SANDRA LEADS LOCAL CALLS TO END ID CARDS

12.00.00am GMT Mon 14th Jan 2008

Local MP, Sandra Gidley, is backing calls for the government to abandon plans to make people carry identity cards.

Sandra decided to voice her concerns after Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg MP published figures showing that 37 million pieces of personal information on UK citizens were lost in 2007, mostly by the Government.

The law bringing in ID cards has already been passed by Labour and soon most citizens will have to pay for an identity card.

"The expensive identity cards scheme is based on the government storing large amounts of information about each one of us on a central database," said Sandra.

"But in 2007 the Government stumbled from one data loss crisis to another. The worst example came in November when the Government lost the personal details of all 25 million families with children. That has put the privacy of every family in our local area at risk.

"The dangers of putting so much information about every citizen in the UK into one central database are clear to everyone except, it seems, the Government. Ministers are in denial when they argue that the information will be safe and people's privacy will not be undermined.

"I am very pleased that our new leader, Nick Clegg, is leading the battle to end the ID cards scheme. Liberal Democrats across Southampton and Hampshire are right behind him. The plan to make everyone carry a piece of plastic should be buried before it ends up as another expensive government fiasco.

"The scheme will be a bureaucratic nightmare. It won't prevent illegal working. It won't help stop crime or terrorism. If the government really wants to make an impact on crime, terrorism and illegal immigration, the money it has earmarked for this scheme would be far better spent on more police and intelligence officers. That is what the Liberal Democrats would do."

ENDS