Taking (Civil) Liberties...

The British Government wants to bring in ID cards. Initially, it would have been compulsory to have a card (and to pay for the privilege) but the Home Office are now saying that it's going to be optional (for how long?) The scheme was also going to be running by 2008... but now people are talking about 2010 for pilot schemes and 2011/2012 for the real thing. And data will be held in three different databases, partly because the cost of a cental database would be too high, and partly because this Government have proved to be so totally inept at handling data securely.

I have to confess that I'm confused by the need for ID cards. We already have passports, drivers' licenses, national insurance numbers, (allocated at age 16, I think) national health numbers (allocated at birth - at least mine is related to the number on my birth certificate) council tax documentation, electoral roll data...

I do not understand how these cars will reduce fraud, illegal immigration or terrorism.

The original idea was to have iris scan data for the cards. Too expensive, so it's been ditched. All it will now have is fingerprint data on a database... but there are no plans to give scanners for the cards to shops, banks, pubs or other commercial concerns. Instead there will be a "hotline" for people worried about fake cards.

So much for the fight against fraud... credit cards already use more technology than this with their chip-and-pin stuff... and that isn't foolproof. And cards can be cloned.

There isn't even a timetable for giving scanners to the police or to immigration officers...

There goes the illegal immigrants argument.

Which leaves the fight against terrorism. As if people born in this country aren't capable of committing acts of terrorism. And someone who wants to blow up other people, and doesn't mind dying in the process, is hardly going to worry about having a valid ID card. I suppose it might help to identify the dead...