[notch656a]

Seems pretty clear to me. Boris did something that offended a certain segment, so he makes amends by creating the perception he is going to do something that segment approves of. At least that seems to be what is implied.

The noted point here is it likely won't happen, but the underlying goal of creating such perception may be achieved.

[lamontcg]

I thought it was implied that this was a distraction.

Gets people on both sides engaged and takes over the headlines and the hope is that it wipes partygate off the headlines and short term memory loss sets in and everyone forgets about partygate by election time.

Trump would just say something completely insane every other day to keep the headlines thrashing on nonsense to distract away from whatever else was going on.

Also think this is similar to the way that Klopp whines about the length of the grass after losses to keep media attention on what nonsense he's saying in pressers and off the performance of his players on the pitch.

[irthomasthomas]

I think it's more likely that Facebook is pushing this, as a means to get users to register their card info.

[notch656a]

Well I'm not the one who made that assertion, I was just explaining what OP had wrote since the person above me didn't understand. I didn't mean to imply it was my opinion nor that it was likely.

Facebook still needs government's help to implement it, so there must be something in it for representatives if it's going to make it through. Seems doubtful Facebook can possibly pass a law on its own. And if Facebook wants to, they can easily require credit card without any law being passed; it's not illegal to require credit card to become a member of a website.