen's Speech on 23 November 2004, and introduced to the House of Commons on 29 November.

It was first voted on by Members of Parliament following the second reading of the bill on 20 December 2004, where it passed by 385 votes to 93. The bill was opposed by 19 Labour MPs, 10 Conservative MPs, and the Liberal Democrats, while a number of Labour and Conservative members abstained, in defiance of party policies. A separate vote on a proposal to reject the Bill was defeated by 306 votes to 93. Charles Clarke, the new Home Secretary, had earlier rejected calls to postpone the reading of the Bill following his recent appointment.

The third reading of the bill in the Commons was approved on 11 February 2005 by 224 votes to 64; a majority of 160. Although being in favour in principle, the Conservatives officially abstained, but 11 of their MPs joined 19 Labour MPs in voting against the Government. The Bill then passed to the House of Lords, but there was insufficient time to debate the matter, and Labour were unable to do a deal with the Conservatives in the short time available in the days before Parliament was dissolved on 11 April, following the announcement of the 2005 general election.

Labour's manifesto for the 2005 general election stated that, if returned to power, they would "introduce ID cards, including biometric data like fingerprints, backed up by a national register and rolling out initially on a voluntary basis as people renew their passports". In public speeches and on the campaign trail, Labour made clear that they would bring the same Bill back to Parliament. In contrast, the Liberal Democrat manifesto opposed the idea because, they claimed, ID cards "don’t work", while the Conservatives made no mention of the issue.

After the 2005 election
Following their 2005 general election victory, the Labour Government introduced a new Identity Cards Bill, substantially the same as the previous Bill, into the Commons on 25 May. The Conservatives joined the Liberal Democrats in opposing the Bill, saying that it did not pass their "five tests". These tests included confidence that the scheme could be made to work, and its impact on civil liberties. In December 2005, the Conservative Party elected a new leader, future Prime Minister David Cameron, who opposed ID cards in principle.

The second reading of the Bill on 28 June was passed, 314 votes to 283, a majority of 31.

At its third reading in the Commons on 18 October, the majority in favour fell to 25, with 309 votes in favour to 284 against. In the report stage between the readings, the Bill was amended to prevent the National Identity Register database being linked to the Police National Computer.

In early 2006, the Bill was passed through the House of Lords committee stage, where 279 amendments were considered. One outcome of this was a vote demanding that the Government instruct the National Audit Office to provide a full costing of the scheme over its first ten years, and another demanding that a "secure and reliable method" of recording and storing the data should be found. A third defeat limited the potential for ID cards to be required before people could access public services. On 23 January, the House of Lords defeated the government by backing a fully voluntary scheme.

The committee stage ended on 30 January, and the third reading of the Bill took place on 6 February, after which it returned to the Commons. There, on 18 February, the legislation was carried by a majority of 25, with 25 Labour MPs joining those opposing it. Following the defeats in the House of Lords, the government changed the Bill in order to require separate legislation to make the cards compulsory; however, an amendment to make it possible to apply for a biometric passport without having to register on the National Identity Register database was defeated, overturning the Lords' changes to make the Bill fully voluntary. The Lords' amendment requiring a National Audit Office report was rejected.

The Bill returned to the Lords on 6 March, where the Commons amendments were reversed by a majority of 61. The defeat came despite ministers warning that the Lords should follow the Salisbury Convention by refraining from blocking a manifesto commitment. Both Conservatives and Liberal Democrats stated generally in 2005 that they no longer felt bound to abide by the convention, while in this specific case several Lords stated that it would not apply as the manifesto commitment was for implementation on a "voluntary basis" as passports are renewed, rather than being compulsory as passports are renewed.

Subsequent votes:
 * 13 March: House of Commons — majority of 33 for Government (310 to 277)
 * 15 March: House of Lords — majority of 35 against Government (218 to 183)
 * 16 March: House of Commons — majority of 51 for Government (292 to 241)
 * 20 March: House of Lords — majority of 36 against Government (211 to 175)
 * 21 March: House of Commons — majority of 43 for Government (284 to 241)

On 29 March, the House of Lords voted in favour of a new plan with a majority of 227 (287 to 60). Under this scheme, everyone renewing a passport from 2008 would be issued an ID card and have their details placed on the national ID card database. The Government said that until 2010, people could choose not to be issued a card, though they would still have to pay for one, and still be placed on the database.

The Bill received Royal assent on 30 March 2006.

Timescale and implementation progress
On 11 October 2006, the Labour government announced a timescale described as "highly ambitious" by computer experts. The Home Office announced that it would publish an ID management action plan in the months from November 2006, followed by agreements with departments on their uses for the system. There was to be a report on potential private sector uses for the scheme before the 2007 Budget.

On 25 September 2006, Home Office Minister Liam Byrne said that "There are opportunities which give me optimism to think that actually there is a way of exploiting systems already in place in a way which brings down the costs quite substantially".

Emails leaked in June 2006 indicated that the plan was already in difficulty, with plans for the early introduction of a limited register and ID card with reduced biometrics known as the "early variant" described as a "huge risk".

Due to the costs of developing a new system from scratch, in 2007, the Government approved an alternative plan to use the Department for Work and Pensions Customer Information System to store the biographical information, linked to a new database to store biometrics, despite concerns over issues of inter-departmental governance, funding and accountability which were never resolved.

The schedule for putting passport applicants' and renewers' details on the National Identity Register (NIR) was never announced. A nationwide network of 68 interview offices for first-time passport applicants started opening in June 2007 and was subsequently completed. The interview consisted mainly of asking applicants to confirm facts about themselves, which someone attempting to steal their identity may not know. The government stated that all personal information used in the interview not required for the application was destroyed shortly after the passport was issued. Fingerprints were not taken. Plans to take iris scans were dropped, although the Government had not ruled them out as a future option.

In March 2008, the Home Secretary announced that people could choose to have an identity card, a passport, or both when they became available (although they could not opt out of having their details recorded on the NIR). On 25 November 2008, people making applications to remain in the United Kingdom as a student or based on marriage were required to have an identity card. Under those plans, it was estimated that by the end of 2014–15 about 90% of all foreign nationals would have been issued with one. On 22 January 2008, the Home Office confirmed that large numbers of cards would not be issued until 2012; however, ID cards were issued to workers in critical locations, starting with airside workers in Manchester and London City airports in 2009, and young people were being offered cards in 2010.

A leaked document, published on 29 January 2008, suggested that "universal compulsion should not be used unless absolutely necessary... due the need for inevitably controversial and time-consuming primary legislation" but that "various forms of coercion, such as designation of the application process for identity documents issued by British ministers (e.g. passports) were an option to stimulate applications in a manageable way".

In January 2008, the Financial Times reported that Accenture and BAE Systems had withdrawn from the procurement process. Fujitsu Services, CSC, EDS, IBM, Steria and Thales Group were still negotiating framework agreements with the government. On 1 August 2008, it was confirmed that Thales Group was awarded a four-year contract to work on the design, building, testing and operation of the National Identity Scheme.

On 25 September 2008, Jacqui Smith unveiled replicas of the first actual cards to be issued as residence permits to foreign nationals.

The first to receive ID cards were foreign nationals, from 25 November 2008. National Identity Cards for British nationals became available to people resident in the Greater Manchester area on 30 November 2009. Ordinary British citizens were then meant to be offered (on a voluntary basis) ID cards from 2011 to 2012. A Home Office minister, Meg Hillier, said that they would be a "convenient" way for young people to prove their age when going to bars and that at £30 they were cheaper than purchasing passports (£77.50 at the time).

Although in later rollout stages, it was envisioned that retailers could accept applications and be able to charge processing fees; the total cost to applicants was expected to be £60 per card.

In December 2009, while on a trip to promote identity cards, then Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Identity Meg Hillier had to admit she had forgotten hers and was left unable to display one for photographers. The Manchester Evening News revealed in 2010 that senior Whitehall officials were urged to email friends and relatives encouraging them to buy cards, because of fears about the level of demand.

