"INSTEAD of wasting hundreds of millions of pounds on compulsory ID cards as the Tory right demand, let that money provide thousands more police officers on the beat in our local communities."
It's just 12 years since Tony Blair, the then Leader of the Opposition, made his impassioned speech against ID cards from the Labour conference platform in Brighton.
But Mr Blair has undergone a U-turn on the subject, placing ID cards at the heart of New Labour's approach to law and order.
Home Secretary John Reid yesterday outlined the shape the ID card scheme will take and said anyone who had given the issue serious consideration could not possibly oppose the idea.
He said: "No one who opposes introduction of identity management can truly claim to treat these subjects as seriously as they claim to do."
Under the Government's proposals, ID cards will be linked to a national registry, a database to be made up of information culled from the Department for Work and Pensions, the Home Office and the immigration and passport service.
The National Identity Register was originally to have been built entirely from scratch, to avoid duplicating errors in existing files.
The Home Secretary defended the change in tack. He said: "Doing something sensible is not necessarily a U-turn.
"We have decided it is lower risk, more efficient and faster to take the infrastructure that already exists, although the data will be drawn from other sources."
Next year will see the creation of 69 regional offices for citizens to supply their biometric details – such as finger and iris prints – for the cards.
Some of these could be provided by the private sector, the Home Office document suggests.
Yesterday's report rejects claims the ID scheme could cost the taxpayer up to £20billion, suggesting a figure of £5.4billion over the next decade.
New legislation will be necessary before carrying a card can be made compulsory – but some foreign nationals will be required to register for biometric details as early as next year, with the first "voluntary" ID cards issued alongside passports from 2009.
Mr Reid said that a national identity scheme would help secure Britain's borders, tackle illegal immigration, reduce fraud, fight crime and terrorism, and improve protection for children and for other vulnerable people.
Civil liberties pressure group Liberty has accused the Government of constantly changing its argument.
Director Shami Chakrabarti said: "Excuses for ID cards are like a many-headed Hydra, shoot one down and another one pops up, including everything from illegal immigration to anti-terrorism, no doubt at some point ID cards will be the cure to obesity and global warming as well.
"At a low estimate of £5.4billion, this white elephant is as dangerous to our privacy as our purses. Any prudent Prime Minister would think again."


ID cards – the arguments

SUPPORTERS of a national ID scheme argue cards will provide an easy-to-use and extremely secure system of personal identification for all adults living in the UK.
Each ID card will be unique and will combine the cardholder's biometric data – unique personal characteristics, such as fingerprints and irises – with their checked and confirmed identity details, called a biographical footprint, such as name, date of birth and address.
These identity details and biometrics will be stored on the National Identity Register (NIR). Only basic identity information will be held in a chip on the card itself.
Through the scheme, which will be run by the Identity and Passport Service (IPS), accredited organisations will be able – with your permission – to use your ID card and the register to check your identity.
Each card will also have its own Identity Registration Number (IRN), printed on the card and Personal Identification Number (PIN).
The National Identity Register (NIR) will be a highly-secure database holding personal identity information and biometric data.
Medical records, tax and benefits information and other Government records will not be in the NIR.
Biometric data is held both on the card and in the National Identity Register. A criminal may steal your card, but your unique biometric data cannot be taken from you.
Anyone trying to make a major financial transaction, for example, would have their biometric data checked against that held in the NIR. If they were not the registered cardholder this check would fail.
Opponents of the scheme argue that it represents an unprecedented – and entirely unwarranted – attack on the freedom of the individual and his or her right to privacy.
Files will build up a profile of a card holder's life – their driving and criminal records, hospital and doctor's visits, phone and Internet use, credit card and mortgage applications, and even children's schools.
Mundane transactions such as paying to have a car unclamped, getting a prescription or even a library card will be recorded.
It is argued that the Government is placing its faith in untried technology with a high risk of failure and that collecting so much information in one place will make identity fraud more likely.
Opponents point to more than 2,500 innocent people wrongly labelled by the Government's own Criminal Records Office.


Too much information

PLANS for an identity scheme got a mixed reception from shoppers braving the Christmas rush in Sunderland's The Bridges – especially when they learned they would have to pay for a card.
James Murray, 53, from Hetton, was in no doubt about the plan.
"I think it is a load of rubbish. I don't believe in it," said James, who is on long-term sickness.
"I don't want a card and I certainly would not want to pay for one."
Council worker Emma Lillie, from Fulwell, was equally unimpressed.
The 23-year-old said: "I carry other cards with me already, so that would not worry me.
"But I would not like the idea of people being able to access so much information from one place.
"If anybody hacked into that, it would increase the risk of identity fraud, rather than reduce it."
But former city councillor Alan Waistell had no problems with the prospect of carrying a card.
"I am old enough to remember carrying a card during the war," said 77-year-old Alan, from South Hylton.
"I remember the same arguments being used when CCTV cameras first came in, but now we take them for granted."



IDENTITY FRAUD
FOR: The "biographical footprint" check will make it extremely difficult to register with the National Identity Scheme under a false identity, and it will not allow people to register more than once.
AGAINST: IT providers find that identity systems work best when limited in design. The Home Office scheme combines untested technologies on an unparalleled scale.
Not all biometrics will work for all people. Plenty are missing digits, or eyes, or have physical conditions that render one or more biometrics unstable or hard to read.

SECURITY AND CRIME
FOR: The scheme will help the security services in investigations into organised crime and terrorist activities and help protect the UK against threats to national security. While the National Identity Scheme cannot prevent terrorism, it can make it far more difficult for terrorists to conceal their identity.
The scheme can also be used by the police and security services for identification. For example, fingerprints that do not match existing police records could be identified by searching for a match on the National Identity Register.
AGAINST: Competent criminals and terrorists will be able to subvert the identity system.
Random outrages by individuals cannot be stopped – ID cards would not have prevented the July 7 bombings and did not prevent the Madrid train attacks.
Research suggests no link between use of identity cards and prevalence of terrorism, and an identity card system has never been shown to be a deterrent to terrorist activity.

IMMIGRATION
FOR: The National Identity Scheme will help employers find out about the immigration status of job applicants and any visa restrictions, which mean they cannot legally work in the UK.
There are an estimated 430,000 illegal migrants living in the UK and employers have no reliable way of establishing whether or not a job applicant has a right to work here.
AGAINST: People will still enter Britain using foreign documents – genuine or forged – and ID cards offer no more deterrent to people smugglers than passports and visas. Employers already face substantial penalties for failing to obtain proof of entitlement to work.

BENEFIT FRAUD
FOR: The National Identity Scheme will provide an easy and reliable way for people to prove their identity and thereby their entitlement to services and benefits. The Department for Work and Pensions estimates that between £20million and £50million of identity-related benefit fraud is committed each year in the UK.
AGAINST: Identity-related fraud makes up only a tiny fraction of the problem in the benefits system. Even the upper figure of £50million represents just 2.5 per cent of the estimated £2billion a year in fraudulent claims.