ONE of the great lies repeatedly being peddled by government ministers is that the public overwhelmingly supports the idea of introducing ID cards. They may or may not, but there is no evidence whatsoever to back the assertion up. No-one knows so no-one can say. To pretend otherwise is a falsehood but, as in so much of what politicians say, it is assumed that if it is said often enough it will be believed. In fact, with the government's previous overwhelming parliamentary majority, the issues have scarcely been thought-through or debated at all, which is a shame because they are very complex and it is a hugely expensive measure which will affect every single one of us. Yet it is not at all guaranteed to work. Quite the contrary. The argument, born of September 11 like most of the government's other flawed ideas - and similarly propelled by fear - goes something like this: If you have nothing to hide you won't mind carrying identification and allowing it to be seen by the authorities. Your identity is precious and if it is stolen you can come to great harm. Therefore if everyone is able to prove who they are (and by extension who they are not), then those who aren't who they claim to be will be caught out. And since those who claim to be other than they are are inevitably up to no good, catching them and banging them away in prison means we can all sleep safe in our beds. For an estimated cost of some £6bn, this had better be true: No more fears of terrorist attacks, no more having your bank account raided, no more illegal immigrants. And all for the sake of carrying a bit of plastic similar to the stuff we carry already. What possible objection could there be? Which is why anyone who opposes the idea is regarded as being potentially an enemy of the state too. This is how dangerous the fixation has become. And it's based on a dangerous fallacy. Law-abiding people may well benefit from cards (though they will pay through the nose for the privilege), but smartly-dressed terrorists will get hold of them too and be waved through security to commit whatever atrocity they want with the tacit blessing of the state. For ID cards to be 100% effective everyone has to have one, everyone has to be vetted for it and everyone has to be challenged to present one for inspection. The intelligence on people has to be accurate or they won't work. And if the intelligence on everyone was accurate we wouldn't need cards in the first place. We would rather see 10,000 or so extra police on the beat for the price we're being asked to pay. | 
