As other EU countries having ID cards it was enevitable that our Government would want it. the people it's aimed at won't be pinned down by the cards. Can you imagine people already outside the law sticking up their hands for an ID card? Some people will make a packet with forgeries. But everyone who protests about anything can be asked to show ID. a dossier can build up nicely about people in any protest movement. It will be there for any future Governments to use as they think fit. Those who say 'I don't protest on the streets about things' ok, you haven't yet, but ask the people who have marched/ protested whether they thought they ever would.
Also, most of us have been pinned down over the years anyway. Noticed how anyone can pinpoint you within seconds by your postcode? Money laundering rules require every second person to ask proof of ID & address. How many criminals and frauds have been caught by these rules being operated. Not many, I'll warrant. What's missing is an overall ID document which has to be carried around for police and government officials to have access to easily, with the net widened as to who can know your name and where you live even if you haven't done anything. the Government still won't be able to control fraud possibilities re postal voting or know who's in the country illegally, at least not for about 50 years or so, as new births are registered and ID'd and un-ID'd people die.
The cost of it 'out of our pockets' is academic really, as the money 'in their pockets' is ours too, or was.
People ought to think very carefully about the benefits/disadvantages of this, as it's forever once it starts. That means people's children and grandchildren... forever.
