No IDea why we need these

I was kind of hoping that the issue of ID cards would die once David Blunkett stepped down as Home Secretary, but that buffoon Charles Clarke has picked up the torch for this bureacratic nightmare from day one. Now we're being told that Britain is "crying out" for ID cards. Really? In what sense? How exactly? This whole policy is such a mess. Leaving aside the illiberal notion of everyone being "registered" in such a way it's also going to be incredibly expensive (six billion pounds) and difficult to enforce (it's not even going to be mandatory to carry them apparently so, really, what is the point?). And for what? Supposedly to crack down on benefit fraud and (oh yes, of course) TERRORISM! Because terrorists are deterred by such things aren't they? Spain has ID cards - did it stop them being victims of terrorist attack? No. Nor would it make any difference here and everyone knows it. Tony Blair is so determined that Labour be seen as the party of law and order he's going to push this one through no matter what the arguments. The majority of the country favours them (why?) and now we have a, frankly, bizarre situation where Michael Howard of all people is considering opposing them on libertarian grounds. Michael Howard!

Truly, the mind boggles.