Compromise on ID cards expected

There is no point having an ID Card, unless carrying it is compulsory. The Government will not spend billions (including billions more than estimated) on the most complicated government IT project in history and then fail to follow through. If Parliament falls for this "salami slicing" approach to the issue, it will be a disgrace and a betrayal.

ID Cards do not reduce crime. This can be tested. The Government can commission some research on crime rates in countries with, and without, ID cards. I confidently predict (having lived in both) that the research will reveal no correlation. The Law Society says - stating the obvious as lawyers do so well - that connecting an identified individual to a crime is typically the problem, not identifying the individual in the first place.

For terrorism, we do not need research. The 9/11 bombers identified themselves at check-in. Suicide murderers have no interest in concealing their ID. The Madrid bombers were carrying their compulsory Spanish ID cards. How long did it take to establish the identity of the 7/7 London bombers? As proud jihadists, they wanted their ID to be known.

ID Cards, and the database behind them, are not about terrorism, crime, or easier access to the "Government services" most of us work hard to stay away from (like free surgical knives with which to "self harm" when driven mad by modern Britain). They are not about identity theft (a centralised database run by Government incompetents will make that (a) much more likely and (b) much more damaging when it happens). They are about control. They are about the creeping intrusion of the State into the lives of formerly free men and women.

Every second word spoken about ID Cards by New National Socialists Labour is a lie. They are betraying what little is left of what once was good about Britain. HM Opposition should not be tinkering with "compromises" but telling our nation the truth and opposing the scheme in principle.

Day by day, this Government is building the apparatus of a police state. Even if you think they don't intend to use it (perhaps they are doing it for a bet?) at least consider that some future Government may. Write to or call your MP today and let him or her know what you think. Please.

BBC NEWS | Politics | Compromise on ID cards expected