The BBC reports:

Home Secretary Alan Johnson has unveiled the final design of the controversial national identity card.

The card will be offered to members of the public in the Greater Manchester area from the end of this year.

Ministers plan to launch the £30 biometric ID Card nationwide in 2011 or 2012 – but it will not be compulsory.

NO2ID’s response is also reported:

No2ID, a national pressure group, is launching a counter-campaign across North-West England to derail the Home Office’s plan.

Dave Page, from the organisation, said: “Once you are on that database, you can never come off it.

“From the moment you’re registered you’ll have to tell the authorities of any change in your circumstances for the rest of your life – and pay whatever fees they ask for the ’service’.

“You’ll never know who’s looking at your details. It won’t protect our safety. It won’t be convenient – except for Whitehall. This scheme is an expensive and dangerous con.”

This entry was posted by andrew on Thursday, July 30th, 2009 at 14:25 and is filed under General, Neutral, UK News Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.