Changes to the Register can be notified by telephone, as can loss or damage to a card and the loss of a card should be notified within three months. Since notifying a change will cost money, as will renewal of a card (cards will only be valid for 10 years), there is likely to be widespread avoidance.

Enforcement of the payment of penalties is also going to be interesting. An objection to a penalty has to be made on a prescribed form 30 days after the penalty notice is received. Many people are ostriches and will do nothing, waiting until the bailiffs arrive to object and not understanding that unless an objection is made early, no one will look at the question of liability. If there is an objection the penalty can even be increased. Any appeal would then have to be to the County Court, and not the magistrates courts with which many people are familiar.

I can remember the Poll Tax, the queues of defaulters that stretched out of the door of our local magistrates court into the street. I can also remember that many people simply did not pay. These were the people who do not officially exist - people who do not claim benefit, who do not pay national insurance, who work cash in hand and who cannot be traced. There are many such people. Personally, I would rather they were living that way than burgling my house. I am not expecting them to sign up for an ID card for which they must pay.

The Book of Revelation, which some people feel does not really belong in the Bible because it is too disturbing, contains a vision of people not being able to buy or sell without a mark branded in their hands. Perhaps it is the intention of this Government to take all our fingerprints before we can be permitted to exist. But perhaps also this will be Labour's version of the great Poll Tax fiasco, and we can look forward to their being voted out by disgruntled families, who suddenly realize that it is not just nasty foreigners who are being asked to give intrusive details.