Bruno, the card is a red herring. The meat in this meal is the database. And that is more than a picture and a name. Read the document: it will have my name, photo, all ten fingerprints, other unspecified biometric data, financial details, personal specifics, addresses, everything. Every last piece of data they can wring out of me, they want it all in one place.

And not only the 'authority' of the government can demand the card, and the database access it permits. Banks, employers, even retailers will, the document suggests, be able to ask for your ID card or refuse your account / employment / sale.

Constitution forbids the exchange of information between government departments? Maybe over there, but even if we in Britain had a written constitution, which we don't, I don't think for a second that that would stop the sharing of information. Our government encourages it, eg: UK Government Knowledge Network.

Privacy is its own end, and even that is not the sum total of this issue: The imposition and mandating of an ID card is the government stating that without their permission, I am nothing.

Which, I might add, I am not.

So you, my government, who lose and sell what little data you already have, want to put my name and all my details on a database, and want me to trust you will do the right thing? After all the lies and corruption, scandal and conspiracy that is the news every day?

"Oh, don't worry, it won't be mandatory. You'll only really need it if you want to travel abroad. Or get a job. Or have a bank account. Or visit the doctor. Or collect your pension. You see, it is completely voluntary!!"

Mirrored here:
www.phillsmiff.com/NIS_Options_Analysis_Outcome.pdf
www.sushidesign.net/NIS_Options_Analysis_Outcome.pdf