The issue is not so much the carrying of ID card (to which I have no objection) as the government-held database that will be behind it, and which will be added to at each use of the card for confirmation of identity. Irrespective of whether one trusts the present govenment, this database will be available to every future government. Whatever safeguards are in place now, any future government will be free to remove them. Who is to say that a future government will not sell the information on the way electoral registers and census data are now sold.

Neither does this take into account illegal access to the data. It's illegal to access the Police National computer without authorisation, but it would be naive in the extreme to assume it doesn't happen. Personally I see the new identity card database as the ultimate one-stop shop for identity theft. There is no such thing as a secure system, just varying levels of vulnerability.To beat security, all you ever need to do is corrupt an authorised user.

nick