The government has spent six years trying to find a plausible reason to force everyone to have an ID card - it cannot (Roll up, roll up, get your voluntary ID cards here, editor.computing.co.uk). There are no good reasons.

This is a piece of control freakery by Whitehall civil servants who want to compile a national population register because it would be convenient for them, with no regard for the  monetary or constitutional costs to the country.

They are hypnotised by the prospect of the Home Office becoming the pre-eminent government department - eclipsing even the Treasury - by interposing itself in every transaction between the
citizen and government,  and many transactions  between the citizen and  private industry.

It is every Home Office mandarin's dream - we would all have to have civil service permission to access healthcare, banking services or even pick up a parcel at the post office.

Think I'm exaggerating? Read examples on the Home Office web site at www.identitycards.gov.uk. Centralising this level of control over our everyday lives is pure folly. The ID scheme must be scrapped, immediately.

Andrew Watson