Dear Editor,

Would someone please explain to me why there is any need for ID cards ("Cabinet leak exposes conflict on ID cards")?

Since they are inconvenient and, despite all precautions, can still be lost, stolen, forged and misused.

Surely, what we really need is a "Voluntary National Database of Personal Identity Files", including a recent photograph and at least one biometric tag (iris or fingerprint scan, DNA profile) linking it incontrovertibly to its owner, who would be free to create and edit the file themselves online via a secure internet connection, either from their own PC or at the local library. Government would have the task of managing and securing the database and verifying the information provided.

Identity checks will simply require you to look into an iris scanner or lay your hand on a fingerprint scanner. The authority conducting the check will be provided with the information they are authorised for.

Eventually the system may have to be compulsory, but initially, establishing the database on a voluntary basis will save a lot of time and arguments. It will also provide experience, from which lessons can be learned and adaptations made. As the usefulness VNDPIF becomes more and more apparent, increasing numbers of people will be attracted to participate.

I envisage people's fear of participating turning to pride when they see how it not only eases and hastens their passage through airport terminals, for example, but also places them beyond suspicion for a whole range of serious crime.  This will be particularly (although far from exclusively) important for ethnic minorities, who are often suspected of being here illegally and tend to be blamed collectively for the crimes of just a few of their number. In the event of a terror attack by Islamic fundamentalists, which, the way things stand at the moment, would almost certainly result in a backlash against Britain's entire Muslim population, advertising that they are in the database should place them beyond suspension - and backlash.