If ever proof were needed to whats really at stake, the Identity Cards bill has finally been published proving that the real prize for govenment is not the cards themselves, which take up two and a half pages of the bill – four if you could the new criminal offence of possessing false ID – but the National Identity Register itself, the basics of which take up seven full clauses and the first seven pages of the Bill.

I’ll look at the bill in detail later but, me being me, the first thing I did look for was the provisions for the use of information from the register without consent only to find that, as usual, the authority resides with the Secretary of State and not the Courts.

By the same token, under Civil Penalties it looks like its going to be a fixed penalty system, set by – guess who? – the Secretary of State again under a system where if you disagree with his decision you have to send him your objection first, and only when he – meaing a civil servant in reality – has given a final ruling can you then appeal the decision through a County Court.

So that’s guilty until proven innocent yet again.