[Red Moon]

The government plans to introduce ID cards but is this a good idea? Will they create as many problems as they solve?

The reasons used for the introduction of ID cards by the government include:

• Prevent illegal immigration
  
• Prevent illegal working
  
• Aid anti-terrorism measures
  
• Tackle identity theft
  
• Reduce benefit fraud and abuse of public services
  
• Enhance sense of community

While the people against ID cards believe:

• Lead to loss of privacy
  
• Be costly and impractical
  
• Worsen harassment of ethnic minorities
  
• Have little impact on counter-terrorism
  
• Have little effect on illegal working
  
• Lead to ‘function creep’ in that the cards would be used to store more and more data on the card holder than a simple ID

Do we really need ID cards or are the current ID systems like passports, driving licenses , National insurance numbers, etc good enough? Is this just another way of governments keeping track of what we do?