Lynne Featherstone

Well - having been banging the drum for a long time that one of the problems with Labour's national mandatory ID cards scheme is the risk of all that personal data being abused, misused or mislaid - I think you can guess my views this week! But good to see - as Liberal Democrat Voice reports - that the latest polls now show a decisive majority against ID cards.

So - if all the problems of people's personal data being lost by the government has helped to highlight some of the problems with ID cards, perhaps some good will come from it all after all. As I said back in September 2006:

The introduction of ID cards will allow our personal data to be shared without our consent. Even the tightest security will eventually be breached. ID cards will only hold limited information but there are 52 categories of ‘limited’ information that can and will be held which will build up a pretty comprehensive picture of us and our lives.