No To ID Cards

I see that this ghastly government - will no-one rid us of this useless administration? - has decided that, in spite of a national debt of spectacular proportions, a borrowing requirement that is almost unimaginable and a string of problems that could stretch from Lands End to John O'Groats, they feel the need to press ahead and chuck more money down the drain by introducing ID cards. Not only am I utterly opposed to ID cards on principle but also I know that the benefits the government claims will accrue from their existence will turn out to be mere fantasy and that the cards will contribute nothing to providing solutions to the problems of terrorism and international crime. ID cards will do one thing and one thing only; they will provide the government and police with a digital record of all the people in this country. Forget the idea that they will be voluntary; possession will be mandatory and carrying them everywhere for proving who we are will become essential. The government will deny this but already in their test run in Manchester they are demanding that all pilots carry ID cards and MPs are to be asked to vote to make the carrying of the cards non-voluntary. The foundations of a police state are being reinforced. The police are now much disliked, distrusted and often despised and we have a government that has attacked civil liberties like no other since Magna Carta [Libertatum]. Their obsessive control freakery must be resisted at every step. Day after day they demonstrate their total contempt for this country and its people and address us with a patronising arrogance that is insufferable. I fully support the airline pilots who are refusing to co-operate. We should all do the same.

Many years ago, in 1964, Harold Wilson began his first term as prime minister. He told us that his government had many problems that had been left behind by "13 years of Tory misrule". In a year's time, the Tories will be able to say the same about Labour. But Harold Wilson's problems are a mere little local difficulty compared with the problems we have now. Can this nation be allowed to become Great Britain again?