Identity card for foreign nationals (Biometric Residence Permit)
Originally called the Identity Card for Foreign Nationals which was blue and pink in colour, was continued and renamed the Biometric Residence Permit, still issued as of 2024. It followed the common EU format until the UK's exit from the European Union.

Their issuance began in November 2008 when non-European Union foreign nationals with permission to stay in the UK on the basis of a student visa or a marriage/civil partnership visa would, when applying to extend their stay, be required to apply for an ID card. This was later expanded to all non-EU residents.

Initial rollout
The initial rollout began on a regional basis, first in Greater Manchester. The cards were voluntary and cost £30 and were issued by the Identity and Passport Service, until its eventual cancellation.
 * October 2009: Greater Manchester residents – applications opened to all residents of Greater Manchester
 * November 2009: Air industry staff – a pilot scheme involving free, voluntary ID cards for airside workers at Manchester and London City airports.
 * January 2010: North West England - applications opened to residents in Cheshire, Merseyside, Lancashire and Cumbria
 * February 2010: Young London residents – applications opened to all residents of London aged 16–24 who already had a passport or a recently expired one.
 * February 2010: Citizens over the age of 16 if registered for IPS newsletter updates - 21,000 people were registered for updates at the time

Planned wider rollout

 * Young people opening bank accounts (voluntary) – in 2010, young people would have been encouraged to get ID cards when they opened bank accounts.
 * Citizens over the age of 16 applying for a passport (voluntary) intended in 2011–2012, optional, but applicants' details would have been entered into the National Identity Register

2010 general election
During the 2010 general election campaign, the published manifestos of the various parties revealed that the Labour Party planned to continue the introduction of the identity card scheme, while all other parties pledged to discontinue plans to issue ID cards. The Conservative Party also explicitly pledged to scrap the National Identity Register, while the wording of several other manifestos implied that this may have been the position of certain other parties too.

Ending of the scheme
In the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition agreement that followed the 2010 general election, the new government announced that they planned to scrap the ID card scheme, including the National Identity Register (as well as the next generation of biometric passports and the ContactPoint database), as part of their measures "to reverse the substantial erosion of civil liberties under the Labour Government and roll back state intrusion."

In a document published in May 2010 at the time of the Queen's Speech, the new Government announced that the scrapping of the scheme would save approximately £86 million over the following 4 years, and avoid a further £800 million in maintenance costs over the decade which were to have been recovered through fees.

The Identity Documents Act 2010 was announced on 27 May 2010, passed by the House of Commons on 15 September 2010 and received Royal Assent on 21 December 2010. Section 1(1) of the Identity Documents Act repealed the Identity Cards Act 2006 on 21 January 2011 (making ID cards invalid) and mandated the destruction of all data on the National Identity Register by 21 February 2011.

In May 2010 the Identity and Passport service stopped accepting applications for identity cards. On 21 January 2011, identity cards already issued became invalid, despite the cards themselves stating a 10 year expiry.

In all around 15,000 National Identity Cards were issued until the act was repealed in 2011. A banker from Germany with joint British and Swiss nationality was arguably the last person to officially use the ID card on a flight from Düsseldorf to Manchester on 21 January 2011, landing 90 minutes before the scheme was officially scrapped at midnight. No refunds were offered to cardholders who paid £30 for the card.

The National Identity Register was officially destroyed on Thursday, 10 February 2011, when the final 500 hard drives containing the register were shredded at RDC in Witham, Essex.

Some aspects of the original Identity Cards Act were continued including biometric British passports as well as the Identity Card for Foreign Nationals, which were renamed and continued as Biometric Residence Permits (BRP). The new Identity Documents Act 2010 allows private companies to issue proof of age cards, under the PASS scheme. PASS scheme cards are not usable as identification in most circumstances except for purchasing age-restricted items.

ID cards during the World Wars
Compulsory identity cards were first issued in the United Kingdom during World War I, and abandoned in 1919. Cards were re-introduced during World War II under the National Registration Act 1939, but were abandoned seven years after the end of that war, in 1952, amid widespread public resentment. The National Register became the National Health Service Register and is maintained to this day. Wartime alphanumeric identity numbers continued to be used as NHS numbers until 1996, when they were replaced by new fully numeric identifiers.

The World War I identity card scheme was unpopular, though accepted in the light of the prevailing national emergency. It is possible to take a small measure of how the national identity scheme was received from remarks by the historian A. J. P. Taylor in his English History, 1914–1945, where he describes the whole thing as an "indignity" and talks of the Home Guard "harassing" people for their cards.

After the Second World War the government of Clement Attlee decided to continue the scheme in the face of the Cold War and the perceived Soviet threat, though it grew ever less popular. Identity cards also became the subject of a celebrated civil liberties case in 1950. Harry Willcock, a member of the Liberal Party, refused to produce his after being stopped by the police. During his subsequent trial he argued that identity cards had no place in peacetime, a defence rejected by the magistrate's court. In his subsequent appeal, Willcock v Muckle, the judgment of the lower court was upheld.

Protest reached Parliament, where the Conservative and Liberal peers voiced their anger over what they saw as "Socialist card-indexing". After the defeat of the Labour Government in the general election of October 1951 the incoming Conservative administration of Winston Churchill was pledged to get rid of the scheme, "to set the people free", in the words of one minister. Cheers rang out when on 21 February 1952 the Minister for Health, Harry Crookshank, announced in the House of Commons that national identity cards were to be scrapped. This was a popular move, adopted against the wishes of the police and the security services, though the decision to repeal the 1939 legislation was, in significant part, driven by the need for economies. By 1952 national registration was costing £500,000 per annum (about ) and required 1500 civil servants to administer it.

Identity cards
Identity cards are issued in every EU/EEA country except for Denmark and Ireland. However, Ireland issues a passport card with similar properties to an identity card and Danish municipalities issue simpler identity cards (which are not valid for international travel). They are compulsory in 14 EU countries, voluntary in 9 countries and in 8 countries they are semi-compulsory (some form of identification required). They can be used to travel within the EU/EEA.

During the British Presidency of the EU in 2005, a decision was made to "agree common standards for security features and secure issuing procedures for ID cards (December 2005), with detailed standards agreed as soon as possible thereafter. In this respect, the British Presidency has put forward a proposal for EU-wide use of biometrics in national ID cards." In 2019, a harmonised model for identity cards in the EU was adopted and was in force in 2021, introducing biometric functionality and a standardised format.

Generally, most countries in the world issue identity cards, with the exception generally being countries in the anglosphere. For example, Australia started work on a health and social services access card, but the government elected in the 2007 federal election cancelled it. However an exception is the US passport card is issued with similar properties to an identity card.

Biometrics in identity and travel documents
There has been an international move towards the introduction of biometrics into identity and travel documents. The ICAO has recommended that all countries adopt biometric passports, and the United States has made it a requirement for entering the US under the visa waiver programme. Biometric passports are issued in many countries, including in British passports. Internationally, the only requirement for biometric passports is a digital photograph.

Legal requirements
Under the NIS, residents who wanted or were required to apply for an ID card would have been required to fulfil certain functions:

 * Attend in person to have their fingerprints recorded at one of the Identity & Passport Service's high street partners.
 * Promptly inform the police or Identity & Passport Service if a card is lost or damaged, and apply for a new card.
 * Promptly inform the Identity & Passport Service of any change of address.
 * Promptly inform the Identity & Passport Service of any prescribed change of circumstances affecting the information recorded about them in the Register.

Failure to do so would have meant a penalty of up to £1,000 or a shortened permission to stay.

National Identity Register
Key to the ID Card scheme was a centralised computer database, the National Identity Register (NIR). To identify someone it would not have been necessary to check their card, since identity could be determined by a taking a biometric scan and matching it against a database entry.

ID cards for foreign nationals were produced by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) in Swansea on behalf of the Home Office.

Identity Registration Number
One entry on the NIR was the Identity Registration Number. The Home Office had recognised that a unique identifier was needed as a primary key for the database.

