Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. A selection of comments from the BBC who are running a vox pop on ID cards on their web site today;
"I give 100% support to ID cards as it would cut down on crime and illegal immigration. Also all the information will be on a single card which will be better for everyone.
Martin Williams, S Wales"
– Err, how exactly will you carrying a piece of plastic around reduce crime or illegal immigration?
"Why will the cost so much they are just a bit of plastic with some data on and will be manufactured by the million. Three pounds would be too much.
Bill Carney, North Lincs"
– Sorry, mustn’t laugh at the ignorant. They’ll cost so much because the information stored on the card will also have to be kept in a central database by your oh-so-trustworthy government. Which means a new department staffed with civil servants and advised by over priced consultants who will need to build a whopping great big database to store this information. This being the public sector it will take twice as long (and at least four times as much) as predicted to build it. Then they will have to spend some serious money to make it accurate, and secure.
"I fully support the introduction of identity cards. I have nothing to hide. As for the cost, the government should subsidise it and offset the cost against a reduction in benefit fraud and crime.
Al, London"
– See my first response about reducing crime. Although the prospect of armed blaggers showing their ID cards to the closed circuit tv cameras whilst they are robbing the local building society is certainly going to help the police catch them. As for the "government" subsidising ID cards – that’s you, you idiot. It doesn’t matter if you pay up front or in increased income tax. Every penny that’s spent on this white elephant will come directly from your pocket.
The URL you are looking for is http://www.pledgebank.com/refuse.
Update: Muriel Gray, in the Guardian has a very persuasive case for not having ID cards, because you may quite legitimately not want other people to know your name.
Is that why you left the country? It’s good to see you still care! Anyway whats wrong with huge databases and highly paid consultants – I thought you were rather fond of both?