ID cards

Identity cards will solve all Britain’s problems – if you believe Home Secretary David Blunkett.

Apparently ID cards will help fight terrorism, crime, benefit fraud, illegal immigration and make a cup of tea in the morning.

Technology is amazing, isn’t it?

Am I the only person who doesn’t believe this nonsense?

My mother’s old “Teasmade” was supposed to make our morning tea, but it was more trouble than it was worth.

Similarly, ID cards will have some benefits, but I doubt they’ll be worth it.

The initial set-up cost of ID cards is £3.1 billion. That would pay for 10,000 extra police, for 6 years.

Given the police’s main problem is catching criminals, not identifying them, let’s spend that cash on more police.

As for terrorists, those who attacked New York and Madrid all carried valid ID. Having the right documents doesn’t predict your behaviour.

And the cost to you and me won’t just be the extra £35 for our passports. There is the cost to our civil liberties.

As the Information Commissioner said last month, we could “sleepwalk into a surveillance society” – where we had total privacy from our friends and neighbours but not the Government.

With Conservative and Labour backing the principle of ID cards, they could arrive by stealth.

Yet the truth is ID cards are like many hi-tech wheezes – a waste of money.