The Home Office's Identity Cards Benefits Overview document described how the IRN would have enabled data sharing amongst police, legal and corporate databases (including bank and travel operators).

Types of cards
Three types of identity cards were issued:

 * The National Identity Card, which was lilac and salmon in colour, was issued to British citizens only. It contained the text "British Citizen" and was a valid travel document for entry into any EEA state and Switzerland until its invalidation in 2010.
 * The Identification Card was turquoise and green in colour and did not mention the holder's nationality. It was issued to EU, EEA and Swiss citizens living in the UK (including Irish citizens living in Northern Ireland ). It was also issued to certain family members of EU/EEA citizens, to British citizens to whom certain conditions or restrictions apply, and as an additional card to a person living in two gender roles.
 * The Identity Card for Foreign Nationals was blue and pink in colour and was issued to certain categories of immigrants from non-EU/EEA countries. They were renamed and continued in the form of Biometric Residence Permits.

Use as travel document
Until midnight on 21 January 2011, the National Identity Card was officially recognised as a valid travel document by the EEA and Switzerland, following which the United Kingdom instructed immigration authorities therein to cease accepting it as a valid travel document. It also became accepted voluntarily by a number of other European countries but its current validity in these additional countries remains unclear, given that its acceptance and subsequent denial by these countries was never mandated by the United Kingdom through EU or EEA channels. It was the only travel document valid for use by British nationals throughout the EEA and Switzerland, other than a valid British citizen passport or a pink Gibraltar identity card. The exception to this was for travel to the Republic of Ireland. All British citizens are entitled to enter the Republic of Ireland without the need to carry a valid travel document, on account of the Common Travel Area agreement, though in practice, the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service or Garda Síochána systematically require proof of identity from all travellers landing in Irish airports from the UK.

 * 🇪🇺 European Union
 * 🇮🇸 (EEA)
 * 🇱🇮 (EEA)
 * 🇳🇴 (EEA)

It became accepted also by:
 * 🇦🇩 "Any travel document recognised by France or Spain"
 * 🇲🇦 (only for tours organised by a travel agency for groups of more than three people)
 * 🇲🇦 (only for tours organised by a travel agency for groups of more than three people)
 * 🇲🇦 (only for tours organised by a travel agency for groups of more than three people)
 * 🇲🇦 (only for tours organised by a travel agency for groups of more than three people)
 * 🇲🇦 (only for tours organised by a travel agency for groups of more than three people)
 * 🇲🇦 (only for tours organised by a travel agency for groups of more than three people)
 * 🇲🇦 (only for tours organised by a travel agency for groups of more than three people)
 * 🇲🇦 (only for tours organised by a travel agency for groups of more than three people)

It was also accepted as a travel document to enter the British Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories: All other overseas territories require a fully valid passport. Of the two countries closest to the UK not to accept British ID cards, Ukraine and Belarus, the latter requires not only a passport but also for British citizens to obtain a visa in advance (except if entering and exiting through Minsk airport and staying for max 5 days).
 * 🇬🇮 Part of EU
 * Bailiwick of Guernsey Part of Common Travel Area — no travel document required to enter from the UK. (NB: Air travellers require photo ID for airline security purposes.)
 * 🇮🇲 Part of Common Travel Area — no travel document required to enter from the UK. (NB: Air travellers require photo ID for airline security purposes.)
 * 🇯🇪 Part of Common Travel Area — no travel document required to enter from the UK. (NB: Air travellers require photo ID for airline security purposes.)

Initially, some travel companies initially refused to carry passengers with UK National Identity Cards due to their novelty.

Reaction
The announcement of the scheme had seen a mixed reaction from both the public and from figures connected to terrorism and law enforcement.

Public reaction
Over a period of time, public opinion, as measured by opinion polls, appears to have shifted away from support for the scheme towards opposition. This appeared to have become more of a concern since the disclosure of the loss of 25 million records by HM Revenue and Customs.

In 2003, the announcement of the scheme was followed by a public consultation exercise, particularly among 'stakeholder groups'. At March 2003 the government stated that the overall results were:

 * in favour: 2606 responses (61%)
 * against:  1587 responses (38%)
 * neutral:    48 responses (1%)

By July 2006, an ICM poll indicated that public support had fallen to 46%, with opposition at 51%.

A further poll by YouGov/Daily Telegraph, published on 4 December 2006, indicated support for the identity card element of the scheme at 50%, with 39% opposed. Support for the national database was weaker, with 22% happy and 78% unhappy with the prospect of having their data recorded. Only 11% trusted the government to keep the data confidential. 3.12% of the sample were prepared to undergo long prison sentences rather than have a card.

Terrorism and crime
Eliza Manningham-Buller, the former head of Britain's counter-intelligence and security agency MI5 was on record as supporting the introduction of identity cards, as was Sir Ian Blair, former Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and his predecessor, Sir John (now Lord) Stevens. The Association of Chief Police Officers was also supportive.

However, in November 2005, Dame Stella Rimington, who was Director General of MI5 before Eliza Manningham-Buller, questioned the usefulness of the proposed scheme. This intervention caused a good deal of controversy amongst supporters and opponents of the scheme, especially as Manningham-Buller stated that ID cards would in fact disrupt the activities of terrorists, noting that significant numbers of terrorists take advantage of the weaknesses of current identification methods to assist their activities.

Lord Carlile was appointed after 11 September attacks on New York and Washington in 2001 to independently review the working of the Terrorism Act 2000 and subsequent anti-terrorist laws. Talking on GMTV on 29 January 2006, he expressed his views on the proposed legislation, saying that ID cards could be of limited value in the fight against terrorism but that Parliament had to judge that value against the curtailment of civil liberties. Speaking on the same programme, Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington, former Met Police Commissioner, argued in favour for the need for identity cards, saying they had benefits in tackling serious crimes, such as money laundering and identity theft.

Costs
The estimated 10-year cost of the biometric identity and passport scheme was £5.612bn, in November 2007. Much of the cost involved was due to the introduction and production of biometric passports, which became standard worldwide and British passports were continued to be issued biometrically. Up to 70% of the total cost was due to biometric passport issuances.

By the time the Act was repealed, the Home Office stated that £257 million had been spent specifically on implementing identity cards.

Independent studies including one by the London School of Economics had suggested that total costs of implementing the biometric identity and passport scheme could be as much as £10.6 billion to £19.2 billion, with an estimated £814 million to £1,200 million from costs directly attributed to ID card issuance. The reliability of this study was challenged by the Labour Government which disputed some of the assumptions used in the calculations, such as the need to retake biometric information every 5 years. The government argued that this assumption had not been supported by any research in the London School of Economics report, and that biometric experts quoted in the LSE reports had sought to distance themselves from its findings. The Government also claimed that the authors of these estimates were established opponents to the scheme and could not be considered unbiased academic sources.

Tony McNulty, Home Office minister who was responsible for the scheme, responded by saying a "ceiling" on costs would be announced in October 2005. There were indications that the Labour Government was looking at ways of subsidising the scheme by charging other Government Departments, with the implication that this would result in increased charges for other Government services to individuals or businesses.

The Labour Government abandoned plans for a giant new computer system to run the national identity card scheme. Instead of a single multibillion-pound system, information was held on three existing, separate databases.

An estimate from the Home Office placed the cost of a passport and ID card package at £85, while after the 2005 general election in May 2005 they issued a revised figure of over £93, and announced that a standalone ID card would cost £30. In 2009, it was announced that retailers would be collecting fingerprints and photographs, and that they would be able to charge for this, meaning that the total cost for a standalone ID card was expected to be up to £60.

Effectiveness
The then Home Secretary David Blunkett stated in 2004 said the cards would stop people using multiple identities and boost the fight against terrorism and organised crime. However, human rights group Liberty disputed this, pointing out that the existence of another form of ID cards in Spain did not prevent the Madrid train bombings.

