Mary Fisher wrote:

(and post under their Real Names wot can be Googled for).

Well, according to some, that's a dangerous practice!

It can be. Here, we can make our individual judgments, and post under
whatever names we like - some real, some stable pseudonyms, some
hit-n-run hard-to-track. Everyone gets to make that *choice* for
themselves, and weigh up the consequences according to their own
circumstances.

That's a choice which the proposed ID card scheme removes from many
normal interactions. As the Information Commissioner (previously the
Data Protection Registrar) notes - the last time we had ID cards, they
were introduced for exactly three relatively narrow purposes (national
service, security, and rationing); eleven years later, 39 government
agencies were using them for a variety of purposes. See

http://www.informationcommissioner.g...aft%20Bill.pdf

if you have the inclination. How long before B&Q will require you (yes,
*everyone*, so as not to be accused of being discriminatory!) to show
your ID card to buy knives and glue?

On a different tack - thanks (truly!) for calling my response 'polite' -
it was considerably more abrasive than a standard-Stefek. I guess my Ma
must've done something right as I were drug up ;-)

Stefek