Show your papers, citizen!

Well, our wonderful Home Secretary is ploughing ahead with his ridiculous plan to compulsorily introduce ID cards for the populace as a protection against terrorism.

This would be the same scheme that three years ago, he introduced as a voluntary scheme to cut down on benefit fraud. And the same scheme he says has "large public support" despite the existence of several campaigns against it, one of which Blunkett simply ignored when presented with 5,000 protesting signatures.

My opposition to an ID card is simple. I have a National Insurance number, a driving licence, a passport (oops, come to think of it, that expired last week), tax bills, utility bills, birth certificates, bank cards, credit cards, store cards, mobile phone... so why do I need another piece of plastic to prove my identity.

For security? MI5, MI6, Special Branch, the Armed Forces, the Metropolitan Police, GCHQ, local CCTV, local volunteer citizen patrols... why do I need more security? From Al-Qaeda, who have done what in three years? Released a couple of videos? So has Jade Goody, and noone calls for her assassination.

(Well, except me, but thats a different story.)

And lo and behold, and the day that ID cards are included in the Queens Speech, the Daily Mail screams Al-Qaeda were planning to smash planes into Canary Wharf quoting unspecified, unnamed "senior sources". Excuse me, but isn't that just a staggering coincidence? Blunkett went for the hard questioning to defend his plans... an appearance on Richard and Judy undoubtedly gave him the grilling this scheme so richly deserves.

Blunkett refuses to announce how much the scheme will cost. The public figure is £3 billion, but that - as usual with Blunkett - is half the story. That doesn't include the commercial contracts, yet to be even discussed, over the IT infrastructure. And do you know how many Government IT contracts in history have been completed on time and on budget?

Go on, guess.

None. Nada. Zip.

Furthermore - if the 19 hijackers on Sept 11th had been carrying ID cards of the propsed specification with all the info on it, would it have prevented them crashing planes into the WTC and the Pentagon? No, it wouldn't. Because they had completely legitimate, clean records.

I still haven't got around to the inevitable errors that will occur in a database of this size, the fact that the rules on who can look up the personal information (which includes for some reason, income, bank and health details - stuff I'm sure you'll agree should be kept together... - are so poorly drafted the original idea allowed librarians access to your personal information.

Oh, and it will cost you £75 for the priviledge of carrying this compulsory card.

Will the ID card replace the passport? No. Will the ID card replace the driving licence? No.

So, we have a scheme that people don't want, that has been lied about every step of the way, is going to cost well over the undisclosed amount, is going to be riddled with errors, won't do a damned thing to make the country safer (here's a hint Tony, stop invading places) and we all have to pay for it whether we like it or not.

No2ID are trying to stop this incredible waste of time, money and most of all invasion of privacy. Click on the link to find out more.