ID cards: Ł300 for a snooper's card!

THE GOVERNMENT'S plans for compulsory identity (ID) cards are an attack on our democratic rights. The scheme could lead to more harassment of innocent people, more snooping by state authorities and more rationing of public services.

But the problem that could possibly bring these plans tumbling to the ground, for a while at least, is the cost. Last week the government estimated that an ID card could cost Ł88. That was on the basis of a total expense for the ID scheme of Ł5.5 billion.

During the week, the cost of both the scheme and the cards showed an inflation rate that would have lost Gordon Brown his job if it had happened in the economy as a whole.

The price went up to Ł100, then to an incredible Ł300 per person. That last figure was based on an LSE report that said the scheme's true cost would be between Ł12 billion and Ł18 billion, three times as high as previously thought.

If the government still insists that the ID scheme should be self-financing, the average cost of a card could be as high as Ł300 for every adult.

The report also says that the biometric card-readers needed to scan these cards could cost Ł3,000 to Ł4,000 per unit, (the government thought they'd cost Ł250-Ł750).

The report's writers also think the government underestimate the cost of re-scanning every five years and of keeping tabs on changing circumstances. And, the researchers ask, what about 'refuseniks'? Plenty of people will refuse to waste good money on a worthless scheme that is more likely to increase 'identity crime' - through a spiralling market in forgeries - than to stop it.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke may try to bring in changes to make ID cards less unpalatable. But the scheme's astronomical cost could prove its biggest weakness.

Why not click here to join the Socialist Party, or click here to donate to the Socialist Party.

In The Socialist 2 June 2005:

Say no to the bosses' profit system