However, Blunkett subsequently made a significant U-turn. At his opening speech for Infosecurity Europe on 27 April 2009, he stepped back from the concept of a full National Identity Database for every citizen, saying it would be sufficient to improve the verification of passports.

His successor, Charles Clarke, said that ID cards "cannot stop attacks", in the aftermath of the 7 July 2005 London bombings, and added that he doubted it would have prevented the atrocities. However, he felt that on the balance between protecting civil liberties and preventing crime, ID cards would help rather than hinder.

Ethnic minorities
The Government's Race Equality Impact Assessment indicated significant concern among ethnic groups over how the police would use their powers under an Identity Cards Act 2006, with 64% of black and 53% of Indian respondents having expressed concern, particularly about the potential for abuse and discrimination. In their January 2005 report on the Bill, the Commission for Racial Equality stated that the fear of discrimination is neither misconceived nor exaggerated, and note that this is also an ongoing issue in Germany, the Netherlands and France.

The CRE were also concerned that disproportionate requirements by employers and the authorities for ethnic minorities to identify themselves may lead to a two-tiered structure amongst racial groups, with foreign nationals and British ethnic minorities feeling compelled to register while British white people do not.

According to the CRE, certain groups who move location frequently and who tend to live on low incomes (such as Gypsies, travellers, asylum-seekers and refugees) would risk being criminalised under the legislation through failing to update their registration each time they moved due to lack of funds to pay the fee that may be charged.

Concerns raised by the Information Commissioner
In a press release on 30 July 2004, Richard Thomas the Information Commissioner's Office stated that a NIR raised substantial data protection and personal privacy concerns. He sought clarification of why so much personal information needed to be kept as part of establishing an individual's identity and indicated concern about the wide range of bodies who would view the records of services individuals have used. The Commissioner also pointed out that those who renew or apply for a driving licence or passport were to be automatically added to the National Identity Register, and so would lose the option of not registering. He subsequently stated: "My anxiety is that we don't sleepwalk into a surveillance society." In February 2003, on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he warned that ID cards could become a target for identity theft by organised crime.

Human rights
On 2 February 2005, the British Parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights questioned the compatibility of the Bill with Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the right to respect for private life) and Article 14 (the right to non-discrimination), both of which are encapsulated in the Human Rights Act 1998.

Feature creep
Even without new primary legislation, the Identity Cards Act 2006 allowed the potential scope of the scheme to be much greater than that usually publicised by the Government.

For example, Gordon Brown was reported to be "planning a massive expansion of the ID cards project that would widen surveillance of everyday life by allowing high-street businesses to share confidential information with police databases." Francis Elliott reporting on the development for The Independent noted that "police could be alerted as soon as a wanted person used a biometric-enabled cash card or even entered a building via an iris-scan door".

The wartime National Registration ID card expanded from 3 functions to 39 by the time it was abolished.

Concerns had also been raised following Tony Blair's response to an ID card petition stating that the fingerprint register would be used to compare the fingerprints of the population at large against the records of 900,000 unsolved crimes. Opposition MPs claimed that the use of the biometric data in this way would directly breach promises given during the Commons debate that there would be adequate safeguards preventing the use of ID card data for "fishing expeditions".

Database extent and access
Home Office forecasts envisaged that "265 government departments and as many as 48,000 accredited private sector organisations" would have had access to the database, and that 163 million identity verifications or more would take place each year. However, the IPS had stated that only the data needed for the passport would have been kept and that organisations that have permission to access the data held on the Register could only have done so with the individual's permission, unless to prevent or investigate a crime.

Vulnerable individuals
The CRE had also recommended that more work was required to protect the interests of vulnerable individuals. For example, people escaping from domestic violence or a forced marriage may have been at risk if their previous names or addresses were disclosed. Minister Meg Hillier, in a letter to The Spectator magazine, claimed that as the ID card would not have someone's address on it, it would protect such a person's privacy in a way currently unavailable.

Identity theft
In May 2005, Tony Blair said "ID cards are needed to stop the soaring costs of identity theft". However, security experts claimed that placing trust in a single document may make identity theft easier, since only this document needs to be targeted.

Technology
Elsewhere, doubts remained concerning the technological ability of the scheme. Tests of facial recognition software dating from 2006 showed error rates of up to 52 per cent for the disabled.

Opposition campaigns
In May 2006, NO2ID launched the "Renew for Freedom" campaign, urging passport holders to renew their passports in the summer of 2006 to delay being entered on the National Identity Register. This followed the comment made by Charles Clarke in the House of Commons that "anyone who feels strongly enough about the linkage [between passports and the ID scheme] not to want to be issued with an ID card in the initial phase will be free to surrender their existing passport and apply for a new passport before the designation order takes effect".

In response, the Home Office said that it was "hard to see what would be achieved, other than incurring unnecessary expense" by renewing passports early. However, the cost of a non-biometric passport was £51 at the time, then increased in 2006 and 2007 to £72 and was due to rise to £93 after the introduction of biometric passports.

On 14 November 2007, the NO2ID opposition group called for financial donations from the 11,360 people who had pledged to contribute to a fighting fund opposing the legislation. The organisation planned to challenge the statutory instruments that were planned to be brought in to enable the ID card scheme.

Baroness Williams and Nick Clegg said in 2007 that they would take part in civil disobedience campaigns by refusing to register for an ID card, or to attend photographic sittings.

Scotland
Although policy on passports and the National Identity Scheme was not an area devolved to the Scottish Government, on 19 November 2008, the Scottish Parliament voted to reject the ID card scheme, with no votes against the government motion, and only the Scottish Labour MSPs abstaining. In 2005, the previous Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition government had stated that "the proposals for an identity card scheme confine themselves to reserved policy areas only", and that ID cards will not be needed to access devolved services in Scotland, e.g. health, education, the legal system and transport. However the Scottish National Entitlement Card is required to obtain concessionary travel. It can also be used as Proof of Age for young people (Young Scot NEC) and give access to civic services such as libraries and leisure centres depending on the local authority.

Northern Ireland
The introduction of compulsory ID cards to Northern Ireland would likely have provoked serious opposition given the large Nationalist community who regard themselves as Irish and not British. In an effort to counter this, the British Government decided not to include the Union Flag on the card, and had stated that a separate card will be issued to Northern Irish people who identify their nationality as Irish. The separate card would not have included any statement of nationality and could not have been used as an EEA travel document (as only the Irish Government may issue travel documents for Irish citizens, wherever resident). Home Secretary Alan Johnson had also stated that the inclusion of Northern Irish people on the National Identity Register of British citizens would not have prevented such people from claiming full Irish citizenship rights.

News stories

 * 22 November 2007, BBC, Is Brown re-thinking ID cards?
 * 22 November 2007, BBC, Cameron calls for ID cards halt
 * 14 September 2006, epolitix.com, Minister defends data-sharing scheme
 * 7 August 2006, Guardian, Hackers crack new biometric passports
 * 14 June 2006, epolitix.com, Amnesty for illegal immigrants once identity cards in place?
 * 24 May 2006, BBC, Lib Dems back the "Renew for Freedom" campaign
 * 4 April 2006, The Register, Passport rule change anticipates ID refusenik sabotage efforts
 * 30 March 2006, BBC, Identity cards will be made compulsory if Labour wins the next election
 * 13 February 2006, The Daily Mirror, Motorists could soon be forced to carry an ID card
 * 30 January 2006, BBC, Transsexuals 'to get 2 ID cards'
 * 17 January 2006, The Times, Peers deal Blair blow over '£19bn cost of ID cards'
 * 8 December 2005, Guardian, A pan-European ID card will make a bad idea even worse
 * 17 November 2005, BBC, Ex-MI5 chief sparks ID card row
 * 18 October 2005, The Scotsman, Microsoft security officer: ID cards will lead to 'massive fraud'
 * 12 October 2005, The Register. support for ID cards collapses
 * 4 August 2005, BBC, Labour admits ID card 'oversell'
 * 8 July 2005, BBC, Chales Clarke: ID cards wouldn't stop bomb attacks
 * 5 July 2005, The Register, "Clarke's ID card cost laundry starts to break surface"
 * 3 July 2005, The Observer, Rebels ready to face prison over ID cards: Refuseniks will copy Australian tactics to foil scheme
 * 2 July 2005, Muriel Gray in The Guardian, Nobody has nothing to hide: Identity cards will deprive the innocent of one of their most basic rights
 * "ID cards 'will reveal detail of daily life'" – Information commissioner warns of surveillance society
 * December 2004 Guardian Legal advice on ID cards kept secret
 * December 2004 Guardian If you value your freedom, reject this sinister ID card
 * April 2004 Times It is right to experiment with identity cards
 * April 2004 Bloomberg Identity Card Will Make Fraud Easier
 * July 2003 Statewatch Identity cards in the UK – a lesson from history
 * July 2002 Daily Telegraph £70 ID card to combine passport and car licence
 * September 2001 Guardian ID cards might solve asylum crisis

