There’s never been a serious proposal to make the owning or carrying ID cards compulsory for the general populace, so there’s nothing to scrap.

The real issue is and always was the database underlying the scheme – the National Identity Register.

The plan is still very much in place to force anyone applying for or renewing a passport from 2011 to also register on the NIR. Unless a significant number of people are willing to give up the ability to travel outside the country that’s going to guarantee well over 70% (probably closer to 80%) of the UK population will be registered by 2021.

And that’s assuming they don’t extend compulsory registration to other documents (driving license perhaps?) in the meantime.

Do you:

Provide the 52 separate items of information the Secretary of State requires from every ‘citizen’

Pay £30 on top of an already exorbitant passport fee.

Pay another £30 for the fun ‘criminal experience’ of having your fingerprints and iris patterns captured.

Attend, at your own expense, an intrusive interview into you personal and financial background.

Wait six weeks for your card to arrive.

Undertake to inform the IPS of every change of name, address and circumstances, or pay a thousand pound fine.

Repeat every ten years

Or, possibly, you would rather:

Pick up a CitizenCard leaflet at your local JD Wetherspoons.

Fill in the one page application form.

Post the application form off, with a cheque for £5.

Wait three weeks for your card, which never expires, to arrive.

It looks like a difficult decision to me – thankfully I’m too old to have to make it.

The same Alan Johnson says that the provision of public services is dependent on ID cards, see Ideal Government report on Safeguarding Identity.

Or maybe it’s another Alan Johnson.

And could the Home Office explain what is wrong with the existing Pass proof of age scheme that needs a few billion pounds to put right?