ID cards are threat to our birthrights
George Orwell may have been out by a few years with his prediction of a Big Brother state in 1984, but the proposed "passport application centres" are closer than many realise to the "processing centres" made infamous by extremist regimes past and present, notably those of pre- and post-war Europe.
The centre in Shrewsbury will bring us one step nearer to Orwell's nightmare.
True it may provide, as the Home Office says, "a handful of jobs", but these will probably be jobs for civil servants seconded to Shrewsbury, not for local people.
We will pay the real price with our birthright.
The ID card and its database mean that our right to declare only name, rank and serial number will be gone, in the extreme this could lead to our freedom going the same way.
Inevitably the ID card will become the identification means of choice, but it's not just a card, it's access to your database details.
Many organisations will have access in order to verify your authenticity.
Each time a check is made the database is notified when the card is used, creating a trail of your movements, characterising your habits, lifestyle and more worryingly, your problems.
"If you've done nothing wrong, you've got nothing to hide", is the popular mantra.
But not all damaging information concerns the security of the realm.
Instead, it might be the security of your family, your marriage perhaps - those secrets and white lies that currently remain hidden will be recorded and periodically exposed for the unwary to stumble across, or perhaps go looking for.
A concerned citizen, Shrewsbury
