ID cards alert

Sir, The public should not, as you suggest, “relax about a privacy issue that, in contemporary card-carrying Britain, is entirely irrelevant” (leading article, Feb 13).

None of the cards we carry now is carried by compulsion. We carry them, by choice, to obtain things we want. We only require passports if we want to travel outside the UK, again a matter of choice.

We can and should debate the effectiveness of ID cards in combating crime and terrorism, but whatever benefits there may be can only be realised if it is compulsory to hold a card and to carry it at all times. The Government is perfectly aware of this and appears to anticipate a gradual move towards requiring citizens to hold and carry the card — a policy of compulsion by stealth. The moment compulsion is added a fundamental freedom is removed. To require us to carry an ID card whenever we leave our homes would change fundamentally the relationship between the individual and the State.