At the moment, I suspect most of the public, apart from the cost, looks upon the advent of ID cards as something which could prove useful and save all that scratching around to produce a variety of papers and documents every time a house move takes place, a financial need arises or even a special holiday requires the family to have over £1,000 of spending money.

However, behind the disarming comment of "all those who abide by the law have nothing to fear" lies the obsession of the Home Office's background agenda that control is best obtained by knowledge of every UK resident (of three months or more).

The public probably already feels some unease on the determination to centralise all NHS records, with private matters between doctor and patient no longer being confined to each practice.

This database, if it can cope in the first place, will surely have a space ready for ID number against each name.

It will, of course, be deemed "advisable" that every employer, bank, credit card provider, estate agent, solicitor and so on, view the ID card to identify the customer and they will be required to maintain a list of all such records in ID card order, which may well need to be "registered" with a Home Office department.

This means that if any UK resident is, rightly or wrongly, suspected of acting against the law or perhaps against the Government, protestors included, then full profile details can be obtained covering every facet of each UK resident, with the further requirement "in the national interest", of course, that bank transactions are frozen and every action monitored.

If this is all sounding a bit far-fetched, watch with care the progress on this subject. It is paradoxical, perhaps, that the safeguard for the UK resident is the House of Lords, which will fight, if necessary, for the freedom of privacy.

* note The Argus reported that Brighton Labour MPs have voted in favour of this Bill and since this matter was indeed on the Labour Manifesto, one is tempted to say "and so they should".

But hopefully, it was with the belief it will be favourable to the inhabitants of this country and that the follow-on "snoopers' charter" will cause those MPs to think carefully before further voting.

I hope this rather dire letter encourages UK residents to follow the debates and see if the law is left to the courts, or whether all matters are kept in Government control - similar to the arrest and detention without charge or trial

"in the national interest" - such a convenient phrase.

-Rupert J Shoolbred, Seaford