Guides

 * March 2005 London School of Economics An Assessment of the UK Identity Cards Bill and its Implications
 * February 2005 Bow Group report The Case Against ID Cards, by Rt Hon Peter Lilley MP
 * December 2004 BBC Identity card Q&A
 * June 2004 Electricinca An analysis of the British national identity card
 * May 2004 The Register Everything you never wanted to know about the UK ID card
 * November 2003 Guardian Q&A
 * September 2001 Telegraph The case for and against identity cards
 * Trevor Mendham UK ID Cards – the case against
 * ''A map of the debate on UK ID cards and the related ID databases"", Debategraph

Opposition groups

 * No2ID: UK campaign against ID Cards and mass surveillance
 * Defy-ID
 * Liberty – human rights concerns
 * Reform
 * idFolly
 * Haringey Against Identity Cards

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Identity Cards Act 2006


text:
Boeing B-50 Superfortress

The Boeing B-50 Superfortress is an American strategic bomber. A post–World War II revision of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, it was fitted with more powerful Pratt & Whitney R-4360 radial engines, stronger structure, a taller tail fin, and other improvements. It was the last piston-engined bomber built by Boeing for the United States Air Force, and was further refined into Boeing's final such design, the prototype B-54. Although not as well known as its direct predecessor, the B-50 was in USAF service for nearly 20 years.

After its primary service with Strategic Air Command (SAC) ended, B-50 airframes were modified into aerial tankers for Tactical Air Command (TAC) (KB-50) and as weather reconnaissance aircraft (WB-50) for the Air Weather Service. Both the tanker and hurricane hunter versions were retired in March 1965 due to metal fatigue and corrosion found in the wreckage of a KB-50J, 48-065, which crashed on 14 October 1964.

Design and development

Development of an improved B-29 started in 1944, with the desire to replace the unreliable Wright R-3350 Duplex-Cyclone engines with the more powerful four-row, 28-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major radial engines, America's largest-ever displacement aircraft piston engine in large-scale production. A B-29A-5-BN (serial number 42-93845) was modified by Pratt & Whitney as a testbed for the installation of the R-4360 in the B-29, with four 3000 hp R-4360-33s replacing the 2200 hp R-3350s. The modified aircraft, designated XB-44 Superfortress, first flew in May 1945.

The planned Wasp-Major powered bomber, the B-29D, was to incorporate considerable changes in addition to the engine installation tested in the XB-44. The use of a new alloy of aluminum, 75-S rather than the existing 24ST, gave a wing that was both stronger and lighter, while the undercarriage was strengthened to allow the aircraft to operate at weights of up to 40000 lb greater than the B-29. A larger vertical fin and rudder (which could fold to allow the aircraft to fit into existing hangars) and enlarged flaps were provided to deal with the increased engine power and weight, respectively.

Armament was similar to that of the B-29, with two bomb bays carrying 20000 lb of bombs, and a further 8000 lb externally. Defensive armament was 13 × 12.7mm (.50 BMG) machine guns (or 12 machine guns and one 20 mm cannon) in five turrets.

First flying in May 1945, the sole XB-44 proved 50 - 60 mph faster than the standard B-29, although existing sources do not indicate how much of this increased speed was due to differing aircraft weight due to deleted armament or increased power due to the R-4360-33 engines.

An order for 200 B-29Ds was placed in July 1945, but the ending of World War II in August 1945 prompted mass cancellations of outstanding orders for military equipment, with over 5,000 B-29s canceled in September 1945. In December that year, B-29D orders were cut from 200 to 60, while at the same time the designation of the aircraft was changed to B-50.

Officially, the aircraft's new designation was justified by the changes incorporated into the revised aircraft, but according to Peter M. Bowers, a long-time Boeing employee and aircraft designer and a well-known authority on Boeing aircraft, "the re-designation was an outright military ruse to win appropriations for the procurement of an airplane that by its B-29D designation appeared to be merely a later version of an existing model that was being canceled wholesale, with many existing examples being put into dead storage."

The first production B-50A (there were no prototypes, as the aircraft's engines and new tail had already been tested) made its maiden flight on 25 June 1947, with a further 78 B-50As following. The last airframe of the initial order was held back for modification to the prototype YB-50C, a planned version to be powered by R-4360-43 turbo-compound engines. It was to have a longer fuselage, allowing the two small bomb bays of the B-29 and the B-50A to be replaced by a single large bomb bay, more suited to carrying large nuclear weapons. It would also have longer wings, which required additional outrigger wheels to stabilize the aircraft on the ground.

Orders for 43 B-54s, the planned production version of the YB-50C, were placed in 1948, but the program was unpopular with Curtis LeMay, commander of Strategic Air Command (SAC), for being inferior to the Convair B-36 Peacemaker and having little capacity for further improvement, while requiring an expensive redevelopment of air bases owing to the type's undercarriage. The B-54 program was therefore canceled in April 1949, with work on the YB-50C being stopped before it was completed.

While the B-54 was canceled, production of less elaborate developments continued as a stopgap until jet bombers such as the Boeing B-47 and B-52 could enter service. Forty-five B-50Bs, fitted with lightweight fuel tanks and capable of operating at higher weights, were built, followed by 222 B-50Ds, capable of carrying underwing fuel tanks and distinguished by a one-piece plastic nose dome.

To give the Superfortress the range to reach the Soviet Union, B-50s were fitted to be refueled in flight. Most of the B-50As were fitted with the early "looped hose" refueling system, developed by the British company Flight Refuelling Limited, in which the receiving aircraft would use a grapple to catch a line trailed by the tanker aircraft (normally a Boeing KB-29) before hauling over the fuel line to allow transfer of fuel to begin. To replace this clumsy system, Boeing designed the "flying boom" method to refuel SAC's bombers, with most B-50Ds being fitted with receptacles for flying boom refueling.

Revisions to the B-50 (from its predecessor B-29) increased top speed to just under 400 mph. Changes included:
 * More powerful engines
 * Redesigned engine nacelles and engine mounts
 * Enlarged vertical tail and rudder (to maintain adequate yaw control during engine-out conditions)
 * Reinforced wing structure (required due to increased engine mass, larger gyroscopic forces from larger propellers, greater fuel load, and revised landing gear loading)
 * Revised routing for engine gases (cooling, intake, exhaust and intercooler ducts; also oil lines)
 * Upgraded remote turret fire-control equipment
 * Landing gear strengthened and takeoff weight increased from 133500 lb to 173000 lb
 * Increased fuel capacity with underwing fuel tanks being added.
 * Improvements to flight control systems (the B-29 was difficult to fly; with increased weights the B-50 would have been more so).
 * Nose wheel steering rather than a castering nose wheel as on the B-29

The C-97 military transport was, in its 1944 prototype, essentially a large upper fuselage tube attached to a B-29 lower fuselage and wings, with an inverted figure-eight cross-section. In its production version it incorporated the key elements of the B-50 platform including, after the first 10 in production, the enlarged tailfin of the B-50. The B-29 and B-50 were phased out with introduction of the jet-powered B-47 Stratojet. The B-50 was nicknamed "Andy Gump", because the redesigned engine nacelles reminded aircrew of the chinless newspaper comic character popular at the time.

