Liberals Protest at ID Card Scheme to waste £20 Billions

Cllr Steve Radford
President of The Liberal Party
41 Sutton Street
Tuebrook
Liverpool
L13 7EG

0151 259 5935
07920090322

Dear Editor

A year and a half after steamrollering the Identity Cards Act through Parliament, and having already spent over £72 million of taxpayers' money*, the government has announced the beginning of its procurement process for the National Identity Scheme.

PA Consulting, the original 'development partner' for the ID programme, estimated in 2005 that the "development and procurement phases" of the project would cost £18.74 million. The (so far) quadrupling of this cost the government had first suggested.

This makes the LSE's £20 billion estimate for setting up the scheme look rather more accurate than the government's unsubstantiated figures. The LSE estimate the government first sought to suppress and then belittle

Without doubt £20 billions instead spent on extra police officers on the street would make a real difference to peoples lives and a sense of security,  however would do little to boost profits of Government IT contractors

We urge readers write to their MP's demanding the money be spent on read security measures not a back door surveillance schemer to snoop and track the vast majority of honest residents.

We have already seen this government abuse anti -terrorism laws to harass peaceful climate protestors, just a sign of what we can expect the ID scheme to be really used for.

Cllr Steve Radford
President of The Liberal Party