ID cards should be no big deal

SO the Home Secretary David Blunkett wants us all to have identity cards. It's an idea that is clearly giving some people the jitters. As far as I am concerned -- where do I join the queue?

If it's up for discussion I, for one, am in favour.

For me it will be the second time around. I had an ID card during the Second World War -- and I still have it. Obviously in those dark, far-off days it was for national security. Now it looks like we're being invaded for a second time, it's probably a good idea to reintroduce them.

So far they're dressing it up as an "entitlement card," a kind of smart card giving access to services, benefits and health care.

Clearly it would have many other uses and can contain, via a biometric chip, identifying information, even your fingerprints. In these days of open European borders and with the EEC scheduled to expand I think such a safeguard is needed.

I have a couple of provisos. I want a settling-in period so that any agency charged with creating and making records of the cards has room to get over the inevitable screw-ups, if such agencies run true to form. After all we don't want elderly people being denied health care just because someone's got their ID details mixed up.

And I wouldn't like people being hauled off to the police station if they happen to leave their card at home -- as happens in France.

There's also a more personal reason for wanting a card. If my brain cells start to dissipate at least I'll know who I am! Don't laugh, I know a couple of old soldiers who not only no longer recognise their wives, they don't even know who they are.

"Unacceptable and wrong in principle," I hear the libertarians cry. "An infringement of our liberties. A waste of time and of OUR money." They see a sinister agenda in the Government's mind and condemn it as one more step towards George Orwell's Big Brother state. As if CCTV cameras on every corner don't keep an eye on us already.

But I think in these days of terrorism, illegal immigration and massive benefit fraud, which is costing honest taxpayers millions, it's the only sensible way to go. I do agree that it's a waste of time if we don't make carrying them compulsory.

Smart cards, proving identity, are already in wide use among many organisations in the south. And we all have them in one guise or another. Today you can rarely offer a cheque without the back-up of a Smart card -- your banker's card. And how often are you asked to prove your identity with a driving licence, passport or recent household bill?

Just try opening a bank account for current use or savings for example. An ID card could easily replace all these demanded forms of identification. For some time driving licences have only been issued bearing the holder's photograph. An identity card would replace many of these and provide smoother access to many other services.

It has often been pointed out that if you've nothing to hide then you've nothing to fear from having to carry an ID card and I'm sure many ordinary people feel that. Undoubtedly, with so many newcomers, the need to identify people properly is a growing problem in this country.

In addition, the fraudulent use of identities is growing at an alarming rate and only a measure of this sort will help to stop it. The theft of passports and credit card information is already big business in the criminal world and if eyeball recognition technology is built into the ID chip then it will be another valuable tool for law enforcement agencies.

The French didn't abandon the ID card system at the war's end as we did and so have experience of ID cards going back 60 years. You don't hear much of an outcry about abuses of the system from across the channel.

But you do hear French government officials point to the lack of cards in Britain as an encouragement to asylum seekers and economic migrants. The criminal smuggling gangs know this only too well.

Perhaps for this reason alone we ought to have 'em. The sooner the better.