ID cards: the plot thickens

Possibly not so much the plot thickening...

Pharmacies and post offices could act as enrolment centres for the Government's identity card scheme, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said today.

Anyone who wants an ID card or biometric passport will go to their local post office or pharmacy to have their fingerprints read and stored along with a face scan.

The card will cost £30 and the shops could charge another £30 to collect the data, which will be stored on a Government database.

I would suggest that those people wanting to be tagged, monitored and essentially property of the state couldn't do better than go to a pharmacy. Possibly after they've got the slip of paper from their GP first.

But doesn't it show the ingrained authoritarianism of this bunch: the budget showed what a mess this country was in, there are genuine uses for public money like, I don't know, Armed Forces Housing, and they push ahead with this unwanted, unnecessary and downright dangerous ID cards scheme.

This bunch shouldn't be trusted with an emery board, let along records of the population's finger prints.