Your papers pleeeze!

Fears over pan-EU electronic identity network

New concerns have been raised over the Government's multi-billion-pound ID project as it emerged that Britain's identity database could be shared with 26 other European Union countries. The Home Office is taking part in a scheme, codenamed Stork, which aims to make all EU electronic identity networks ''inter-operable'' within three years.

If you want to scupper the ID scheme then forget about lost discs, which the government can spin to add even more justification for its ID proposals, this plan to share the ID database with every country in the EU is the one to concentrate on. There are many people in Britain who aren't bothered enough to oppose a national database but the thought that their details will be availabe to thousands of petty officials in Bulgaria, Romania, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Italy and 21 other countries will, I'm convinced, get right up their noses.

Looks like the way forward is a Liberal-Xenophobe Alliance!