AS WE approach the general election, readers should be aware the government's plans for identity cards and systematic tracking of everyone are still very much a threat.

The Home Office admits that ID cards are not the solution to fraud,

illegal immigration or terrorism. Identity cards haven't prevented these things in other countries and they won't here. But it still wants them for bureaucratic convenience.

Everyone will be numbered, fingerprinted and have their eyes scanned. You and your family will be treated like criminal suspects.

You will report where you live, and when you move, or be fined.

The point isn't a little plastic card but the giant database. All driving, social security, tax, employment and health records will bear the number, making secret computer searches easy for bureaucrats, and will compromise privacy.

You will be held responsible for any errors, even those made by officials. When the computers break down, as inevitably they will, then it could be your life on the line.

ID cards will cost us dearly. It's not only the billions of pounds of taxpayers' money wasted on the scheme and diverted from providing real services, and not only the identity tax of at least £250 per household, but in the profound changes to our way of life.

Ian Oliver,

No2ID Campaign (Yorks and Humber),

Woodlea,

Foxhill Crescent, Weetwood, Leeds.

Updated: 11:24 Wednesday, March 23, 2005