I.D. Cards to cost £2,000 per family

11.25.00am GMT Fri 11th Nov 2005

The London School of Economics has calculated that the Government's I.D. card scheme could cost £500 per card - thats £2,000 to the average family.

The Treasury wants YOU to pay that cost.

"Plastic Poll Tax" - Blair & Clarke want you to buy an ID card

These are the same I.D. cards that Charles Clarke, The Home Secretary, has admitted would not have stopped the 7th July Bombings.

They will not apply to all 300 million foreign EU residents or Asylum Seekers. So if you were a bomber you could come in from abroad on the Eurostar and blow up a tube train packed full of people with I.D. cards. How did the I.D. card defend you against terrorism?

Again, even if a bomber had an I.D. card, why would this stop them setting off a bomb? Proving who you are does not prove what your intentions are.

Of course the Government has given other reasons for the scheme - such as tackling benefit fraud and I.D. theft. There have been lots of attempts to 'tackle benefit fraud' down the years and it stills goes on.

"So what will you, the tax-paying, law abiding citizen get from the card?" asks Cllr Andrew Cann.

"The answer is nothing - and of course a bill for £2,000. Sounds like a Labour idea to me."