The new ID cards introduced by this Government will be hitting the shops in just over two weeks and will be on sale for the price of £30.

The total cost of ID cards will be £5billion, however the London school of Economics estimate the cost to be much higher at between £10bn and £20bn. So far the Government says it has spent £216million on the scheme, one that both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats say they would swiftly drop if they were to win the next General election.

UK Shadow Immigration Minister,  Damian Green, said yesterday that he thought the scheme ‘ridiculous’ and continued that his party see it as a total waste of money.

“I would advise anyone in Manchester not to bother wasting £30 on an identity card as a Conservative government would scrap this expensive, intrusive and unworkable scheme. The Government shouldn’t hoodwink anyone in Manchester that there are benefits to this card.”

Defenders of ID cards cite the fact that many people still go to clubs and pubs with their passports to prove they are of a legal age to consume alcohol, they say that the cost of this card, at £30, pales in significance when compared to replacing a passport at £77.70. Perhaps indicative of this country’s blasé approach to binge drinking, Meg Hillier, Home Office Minister, states that “People often take their passports to prove their identity, going to nightclubs and bars and the Passport Service sweeps these up every week.”

No mention is however made to the driving licence, this useful form of ID can be used for exactly the same purpose and is the same size as the new ID cards, it is however at the more luxurious end of forms of ID, costing £50, although it does have the benefit that you can use it to drive legally, a very helpful added feature, especially in Manchester.

The only apparent benefit to the new cards is that they can be used for travel within Europe, this allows passengers to travel without their passports, again a very dubious advantage considering carrying a passport is not akin to lugging an extra suitcase with you on your journey, and in the scale of travelling to another country is not to dissimilar in size to the new ID card.

UK immigration say the cards are of course biometric, meaning they hold fingerprints and an encrypted photo, this means that they will increase national security, however, when introduced nationwide in 2011 or 2012, they will not be compulsory. So the increases in ‘national security’ statements are presuming a mass mania of people viewing ID cards as the next must-have, similar to iPods except not as cool or no way as useful.

The new ID cards features explained