"Grumps" wrote:
The only people who might object to id cards are those who are either
illegal in this country or those who have something to hide!!!!
In one way or another we carry id cards now! either a driving licence or
credit/debit card so what's the objections?.,

Ask yourself this question. Would you let the government install a
GPS tracking system in your car* or on your person, so that they
would know where you were the majority of the time?

Read the proposed legislation. It gives the government and other
authorities rights to access to every instance of the ID being
checked (it isn't just a visual check). As more and more
transactions will require your ID to be checked, they will eventually
know where you are most of the time, and what you do with your
time . As a rule I don't have any truck with civil liberties nonsense,
but this is a privacy issue more than a liberty issue. This scheme
goes *way* beyond a simple ID card (which is what most people
think it is).

FWIW, I do think it will cut crime, but I don't even have a
supermarket loyalty card because I don't like people collecting data
on my shopping habits, so the potential abuses of the proposed ID
card scheme horrify me.

Just my 2p,
Al

*this is also planned, under the guise of monitoring speeding