Christmas is over, and yet I'm curiously bouncy, spiky and up for some troublemakin'

So, Jan 31st sees the end of the Government's Consultation on so-called 'Entitlement Cards' (ID Cards to you and me).

Warning: it's a 10Mb pdf - stef has kindly done an HTML version.

Here are my main issues with the proposals:

• It'll inevitably mean a national fingerprint/iris/DNA database, and without the legal protections in place to guard against abuse of such a db, this has to be bad.


• It won't stop criminals faking IDs


• ID cards have never been shown to help in fight against terrorism


• It'd cost loads


• [The Big One] There are no plans to introduce any complementary legal protections for the individual. There would be no legal barrier to the scope of the ID card being increased wholesale...

If you're in the mood to respond to the consultation there is an email address to which you can send your thoughts.

However, I strongly suggest you first read Privacy International's deconstruction of the proposals, as well and their advice on how to respond effectively.

Go on, make a difference... it'll only take 3 or 4 mins...