Operational history

Boeing built 370 of the various B-50 models and variants between 1947 and 1953, the tanker and weather reconnaissance versions remaining in service until 1965.

The first B-50As were delivered in June 1948 to the Strategic Air Command's 43d Bombardment Wing, based at Davis–Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona. The 2d Bombardment Wing at Chatham Air Force Base, Georgia also received B-50As; the 93d Bombardment Wing at Castle Air Force Base, California and the 509th Bombardment Wing at Walker Air Force Base, New Mexico received B-50Ds in 1949. The fifth and last SAC wing to receive B-50Ds was the 97th Bombardment Wing at Biggs Air Force Base, Texas in December 1950.

The mission of these wings was to be able to deliver atomic bombs on enemy targets.

B-50s from the 4925th Special Weapons Group of Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico dropped atomic bombs in a series of tests in Frenchman Flat, Nevada from 1951 to 1953.

The 301st Bombardment Wing at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida received some B-50As reassigned from Davis–Monthan in early 1951, but used them for non-operational training pending the delivery of B-47A Stratojets in June 1951. The B-50 was built as an interim strategic bomber to be replaced by the B-47 Stratojet, but delays to the Stratojet forced the B-50 to soldier on until well into the 1950s.

A strategic reconnaissance version of the B-50B, the RB-50 was developed in 1949 to replace the aging RB-29s used by SAC in its intelligence-gathering operations against the Soviet Union. Three different configurations were produced, which were later redesignated RB-50E, RB-50F, and RB-50G. The RB-50E was earmarked for photographic reconnaissance and observation missions; The RB-50F resembled the RB-50E but carried the SHORAN radar navigation system designed to conduct mapping, charting, and geodetic surveys, and the mission of the RB-50G was electronic reconnaissance. These aircraft were operated primarily by the 55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing. RB-50Es were also operated by the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Wing as a replacement for RB-29 photographic reconnaissance aircraft flown over North Korea during the Korean War.

The vast northern borders of the Soviet Union were wide open in many places during the early Cold War years, with little defensive radar coverage and limited detection capability. RB-50 aircraft of the 55th SRW flew many sorties along the periphery and, where necessary, into the interior. Initially, there was little opposition from the Soviet forces as radar coverage was limited and, if the overflying aircraft were detected, the World War II-era Soviet fighters could not intercept the RB-50s at their high altitude.

The deployment of the MiG-15 interceptor in the early 1950s made these flights exceedingly hazardous, with several being shot down by Soviet air defenses and the wreckage being examined by intelligence personnel. RB-50 missions over Soviet territory ended by 1954, replaced by the RB-47 Stratojet intelligence aircraft that could fly higher at near-supersonic speed.

The B-47 Stratojet was manufactured in large numbers beginning in 1953 and eventually replaced the B-50Ds in SAC service; the last being retired in 1955. With its retirement from the nuclear-bomber mission, many B-50 airframes were converted to aerial refueling tankers.

The B-50, with more powerful engines than the KB-29s in use by Tactical Air Command (TAC), was much more suitable to refuel tactical jet fighter aircraft, such as the F-100 Super Sabre. As tankers, KB-50s had extensively reinforced outer wing panels, the necessary equipment to air-refuel simultaneously three fighter-type aircraft by the probe and drogue method, and removed defensive armament.

The first KB-50 flew in December 1955 and was accepted by the Air Force in January 1956. The tankers steadily entered the operational inventory of TAC supplanting TAC's KB-29s. By the end of 1957, all of the command's aerial refueling squadrons had their full complement of KB-50s. KB-50s, and later KB-50Js with two General Electric J47 jet engines were used by TAC, and also by USAFE and PACAF overseas as aerial tankers. Some were deployed to Thailand and flew refueling missions over Indochina in the early years of the Vietnam War until being retired in March 1965 due to metal fatigue and corrosion.

In addition to the aerial tanker conversion, the Air Weather Service by 1955 had worn out the WB-29s used for hurricane hunting and other weather reconnaissance missions. Thirty-six former SAC B-50Ds were stripped of their armament and equipped for long-range weather reconnaissance missions. The WB-50 could fly higher, faster and longer than the WB-29. However, between 1956 and 1960 it experienced 13 major operational accidents, six of them involving the loss of the entire crew, and 66 crew-member fatalities. After the weather reconnaissance fleet was grounded in May 1960 because of fuel leaks, plans were set in motion in 1962 to modify B-47 Stratojets being phased out of SAC to replace it in the role. The WB-50 had an important role during the Cuban Missile Crisis, when it monitored the weather around Cuba to plan photo-reconnaissance flights. The WB-50 was finally retired in 1965 due to metal fatigue and corrosion.

Variants

 * XB-44
 * One B-29A was handed over to Pratt & Whitney to be used as a testbed for the installation of the new Wasp Major 28-cylinder engines in the B-29.

 * B-29D
 * Wasp Major powered bomber, with stronger structure and taller tail. Redesignated B-50A in December 1945.

 * B-50A
 * First production version of the B-50. Four R-4360-35 Wasp Major engines, 168500 lb max take-off weight. A total of 79 were built.
 * TB-50A – Conversion of 11 B-50As as crew trainers for units operating the B-36.

 * B-50B
 * Improved version, with increased maximum take-off weight 170400 lb and new, lightweight fuel tanks. 45 built.

 * EB-50B – Single B-50B modified as test-bed for bicycle undercarriage, later used to test "caterpillar track" landing gear.
 * RB-50B – Conversion of B-50B for strategic reconnaissance, with capsule in rear fuselage carrying nine cameras in four stations, weather instruments, and extra crew. Could be fitted with two 700 usgal drop tanks under outer wings. 44 converted from B-50B.

 * YB-50C
 * Prototype for B-54 bomber, to have Variable Discharge Turbine version of the R-4360 engine, longer fuselage and bigger, stronger wings. One prototype started but canceled before completion.

 * B-50D
 * Definitive bomber version of the B-50. Higher max takeoff weight (173000 lb). Fitted with receptacle for Flying boom in-flight refueling and provision for underwing drop tanks. Modified nose glazing with 7-piece nose cone window was replaced by a single plastic cone and a flat bomb-aimer's window. A total of 222 were built.
 * DB-50D – Single B-50D converted as drone director conversion of a B-50D, for trials with the GAM-63 RASCAL missile.
 * KB-50D – Prototype conversion of two B-50Ds as three-point aerial refueling tanker, using drogue-type hoses. Used as the basis for later production KB-50J and KB-50K conversions. A further conversion from a TB-50D was also designated KB-50D.
 * TB-50D – Conversion of early B-50Ds lacking aerial-refueling receptacles as unarmed crew trainers. Eleven were converted.
 * WB-50D – Conversion of surplus B-50Ds as weather reconnaissance aircraft to replace worn out WB-29s. Fitted with doppler radar, atmospheric sampler and other specialist equipment, and extra fuel in the bomb bay. Some were used to carry out highly classified missions for atmospheric sampling from 1953 to 1955 to detect Soviet detonation of atomic weapons.

 * RB-50E
 * 14 RB-50Bs converted at Wichita for specialist photographic reconnaissance.

 * RB-50F
 * Conversion of 14 RB-50Bs as survey aircraft, fitted with SHORAN navigation radar.

 * RB-50G
 * Conversion of the RB-50B for electronic reconnaissance. Fitted with Shoran for navigation, and six electronic stations, with 16-man crew; 15 converted.

 * TB-50H
 * Unarmed crew trainer for B-47 squadrons. 24 completed, the last B-50s built. All later converted to KB-50K tankers.

 * KB-50J
 * Conversions to air-to-air refueling tankers with improved performance from two extra General Electric J47 turbojets under the outer wings, 112 converted from B-50D, TB-50D, RB-50E, RB-50F and RB-50G aircraft.

