A sa friend of mine who was based at both Gatwick and Heathrow told me..."You want to see how illegalk immigrants are smuggled in at Heathrow. The service people with an airside pass get into the restricted areas with spare clothing. The illegals wait until the aircraft's crew is off, come out of hiding, get dressed up as an airport worker and in five minutes, they are in Britain without passign through any customs check.

The ID card is good going one way but when it isn't checked both ways, what's the point of it?

should be the MPs themselves... surely...

I worked for BAA at Heathrow and their other sites for 7 years; they already have a highly regimented ID card system - all airport workers are required to have one. So where's the mileage in foisting another card onto these people?

If the Government think there's a problem with the integrity of BAA's system in relation to aiport security (if they believe the tabloid expose's), wouldn't they be better off legislating to force BAA to tighten their policies and implementation at BAA's expense?

But I guess

Paris? - coz I wouldn't mind her check-in-g my bags!

Or do they just mean the low paid buggers who have to take what's thrust upon them?

can be measured thus; if I have a valid ID card can I walk onto an airplane without all the rigmarole in place at the moment? If the answer is no then the scheme is useless.

Doe their pig-headedness know no limits? Their own statistics claim that 40% of the population would resist ID cards (but they spin it as 60% in favour, natch).

The figures they released before that said 30% would resist so the number of people they will need to arrest is going to be getting close to half the population by the time they bring them in. Their only real hope is if they can manage to stay in power continuously for about the next 60 years so that they can phase them in as all us refuseniks die off.

Change of contracts would be required to incorporate these new T&Cs.

So suitably unpleasant choice for any pro civil liberties and freedom airline staff of following their principles of losing their job (doubtless with paltry compensation if you do not accept new contract as an extra stick to beat them into ID card acceptance)

If we work on the assumption that someone wants to do something suicide bomb style to an aircraft / at the airport then their key obstacle is bringing in bomb components and assembling them and activating the bomb.

ID card is no obstacle as, assuming they are suitably off the "intelligence" radar to begin with then they will get their card, and so just become a future suicide bomber with an ID card.

...the Home Office says ID cards are going to be compulsory for people employed in sensitive areas such as airports; all they need to do then is embrace and extend the definition of 'sensitive'.

Work with children? What could be more important than our children? So you'll need an ID card. Work in a hospital? We need to check you aren't a psychopath (there'll be a check-box on the ID card application form where you can say if you're mad). Work in Starbucks? Have you thought of the damage a terrorist could unleash with a poisoned hazelnut latte? ID card please.

Soon the only people who won't need to account for each and every movement will be MPs.

... after yet another breach of security in Parliment, wouldn't MPs themselves be the best first group to get them if they are going to make everything so secure. That way they can spin the whole "we've got them and they're great" line.

Are Labour trying to lose the next General Election?

They will if they insist on ID cards.

Brown, Darling, Smith. What a disaster.

For heavens sake, we all KNOW it's nothing to do with security, as the real danger lies with people who WOULD HAVE CARDS, and because visitors won't have them anyway. It is simply a nu labour big willie contest, and replaces any real policies for improving the economy or tackling more serious issues. Rememeber that Labour burned up all its half-good people up in their first parliament, used the second raters next, and is now run by the failures. Time they went away.

This morning the BBC are running the story that the cards will first be introduced for airline staff and non EU immigrants, followed by students(!) and people working with Children. From what the BBC news reported on the radio this morning the majority of people who vote won't be expected to have one till after the next election. Funny that eh!?!

Agree with the posters who suggest the MPs have them first.

why haven't they been made compulsory in Iraq and Afgahnistan?

"Are Labour trying to lose the next General Election? They will if they insist on ID cards."

They don't need to try. The question is not whether they're going to lose; it's how big their drubbing will be. Trust in ZanuLabour is at an all-time low; very much like the last couple of years of John Major's government. If Gordy announced tomorrow that he was going to leave the EU, abolish income tax, hang every illegal immigrant found and issue law-abiding citizens with AK47s and yob hunting permits, he would still attract the same level of suspicion and dislike he does now.

In the meantime, all they can hope for is to waste enough money on this half-arsed scheme to persuade the next government to try to salvage something from the mess. It would be nice to be sure that won't happen - but the chances are the next PM will be Tory Blair, so I'm not holding my breath.

Students are expected to have them on a voluntary basis from 2010....

This whole thing smacks of - we realise now that its a stupid idea, but we dont want to lose face by canning it. So lets stretch it out until we lose an election then the next lot can quietly bin it. Then we can blame them for not implementing it. Win, win. Triples all round.....

Taxpayers? Cannon fodder........

How many times does a government need to be told that the public, generally speaking, does not want to be tagged and monitored by the State in some old Eastern European style ? That this is supposed to be a free western "democracy" ? Will these tyrant wannabes never take heed ?

Today the airport workers, tomorrow some other group. And so on.

How else are we going to stop those pesky terrarists?

