Sleep-walking into Totalitarianism

Well the bill got through, but the war's not over. Annoyingly there were enough abstentions by Labour MPs to kill it at this stage, but so it goes. I'm continuing to send out letters - even to the "aye" Jowell. My main focus at the moment is the way in which it is being suggested the cards will only cost £30, and the possibility, as mentioned below, that the marked up passports are there to pay for the unnecessary NIR.

First up, to Tony Blair:

"Given that the required biometric passports do not require a National ID Register to back it up, and that the treasury has refused to fund it, the NIR will presumably be paid for by the 'less than £30' per ID card. Given the alarming cost of the less ambitious NHS database scheme, how do you expect a budget of £1.8 billion to cover the creation and implementation of the NIR and pay for the production of the ID cards themselves?"

I sent this through the website, but naturally he's a busy man, so I might send this by other means also. I've decided to start writing letters to newspapers also.