ID cards are one of those ideas that sounds great until you actually come to implement it, there are too many loopholes. The Program made by the BBC, which was extreemly funny as well as being a little unsettling just brought into the public eye something which has been going on for years. Until the various government agencies can get their house in order and recover the thousands of bogus birth certificates and drivers licences it really isn't worth introducing an ID card system.
That's just if I was in favour of ID cards. We already have Passports and Drivers licences with our mugs on them, we really do not need another layer of documentation to reinforce and prove who we really are. If they really want to spend 1.5 billion on it they should probably look into increasing security and background checks in the DVLA and passport agency and give a bit of it to the police earmaked directly for the recovery and prosecution of people holding and creating bogus/fake documentation.
CCTV is aother issue, It seems to work very well in certain high potential troublespots like city centres at pub chuck out time. IMHO, worth the 'infringment' on my 'liberty'
/rant
Don't get me started on sodding bastard student loans. Whole system must have been thought up by Ebineezer Scrooge. F***ing labour mizer bastards. I might even go for broke and vote for the Libs next time just because they seem to have a much more sensible student policy than anyone else. I'm on the old system too but it's seriously f***ing up quite a few of my mates lives just because they went to Uni a year after I did. Madness.
/rantoff
Gatso