If we'd had them before 7/7 they have been stopped immediately, they'd have had to use their valid ID cards getting on the train and the super sentient system would have gone "Leeds to London? Asian? TERRARIST!! TERRARIST!!" and we'd all have been safe and sound

The system might even have been able to turn on some of the hundreds of CCTV cameras they passed so we could get just one picture of them together in focus

We could then have popped them all in orange jumpsuits and sent them off to a 1st world military junta to have their lungs hosed

If ID cards were made compulsory for all sales we could look for suspicious activity like purchasing hair bleach and chapatti flour or buying propane and matches

As for those of you saying MPs should have them first...

Our MPs don't want them as that way they get to stand proud and aloof, shunning the protection of a plastic card like the He-men and women they are.

Oh no these brave men and women are setting aside their rights for plastic protection so that the needy can have it first. They will go alone into the breach protected only by their wits, professional body guards, lines of policemen and Plexiglas. God bless 'em

So give me my card, tag my ear and let their be no more talk of DVDs in the post or expensive solutions looking for a problem

So they're first going to force ID cards on foreigners only ?

When asked to produce the card Johnny simply has to reply "I don't have an ID card, therefore I must be a British national!"

The logic is...well illogical

I still cherish the story I read a few years back about the old Dutch lady who was asked by police for her identity card. Rummaging in her handbag, she eventually brought forth an ancient, dog-eared piece of cardboard covered with Gothic print and with a large yellow star prominently displayed. "Is this what you mean?" she asked. On seeing which, the officials suddenly found that they had more pressing matters to attend to.

I'm just waiting till they start coming up with RFID tags implanted in your arm (or other body location)

I long for the day when the government has the ability to track you through every door and any tom, dick or harry can steal your ID with nothing more than a PDA/Smartphone in his pocket while he walks past you in the street. Then suddenly there's 10 of me working in 10 different locations (probably with the home office) and 100 bank account all owing 10 grand a piece. And being told this just before they give me a free orange suit and whisked away on a free holiday in a sunny location with free water boarding lessons - how grand it will be! :-)

Apparently students are going to be amongst the first victims of ID cards. It appears Smith views them as a soft target who will be easy to persuade.

Either students are a *lot* more docile than they were when I was at uni (some 15 years ago), or Smith is even more clueless than she looks.

This is exactly how Labour will force EVERYONE to have ID cards.

As Glyn suggests some illegal immigrants when asked to produce the card will claim to be British and hence will slip through the ID net.

As Labour have decided to start with "NON-EU" immigrants (or let's face it, non-white immigrants which is what the term largely means) the numbers of black/asian British people stopped and hassled for ID once this is in place is likely to be significant (all in the name of "secure borders" of course).

To be *seen to be* sensitive to ethnic minorities who are getting tired of getting stopped and checked for ID every 5 minutes even though they and their parents were born here something will have to be done to stop this racial inequality and then we will ALL be forced to have ID cards. Labour appear sensitive to racial minorities and Gordon Brown can carry on crowing about British jobs for British people, Britishness and why immigrants from the commonwealth MUST speak English.

The fact that the unwanted, unpopular ID card has been later foisted on everyone can be made to be seen with the help of the British media as not the government's fault but of those evil sponging illegal immigrants - just wait for screaming headlines in the Mail/Express/Sun etc that illegal immigrants are claiming to be British to avoid ID checks.

A lot of ignorant people in this country will then actually support ID cards even if they lose freedoms as their hatred of any kind of immigrant will outweigh their British sense of liberty.

Mine's the one with the judenstern on the front and the Aussie visa application forms in the pocket ....

So your friend showed you how immigrants get into the country at Heathrow and Gatwick?

Have you and your friend actually bothered to report this?

ID cards are about protecting government taxation levels in the near future (15-25 years out) as money washes around the Internet.

Without taxation, there is no government obviously.

"Terrorism" is just the excuse du jour.

There was a brief glimpse of this in Bedfordshire about 24 months ago, where an experiment was planned and everyone was to have an ID card.

It was compulsory to the point where they even threatened to roll up to your house in a van and "process" you if you didn't comply.

The card was to be used (again compulsory) in all transactions, trips etc

They are building an automated taxpayer tracking system to protect their income.

Tinfoil hat; I've got a tinfoil codpiece too!

I see Jacqui Smith claims that no one will have to carry their ID card with them, as people will not be asked for them in the street.

So exactly what good will they be?

Who cares whether one has to produce a little piece of plastic, when the whole National Identity Register is available online?

ooFie: "I'm just waiting till they start coming up with RFID tags implanted in your arm (or other body location)"

Surely you mean right hand or head ;o)

They probably are soft targets. From my experiences over the last few years, on average they're probably even more gullible and docile than society in general.

As proven by Dutch Crime reporter Alberto Stegeman last month the mandatory ID cards that employees of Schiphol Airport and their contractors are wearing and have to be showed individually just don't work (perfectly).

He managed to smuggle a fake bomb on board of a plane and more then just that. it was a big schandal and the Dutch government asked questions in parliament about this. Let's say that shit hit the fan and now it's all being audited again etc etc. ID cards are fine, and will work if every single is individually checked at the gate..and that is how the cookie crumbles....it costs to much time, people get anoyed etc etc so it just doesnt happen correctly. Daxxx C