Nice post. May I add a bit too?

The claim that ...social attitudes survey... majority favours... is bollocks. The question was: are compulsory id cards a price worth paying to combat terrorism? Which includes a very questionable assumption, ie that ID cards combat terrorism. Which of course, they don't.

The same survey also found that 22% felt torturing "terror suspects" was "a price worth paying", hereafter known as APWP;

35% believe that banning peaceful protests and demos is APWP;

45% believe that denying terror suspects trial by jury is APWP;

79% believe that detention for weeks at a time without charge is APWP;

and 22% believe that during war it's acceptable for the armed forces to torture people.

Had the questions been along the lines of "if you were mistakenly arrested, held without trial for an indefinite amount of time and tortured throughout, would that be a price worth paying?"

Inevitably that's turned into a blog entry, btw. I've linked back to you in it.

National ID cards here are far more than just controversial -- it's an explosive issue.

Excellently written and put together.