If possible ID cards just got scarier

Plans are afoot to make the ID card all singing all dancing, the current enormously popular cards,(yes folks 7,000 people have taken them up) are scary (but mainly because of the database),

Existing British citizen ID cards are designed to simply verify someone's identity using a government issued card reader, a device which reads the biographic information and the digital photo and two fingerprints stored on the ID card's embedded RFID chip, and allows an official to check those details against the person presenting the card.

But a new card planned for 2012 looks a whole new kettle of summat,

Identity and Passport Service (IPS) are fitting the new cards with a chip that would include the EMV technology standard that underpins chip and PIN transactions in UK credit and debit cards or a digital encryption and signature capability.

Thus shopping, benefits etc could be accessed (read only accessed) by those with cards. At a distance the Identity Minister Meg Hillier, is looking at Belgium with rather large eyes,

"Belgium is one country that leads the way - it [the Belgian ID card] has links to the health service and employment and remote voting," she said.

Yes folks. Employment... Voting....

Oh boy, now why would the Government want to decide whether or how you could do those things?

Tell you what, stopping these things is becoming a serious moral duty. Good thing UKIP opposes the ID cards themselves and the great National Identity Register.