Lynne Featherstone

Today's news that the Government lost a record number of pieces of personal data in 2007 is another good reason to oppose their plans for identity cards. (The Telegraph has more details on these figures, released today by Nick Clegg.)

There are many problems with Labour's scheme (such as the huge cost - the money would be far better spent on other ways of fighting crime which we know would work, unlike a huge new IT project - which may well fail!) - but one of them is the risk to our own privacy and safety from the identity database the scheme requires.

It will hold tens of millions of records of personal information - just the sort of thing that people who want to swindle us, pry on us or otherwise misbehave can exploit. And on last year's form - we really can't expect the Government to keep this data safe! And that would apply to other Governments too - putting all that sensitive and valuable data into one place is just too risky.

You can help stop them by signing the Liberal Democrat petition against ID cards here.