Is anyone else outraged that £14.5 billion is going to be spent on ID cards?

[Callisto]

If so I urge you to contact your MP and ask them to question the government about it and to point out what a waste of money it is.

You can find out who your MP is here: They Work For You

and you can easily contact your MP here: Write To Them

Bigbella - you should ask your MP to find out for you. TBH Clifton-Brown is a typical hooray, but he cares deeply for his constituents and seems to be an independant thinker. Perhaps you should ignore the party politics and vote for the MP that represents your beliefs the best?

Ilovemydog - this is from the BBC site:

'From November 2008 they will have to apply for "biometric residence permits" or "biometric visas" and their details will be entered into the national identity database. The government also wants all foreign nationals living in the UK to have identity cards and will make anyone applying to extend their stay register biometric details, from November 2008. The aim is that 90% of foreign nationals in the UK will have ID cards by 2015.'

Why do they want to spend this amount of money, that this country patently does not have lying around at the moment, on something that no-one needs or wants? I have a passport, it's always been perfectly acceptable as a form of indentification, why should I or anyone else have to pay for another form of ID? I wish they'd scrap the whole idea and spend the money on something useful.

It is odd that they haven't ever, as far as I know, said what we'll actually have to do with the bloody things. Weird.

Thanks callisto for the advice.

Ah, but I have indefinite leave to remain....

But will ring up the Home Office tomorrow and them know I'm still here and am confused about my identity

This site - Statebook - is well scary

Thank you callisto

I contacted my MP about this about 4 years ago - at the time it was John Redwood. Bit far to the right for my taste but he's a bloody good constituency MP and replied swiftly with a decent letter.

I haven't bothered with my current MP. It will all die a death when this govt gets booted.

I am, fundamentally, implacably opposed to ID cards and could argue about it all week. Sadly none of my friends give a shit and if I hear "if you haven't got anything to hide what's the problem?" once more I will stick my head in the oven.

have written to my mp, for those that think that just because they dont have/want a passport so wont be affected if they bring this in it will only be a matter of time before you need one to use the national health service, get your kids in to a school or just have to produce one if you are walking down the street.

I also remember reading that it was to be for foreign nationals - ie if you haven't got a British Passport/aren't a Citizen - so that would include those that have indefinite leave to remain (such as my DH)

I'm outraged at the cost but I WANT an ID card - I am fed up with having to cart around loads of documents to do something as simple as join the library or open a bank account. If I could have an ID card I'd be happy (as long as organisations had to accept it and couldn't ask for all the othe stuff, which is getting less anyway as you get bills etc online which you can't print off because they're not accepted by banks etc).

You already have to produce documents by law.

And can anyone tell me why you have to show your driving licence to the police within 7 days if your car gets stolen from/crashed into when parked outside your house (happened to a friend of mine in the middle of the night)? You don't need a licence to own a car.

Just thought that you'd all like to know that I heard back from Geoffrey Clifton-Brown yesterday. He tells me that the Conservatives are completely committed to scrapping ID cards and think that it is a ridiculous waste of money too. I have read that Cameron is also committed to scrapping Contact Point, the child's database that no-one in the country apart from a few Labour MP's think is a good idea.

So I shall be voting Tory next year as I feel that the erosion of our civil liberties is the single most important issue in the next election.

I thought they were likely to be scrapped anyway because there simply isn't the money to fund their implementation at the moment (one reason to thank bankers ). There was a lot in the papers last week around the budget with various Labour MPs calling for them to be scrapped and unnamed sources saying that they were likely to be a victim of cuts.

I know, but they are a pet project of GB's and you know his track record on changing his mind.

Yeah, he is a stubborn bugger but if the money's not there. I definitely got the impression from the newspaper reports that the government were sending signals that scrapping them was definitely on the cards - it just had that feel that journalists had been specifically briefed rather than that they were wildly speculating. Hope I'm right.

Not sure about the scrapping, there were a load of recruitment ads in the Sunday Times for roles within this project totally around £360,000 plus benefits. So the spending has already started and just placing those ads is expensive.

I wouldnt mind ID cards in britain if there was a real community, and real democracy. Traditionally, the british governement has left people alone, in return for giving them a worse quality of life than in france or germany. Now they're upsetting that balance by taking a tighter control over people, but I dont see any corresponding improvement in people's lives. Here in germany, we're burdened with rules and paperwork, but you can have a decent life with nice house, car, on one salary. You cant duck out of paying what you owe, but you're more likely to be able to afford it.

Even british people who live abroad, like us, are going to have to get these useless, expensive bits of plastic eventually if they keep pushing it through.

Well personally, I would far rather have a worse quality of life (thought this is very subjective - holes in roads don't bother me overly) and more personal freedom. It isn't about not paying ones dues, it is all about being controlled by a centralised power. The labour govt is a bit like a despotic third world leader - paranoid, controlling and corrupt.

Bigbella - no, we wouldn't have to carry them at all times.

But I think they're a dead duck. They've already been issued to some foreign nationals, but with government cash as tight as it is, and their poll ratings as low as they are, I really don't think they're going to do it this side of a general election.

Thanks josie.

If we don't have to carry them all the time though, what on earth is the point of having them?

I'm baffled.

You may well ask...

The government's answer is that since some terrorists had multiple identities, it would stop identity fraud, and would also act as a benefit-entitlement card.

They insist the cards would be fraud and duplicate proof as they would be biometric. Not everyone believes this is the case.

Some foreign nationals have already got them.

It is ridiculous that this money is to be wasted at such a time as this.

petition here if anyone wants to sign it. Sadly very few people have signed it so far. I have no idea whether these things make a difference but inaction certainly achieves nothing!

Will write to my MP as well. What a ludicrous waste of money on a ridiculous idea.

Consider it signed.

nothing i sign makes any difference i've decided