Race watchdog warns on ID cards
Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, has warned the Home Affairs Select Committee that plans for national identity cards could increase the risk of police officers picking on people from ethnic minorities.
Mr Phillips said Muslims might be among those who could feel the cards were another way of picking on a particular community.
“That is really the problem here,” he said. “There is a disjunction between what might be true and what people feel to be true.
“Our concern is what people feel might be true could have an impact on community relations.”
The BBC NEWS article also mentions the British Medical Association’s concerns that “the bureaucratic costs to the NHS of checking ID cards could outweigh the cash benefits”.
