Fast track for ID cards

And so it begins. The first priority of the new Labour government is the introduction of ID cards and the national database associated with them.

This is a government with the support of a minority of British people; it is a government elected by a distorted electoral system; it is a government tainted by vote-rigging; it is a government which lost the election in England and is only in power because of the Scots.

It is a government with no respect or understanding for the libertarian traditions of England. It has abolished habeas corpus; it has abolished double jeopardy; it has limited rights to jury trial. It is - for some reason as yet undetermined - building a police state in Britain. Focussing relentlessly on terrorism, and now on "yob culture" (a culture which its education policies have engendered) it is appealing to the basest instincts of the least enlightened elements of the population.

I sincerely believe that liberty is in great danger in England. In the absence of an effective opposition, our democracy is not functioning. Our lack of constitutional protections for individual rights means we are at the mercy of authoritarian leftists.

Guardian Unlimited Politics | Special Reports | Fast track for ID cards