A report in yesterday’s Sunday Times seems to indicate that Blunkett’s not going to have his way over ID cards. It seems that Jack Straw is particularly against them, as is Gordon Brown.
The problems are enormous, and yes, making people pay forty pounds would be seen as a tax. We already have National Insurance Numbers, and frankly that should be enough for getting services. And you just know that the computer system would takes years to set up, come in way over budget and be flawed.
Strangely, the Sunday Times comes out in favour of the cards. Apparently the little extra security they might offer negates everything else. This despite the 9/11 terrorists, for example, all being known about, when one of the strengths of the cards is supposed to be allowing the authorities to know about people in the first place.