must "forgo the ability" to have a travel document.

As of 2009 anyone who applies for a passport in Britain will also be issued with an ID card, for which they must also provide fingerprints, biometric details such as a facial scan and a wealth of personal details - including second homes, driving licence and insurance numbers.

When asked what would happen to ID card refusniks, Mr Hall stated: "There is no need to register and have fingerprints taken - but you will forgo the ability to have a passport".

Critics have denounced the idea of such restriction of movement as a gross violation of human rights.

Just as we reported last January, a supposed "opt out" clause, which was demanded by the Lords in order for the ID cards bill to pass Parliament, will not matter a jot as it will only apply to the actual issuing of the plastic card.

At the time the ninnying liberal press reported this as a great "defeat" for the government, barely looking below the surface of what the actual bill said. Now it has been confirmed that although you can obtain a passport without an ID card, you must still provide the biometric data which will still be placed on the national database. In one final insult you must also pay the same elevated price as you would to obtain a combined passport/ID card.

The card is somewhat of of trojan horse, as under a so called government "compromise", anyone who renews a passport will have their details put on the national ID database - but will not have to get a card until 2010.

The government has also accounted for those who plan to renew their passports before ID cards start being issued.

Up until recently Britons were able to renew their passports for periods of ten years at any time. This meant that many were planning to renew right before it became compulsory to be issued with an ID card when renewing your passport in 2009, giving ten years of ID free existence.

The government has put the brakes on such tactics by simply announcing, with no debate or legislation, that passports can now only be renewed for 9 months in advance.

In further developments, more details emerged yesterday of how the government plans to sell access to personal information stored on the database to banks and other private companies, for around 60p a time, in order to finance the scheme which is expected to run into the billions according to studies by leading economic experts.

A top firm of headhunters is already working for the government, seeking a consultancy expert to market the benefits of the database to the private sector.

The government sold the idea of the ID card database by saying it would make our information more secure. Tony Blair said this would protect, not infringe our liberties. Selling the information of 44 million British citizens to private companies. How secure and protecting is that?

Even the biometric information is to be outsourced as checks on applications and the like are to be shifted to places as far flung as Mumbai, Delhi and Islamabad.

Joe public will not be allowed access to the ID database but whichever companies the government sees fit to sell the information to will. And of course the intelligence services will be given unprecedented access. You will of course have "voluntarily" given up your details, thus you will have no course of reciprocation at any time in the future.

Recently leaked Whitehall documents have shown that ID cards will not be officially made compulsory for more than a decade, under present plans. “Compulsion will be triggered once 80% take-up is achieved in [the first quarter of] 2019,” they state. “It is assumed that, following compulsion, a 100% registration will be achieved two years later.”

The same documents also revealed that children as young as 11 will also have their fingerprints taken and stored, even though the ID card bill specifically only applies to adults above the age of 16.

The London Times reported:

The leaked Home Office plans show that the mass fingerprinting will start in 2010, with a batch of 295,000 youngsters who apply for passports.

The Home Office expects 545,000 children aged 11 and over to have their prints taken in 2011, with the figure settling at an annual 495,000 from 2014. Their fingerprints will be held on a database also used by the Immigration and Nationality Directorate to store the fingerprints of hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers.

By that time most children will be accustomed to giving up their fingerprints as it is now becoming commonplace in schools up and down the country. Much to the anger of many parents, some schools are doing this relatively covertly, in one case children were even told they were "playing spies" and not to tell their parents.

While unaware children are hoodwinked into being catalogued by the state, willing adult volunteers line up to lick the boots of the government who promise to keep them safe by taking scans of their eyeballs. The government itself has admitted that the information WILL NOT keep us safe from fraud and identity theft, nor will it prevent terrorism. So what exactly is the purpose of a biometric database?

Of course, if you demand an answer to this question and refuse the system you will be issued with huge fines, equating to figures beyond the average monthly salary of the majority of people in this country.

Furthermore, Town hall bureaucrats are to be given sweeping powers to investigate homes for identity card evasion and to impose heavy fines on occupants not registered on the database. The card is completely voluntary of course , yet if you say No to the ID card, the authorities will SWAT your home and you'll be crippled financially.

You'll also no doubt be denied the right to free health care and free education. Buying and selling will be made almost impossible as cash machines, supermarket checkouts and other everyday items are linked in with the ID card database. The Government has stated at various times that it feels ID card reading capability could be built into future generations of credit card readers and ATMs.

But the ID card will still be voluntary! You just won't be able to leave the country, own a house or a car, have a doctor, a bank account, a mobile phone, get an education, own a business, rent a room in a hotel, or have a job. You won't officially be authorized to live or die. But it's still voluntary!