 * KB-50
 * 136 conversions to three-point hose-drogue tankers by Hayes Industries, with the auxiliary fuel tanks outboard of the engines and hose pod under the wing-tips.

 * KB-50K
 * Tanker conversions of the TB-50H trainer aircraft. 24 converted.

 * B-54A
 * Proposed version of the YB-50C.

 * RB-54A
 * Proposed reconnaissance version of the YB-50C.

 * WB-50
 * Weather reconnaissance aircraft converted from B-50A aircraft.

Surviving examples
From the 370 produced only five B-50 aircraft survive: AF Ser. No. 46-0010 Lucky Lady II – The first plane to fly around the world nonstop, between February 26 and March 2, 1949. Was refueled four times in air by KB-29 tanker planes of the 43rd Air Refuelling Squadron, over the Azores, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines and Hawaii. The circumnavigation took 94 hours and 1 minute, and covered 37,743 km (23,452 miles) at an average speed of 398 km/h (249 mph). Lucky Lady II was disassembled after a serious accident, and its forward fuselage is stored outside at Planes of Fame Air Museum in Chino, California.
 * B-50A

AF Ser. No. 49-0310 – National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.
 * WB-50D

AF Ser. No. 49-0351 Flight of the Phoenix – Castle Air Museum at the former Castle Air Force Base in Atwater, California. This was the last B-50 to be flown, being delivered to MASDC at Davis–Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, on 6 October 1965. It was put on display at the Castle Air Museum in 1980.

AF Ser No. 49-0372 – Pima Air & Space Museum adjacent to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona. AF Ser. No. 49-0389 – Air Mobility Command Museum in Dover, Delaware. Formerly an outdoor display at MacDill Memorial Park at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida. In 2018, 49–0389 was dismantled and relocated to the Air Mobility Command Museum; as of 2023, the airframe was on outdoor display while undergoing restoration
 * KB-50J

Operators

 * United States
 * United States Air Force

Strategic Air Command
 * B-50 Superfortress
 * 2d Bombardment Wing, 1949–1953
 * 43d Bombardment Wing, 1948–1954
 * 93d Bombardment Wing, 1949–1954
 * 97th Bombardment Wing, 1950–1955
 * 306th Bombardment Wing, 1951
 * 509th Bombardment Wing, 1949–1954

 * RB-50 Superfortress
 * 55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, 1950–1954
 * 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, 1949–1950 (B-50); 1950–1951

Air Weather Service
 * WB-50 Superfortress
 * 53d Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, 1955–1965
 * 54th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, 1955–1960; 1962–1965
 * 55th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, 1958–1960 (TB-50); 1960–1963
 * 56th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, 1956–1962
 * 57th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, 1956–1958
 * 58th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, 1956–1958
 * 59th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, 1955–1960

Tactical Air Command
 * KB-50 Superfortress
 * 420th Air Refueling Squadron
 * 47th Bombardment Wing, Tactical, 1955–1964 (USAFE)
 * 421st Air Refueling Squadron
 * 49th Fighter-Bomber Group, 1955–1957
 * 67th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, 1957–1960
 * 3d Tactical Bombardment Wing (Attached), November 1960 – June 1962 (PACAF)
 * 427th Air Refueling Squadron
 * 4505th Air Refueling Wing, 1959–1963
 * 429th Air Refueling Squadron
 * 4505th Air Refueling Wing, 1958–1963
 * 431st Air Refueling Squadron
 * 4505th Air Refueling Wing, 1958–1963
 * 4440th Aircraft Delivery Group, 1963–1965
 * 622d Air Refueling Squadron
 * 4505th Air Refueling Wing, 1957–1963

title: Boeing B-50 Superfortress


text:
Aleksandr Poleshchuk

Aleksandr Fyodorovich Poleshchuk (Александр Фёдорович Полещук, born October 30, 1953) is a former Russian cosmonaut.

Biography
Born in Cheremkhovo, Irkutsk region, he graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute in 1977 with a mechanical engineering diploma. He then joined RSC Energia as a test engineer, where he was occupied with perfecting repair and assembly techniques performed during space flights. He has extensive experience in test work under simulated weightlessness conditions. In February 1989 he was selected as a test cosmonaut candidate (1989 Cosmonaut Candidates Class, Group 14, Civil Specialists). From September 1989 to January 1991 he underwent the complete course of general space training and was qualified as a test cosmonaut, and then until March 1992 he undertook advanced training for the Soyuz-TM transport vehicle and Mir station flight.

In 1992 he was selected as the backup flight engineer of the Soyuz TM-15 joint Russian-French mission, and consequently nominated as the flight engineer of the prime crew of Soyuz TM-16. In space from January 24 to July 22, 1993, he participated in a 179-day space flight with Gennady Manakov. During the flight he performed two EVAs totaling 9 hours and 58 minutes. Also testing of the androgynous peripheral docking subassembly of the Kristall module was performed.

October 1994 to March 1995 he trained as back-up flight engineer for the Soyuz TM-21 transport vehicle and Mir Station 18th primary expedition flights.

Poleshchuk is married and has one daughter.

title: Aleksandr Poleshchuk


text:
Mulligan (games)

A mulligan is a second chance to perform an action, usually after the first chance went wrong through bad luck or a blunder. Its best-known use is in golf, whereby it refers to a player being allowed, only informally, to replay a stroke, although that is against the formal rules of golf. The term has also been applied to other sports, games, and fields generally. The origin of the term is unclear.

Possible origin
The earliest known use of the term is in a 1931 issue of the Detroit Free Press, somewhat predating the earliest citation in the Oxford English Dictionary from 1936. The most common explanation of the term's origin is that it was named after a golfer with the surname Mulligan, the main candidates being either David Mulligan or John A. "Buddy" Mulligan; however, no connection with these figures is recorded until several decades after the term entered common use. In 2017, Peter Reitan suggested that the term first arose in baseball sports writing and was associated with a fictional baseball player "Swat Mulligan".

Eponymous origin theories
The United States Golf Association (USGA) cites three stories espousing that the term derived from the name of a Canadian golfer, David B. Mulligan (1869–1954). At one time, he was the manager of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. He played at the Country Club of Montreal golf course, in Saint-Lambert near Montreal during the 1920s. There are three variations in reports indicating his being the Mulligan associated with the term. One version has it that one day after hitting a poor tee shot, Mulligan immediately re-teed and shot again. He called it a "correction shot", but his companions thought it more fitting to name the unorthodox practice after him, and that David Mulligan then brought the concept from Canada to Winged Foot, a golf club in the U.S. A second version has the extra shot allowed for Mulligan due to his being jumpy and shaky after a difficult drive over the Victoria Bridge to the course. The final version of the David Mulligan story gives him an extra shot after having overslept and having rushed to get ready to make the tee time.

An alternative, later story credits a different man named Mulligan – John A. "Buddy" Mulligan, a locker room attendant at Essex Fells Country Club in New Jersey. In the 1930s, he would finish cleaning the locker room and, if no other members appeared, play a round with the assistant pro, Dave O'Connell, and a club member, Des Sullivan, who was a reporter and later, golf editor for the Newark Evening News. One day his first shot was bad and he beseeched O'Connell and Sullivan to allow another shot since they "had been practicing all morning" and he had not. Once they agreed and the round finished, Mulligan began to exclaim proudly for months to the members in his locker room, how he had gotten an extra shot from the duo. The members loved the device and soon began giving themselves "Mulligans" in his honor. Sullivan began using the term in his golf articles in the Newark Evening News. A television program, the Today Show, ran this story around 2005 and have it in their archives. Mulligan was located in the 1970s at the Lyons, New Jersey veterans administration hospital, helping with their golf facility. In his July 22, 1970, column in the Myrtle Beach Sun News, the semi-retired Des Sullivan wrote of finding Mulligan and the history behind the term.

