My paranoia radar is going off the scale because of this, this and this.

Three posts from bloggers who really should know better on the subject of the recent vote on Identity Cards.

I've not been very interested in the whole issue, so I decided this morning to have a little dig around. I've cast my increasingly bored eye over NO2ID and the draft legislation (That's a link to the PDF file, by the way) in order to get an appreciation of what the main issues are.

This is what I've deduced:

NO2ID is full of exaggerations. In its FAQ's it states the national ID database will hold over 50 different pieces of information on you. In reality, while this is true from a certain point of view, it breaks down to this: Name, Address, Biometric Identification, NI number, Passport number, immigration status and the histories thereof. Big deal. Sainsbury's knows more about me. Sainsbury's has a comprehensive list of everything I've bought, every store I've visited and how much I've spent going back at least three years. It has the capacity to log every item I've bought from every one of a dozen different shops and every time I use my Barclaycard. You can't do that with an ID card. You can't build a comprehensive list of where I've been and what I've done with an ID card. You can with a Nectar card. You wanna be scared? Be scared of that!

So it's not illegal to refuse to carry a Nectar card. Let me ask you this. How many times a day do you seriously think you're going to have to produce your ID card? Does anyone out there seriously think the police are going to bust your door down, or stop EVERYONE they pass and ask them to produce their cards on a daily basis? Get real! The majority of people in this country, and I'm talking scores of millions of people, will NEVER.....EVER.......EVER be asked to produce their cards, and therefore will never NEED one, therefore will never GET one!

The only difference between the information on your ID card and the information you need to hold a credit card, driving licence, passport or loyalty card is the iris scan and fingerprint. Do you realise that? Do you realise that your fingerprints are quite possibly on record anyway? Ever have the police come to your school and show you the fingerprinting kit? ever had your place dusted for prints after a burglary? Your dabs are on record.

Consider how many different cards you carry around with you anyway. Consider the process that happens every time you put your signature on on a credit card stub, or enter your pin at the checkout. Consider how much your cards cost you every year in bank charges.

Paranoia and scaremongering may be wonderful tools for building impressively scary websites, bugging the Government for the sake of "sticking it to The Man" or writing outrageously overblown essays on personal freedom, but please guys, take a few minutes to look at the thing with a touch of pragmatism, a pinch of realism and a hefty dose of cynicism.

No-one's going to GET an ID card anytime soon. No-one you know will ever be asked to produce their ID card, no-one you know will ever be prosecuted for not having an ID card.

The vote in favour of ID cards was nothing more or less than a sympathy vote for Blunkett, one of their own, sacrificed on the bloody, gore splattered altar of the media witch-hunt.

Guys, you're being pathetic. This kneejerk reaction whould be above you. You've all got more brains than to be dragged in by the anti-ID card hype and hysteria. Stop wearing your dissent on your sleeves, grow up and start living in the real world. You seem to have missed the most obvious truth in the world when writing about Parliament.

The truth is this:

You think they're our elected representatives, sent to represent our views in the hallowed halls of Democracy.

You couldn't be more wrong.

They're there to suckle on the teats of the poowerful.

They're there to take advantage of whores and expense accounts.

They're there because they're the most convincing liars, the best at covering their tracks and they've blackmailed the most amount of influential people.

The people we elect to run this country are the people least fit to do the job.

Remember that the next time you get a fit of indignation at the latest crap they come out with. They're all self-serving, power hungry, corrupt pen pushers and I defy anyone to prove me wrong.

Ignore them and get on with running round on your little corporate hamster wheels.