Swat Mulligan baseball origin theory
In a 2017 blog post, Peter Reitan cast doubt on the eponymous mulligan etymology theories, pointing out that they conflicted with the (then-recent) 1931 antedating in the dictionary. He suggested that the term originated instead with "Swat Mulligan", a fictional baseball player with extraordinary batting skills who appeared in the New York Evening World during the 1910s. Reitan presents quotations from the 1920s in which Mulligan's name is used as a byword for powerful hits, including use of the phrase take a "mulligan" to mean taking a powerful swing at the ball. Reitan suggests that the term then arrived at its current meaning by semantic drift. The 1931 Detroit Free Press citation has been suggested to represent a transitional form, in that the usage involves both a do-over and a powerful shot:

"All were waiting to see what Byrd would do on the 290-yard 18th, with a creek in front of the well-elevated green. His first drive barely missed carrying the creek and he was given a “mulligan” just for fun. The second not only was over the creek on the fly, but was within a few inches of the elevated green. That’s some poke!"

Use in golf
In golf, a mulligan is a stroke that is replayed from the spot of the previous stroke without penalty, due to an errant shot made on the previous stroke. The result is that the hole is played and scored as if the first errant shot had never been made. This practice is disallowed entirely by strict rules in formal play and players who attempt it or agree to let it happen may be disqualified from sanctioned competitions. However, in casual play, "mulligans" speed play by reducing the time spent searching for a lost ball, reduce frustration, and increase enjoyment of the game because a player can "shake off" a bad shot more easily with their second chance.

A "gilligan", the opposite of a "mulligan", is to redo a successful stroke when so requested by an opponent.

As mulligans are not covered by strict rules – except to prohibit them – there are many variations of the practice among groups of players who do allow them in friendly games. If a mulligan is allowed to be used to replay any shot, typically each player is limited to 18 per round, sometimes 9 in the first 9 holes and 9 in the second nine. Traditionally, mulligans can only be played on tee shots (which are notoriously difficult to make accurately), and sometimes they may only be played on the first tee shot of the round (known as a "breakfast ball"). In the case of a mulligan used to replay the first tee shot, multiple "mulligans" may be allowed under different names (Finnegan, Branagan, Flanagan, or Craig) until the player has hit a playable tee shot.

Although certain players may wish to bank their shots, this is deemed unsportsmanlike and is generally frowned upon. Golf tournaments held for charity may charge for mulligans to collect more money for the charity.

Use in other games
In Titan, the rules of the 1982 version allow a "First move mulligan" for an unfortunate dice roll.

Card games
In collectible card games, a mulligan refers to the process of adjusting which cards are in a player's initial hand of cards. Card games have various official rules for how mulligans are performed.

In Magic: The Gathering, a player may declare a mulligan after drawing their initial hand at the beginning of each game. If a player chooses to do so, that player shuffles their current hand back into their deck, draws a new hand of seven cards, then puts one card on the bottom of their library for each time they've mulliganed this game. The player may repeat this until satisfied, or until the number of cards in their hand reaches zero. The mulligan process has changed drastically over the history of the game. The current style is known as the London mulligan, as it was first used at a Mythic Championship tournament held in London.

Hearthstone allows players to mulligan at the start of the game by placing any number of cards in their opening hand back into their deck, each to be replaced with a random different card. Mulliganing one's entire hand in hopes of getting a specific card is referred to as a hard mulligan.

In the Pokémon Trading Card Game, each player needs at least one Basic Pokémon card in their opening hand to start the game. If there is no Basic Pokémon card in hand, the player must reveal their hand, shuffle it into their deck and draw a new hand of seven cards. If both players must mulligan, each of them reveals their hand, shuffles it into their deck and draws seven cards. If only one player must mulligan, their opponent may draw a number of cards up to the number of mulligans they took. (Before EX Ruby & Sapphire, that player may draw up to 2 cards per mulligan.) Mulligans are repeated until each player has at least one Basic Pokémon card in hand.

In Dragon Ball Super Card Game, the player is given one opportunity to mulligan. They may return any number of cards into their deck and shuffle it, then draw the same number of cards.

Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn bypasses mulligan rules common to other card games, and instead has a "First Five" rule, allowing players to pick the specific five cards which will comprise their opening hand.

In KeyForge, a player who is dissatisfied with their starting hand may discard it and draw a new hand with one fewer card.

In Legends of Runeterra, a player who is dissatisfied with their hand may shuffle any number of cards back into their deck, and draw the same number of cards.

In Gwent: The Witcher Card Game, players can mulligan up to two cards at the start of each round, replacing it with a random card from their deck. The player who goes first in Round 1 gets an additional mulligan. Also, as players draw three cards at the beginning of a round, but cannot have more than ten cards in hand, each drawn card that would increase their hand size over ten becomes a bonus mulligan instead.

In knock-out whist an eliminated player may ask for a "dog's chance" in the next round. That player is then dealt a single card (regardless of how may cards would normally be in that hand). If the player succeeds in winning a trick with that card, they stay in for the next round, otherwise they are eliminated again.

Politics
In politics, the term mulligan race or mulligan candidate is used to describe a losing or disqualified candidate in a party primary or nomination, who, nevertheless, runs in the general election on another ballot line, either as an independent or as the nominee for a third party. In the 2006 Connecticut U.S. Senate race, many Ned Lamont supporters accused Senator Joseph Lieberman of running a mulligan race as an independent, since he had lost the Democratic Party primary. Several U.S. states have so-called sore-loser laws specifically designed to prevent such failed candidates from appearing on the ballot in the general election in such a manner.

As a general rule, in liberal democracies outside the United States there are few (if any) laws that would prevent failed or disqualified nomination candidates from contesting the general election, although mounting such a challenge often results in expulsion or permanent ostracization from the candidate's former party. In jurisdictions using the Westminster system or single-member districts, mulligan candidates are a fairly common occurrence, especially in cases where the mulligan candidate alleges a nomination contest was lost due to unfair electoral practices or was disqualified by a former party without reasonable cause.

Related terms include mulligan leader and mulligan party, the latter of which is used to describe a party founded or taken over by a failed leadership candidate (or deposed former leader) from another party. A recent example of such a party is the People's Party of Canada, founded by failed Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidate, Maxime Bernier, while a notable historical party from the same country was the provincial Newfoundland Reform Liberal Party, founded and led by former Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Joey Smallwood. Although such parties rarely become serious contenders to form a government in general elections, if popular enough, they can cause vote splitting that especially in first past the post voting systems, may severely damage the electoral prospects of the mulligan leader's former party.

In the 2008 American Democratic primary elections, the term mulligan was used to describe a proposed redo of elections in Michigan and Florida, after their results were declared invalid due to the early scheduling of the contests, against Democratic party rules.

The term also is coming into use to describe situations (that are becoming increasingly common in the age of social media) where a political party's candidate or delegate is suddenly replaced by the party leadership on the eve of an election or convention, usually either because the person's loyalty to the party or its leaders have come into question or because unsavory details regarding his past or character surface that warrant drastic measures to mitigate damage to the reputation or electoral prospects of the party or its leadership. Electoral rules and laws mostly drafted prior to the advent of social media, often severely restrict or prohibit the replacement of candidates after the nomination period has closed, which might be weeks or even months prior to the final vote. Proposals to relax such rules to allow parties to deal with to the increased likelihood of a candidate's dodgy past coming to light at an inopportune moment have been mocked as mulligan rules by critics.

Finance
In finance, the term is used to refer to provisions in syndicated loan documentation where lenders only get the right to accelerate their loans after two financial covenants are breached. This practice is rare today, but was popular with sponsors at the height of the credit boom in 2006-07, allowing them to postpone the date at which they needed to start negotiating a restructuring with lenders. The loan "mulligan" is to be contrasted with a "deemed cure" clause that would allow a covenant breach to be disregarded in the event the next covenant tests were met. In addition, it typically remains possible with loans carrying financial covenants for a borrower to "cure" covenant breaches after the event by injecting new cash equity.

title: Mulligan (games)


text:
Kosova, Estonia

Kosova is a village in Põlva Parish, Põlva County, Estonia.

title: Kosova, Estonia