In theory this ID card is supposed to reduce fraud and offer the ability to better track terrorists. To do so would surely require considerable interoperation of IT systems of the police, Inland Revenue, Social Welfare etc. The £5.75bn is just the cost of ISSUING the cards.

The IT upgrade of just one department, the NHS, is running at something like 3 times over budget - c. £12bn, and still not delivering what it was supposed to. Given this fact, I wonder how much it will cost for the IT system across multiple departments which will actually achieve any of the aims of the whole ID card proposal?

Richard, London,

No ID card system, biometric or not, will ever be completely fraud proof, no matter what they would like us to believe.

As a Belgian citizen, I've had an ID card since I was 13 and always felt comfortable with the idea of having one. After all, should I be involved in an accident, it allows identification so much faster. No such things as carrying bulky passports with you, the ID card fits nicely into your purse.

I just cannot understand why the British make such a fuss over it when other EU States had them for more than 50 years.

What an abominable waste of tax payers money. Why do the British put up with it???

Sabrina, Liege, Belgium

Rule Number One: Government IT projects arrive late, are wildly over-budget and do not work. If they really want ID cards they should sub-contract the project to, say, North Korea.

Frank Upton, Solihull,

The cost of the ID card is irrelevant. The government raises the issue of cost to encourage people to debate about whether the cost is worth it and who should pay etc. This distracts people form the real issue that is, whether these ID cards are invading our freedom and private lives.

Its quite basic psychology and I am surprised the public and the media are gullible enough to fall for it.

I would quite happily pay a £100 to not have an ID card

ian, london,

I already carry a Driving Licence and have to pay for a passport, so why should I be forced to pay for another form of ID that I have no use for and do not want?

Furthermore, my parents are both pensioners and to ask the elderly to fork out £100 each to pay for these cards is ludicrous. I expect there to be lots of sympatheitc elderly people on the news being prosecuted for refusing to pay for ID cards that are useless to them.

If these are important documents, required for national security, blah, blah, blah, then they should be issued free to the British public.

Helen, Reading, UK,

According to the Home Office's own estimates, 15 million people will refuse to carry compulsory ID cards. The Government's spending £5.75 billion of our tax money to criminalise over a quarter of the population. Sounds like a vote winner to me.

Thomas Martin, London,

As a life long Labour voter (until Blair took us into the Iraq War) I will vote for whichever party promises to scrap this ridiculous scheme. This scheme will be New Labour's 'Poll Tax ' fiasco and will not achieve anything except the waste of taxpayer's money.

Brian , Liverpool,

I agree with John Pickworth's points on the ID card except that I think Gordon Brown as PM will be an even more universally hated and ill-fated legacy of this Government..

Neil McF, Hamble,

What's next - an implant in your neck so the Government knows 24/7 where you are? Oh, nearly forgot - thanks to the ridiculous levels of CCTV camera's ringing the country, they already do!!

If I wanted to live in Stalinist Russia, I'd have moved there! It's about time the camera's came down and our freedoms came back. Tell the Government where they can put this lunatic scheme and force them to spend this cash somewhere useful, like on training a few more midwives for example, or improving the childbirth facilities maybe...

Neil J, Derby, England

I pay income tax, and I feel it is being wasted. I grumble, but I pay nonetheless, because it is important to contribute to the country as a whole, and it is a legal requirement.

I will not however be paying for an ID card. They can come after me, and set their dogs on me for all I care, I will not give a cent for this obscenity. This is not about money or even my own desire for privacy, this about the destruction of British democracy, the annhilation of British freedom.

To me Blair's legacy is going to be that of a man who has profitted handsomely from his megolamania and egoistic paranoia, and yet has turned this country, my country, into a pseudo-state of fear and loathing.

ID cards alone are not the issue, it is the information that the state wants from you. I carried an ID card in the military and I carry one now in my current job, not an issue for me. But Blair's ID card scheme is far, far more prying and draconian. It is also expensive, and on top of that, it will not work.

Jennifer Hynes, Plymouth, England

Did other countries face a bill of a similar amount when implementing such a scheme? Could offshoring reduce costs?

James Chan, London,

To Peter Codner who asks who will pay for ID cards for those people on benefits: come on, haven't you learned? Those of us who work for a living will pay. Again.

Dave, Notts, UK

At what point do the Government decide that the costs will outweight the benefits? At nearly £6bn it'll already cost more than a quarter of what fraud costs the UK anyway. No doubt by the time we've got these cards in our pockets (assuming that ever happens), the fraudsters and criminals of this world will already have found a way of copying them, and it'll be billions of pounds of UK tax-payers money down the drain!

Rod Munch, Northampton, UK

For some reason I keep expecting them to give up this ridiculous scheme.

It will cost an arm and a leg and will bring no benefits at all, quite the contrary in fact.

It is a fitting monument to New Labour in fact. And perhaps that is why they won't let it go.

cuffleyburgers, Lucca,

they told us chip an pin was fool prove.
we the British are great at faking id we started practicing in Nazi camps,starting to look like the Nazis are coming back .
what next tattoos on our arms and necks.

george william taylor, hull, uk

presumably these ID cards will be required for those on benefits, what if they cannot afford £93?

peter codner, devizes, england

This is like watching a train wreck in slo-motion... and yet the gutless wonders who voted for the silly scheme sit quietly refusing to raise any alarm. Mind you, many of them have left or are preparing leave Parliament, so why should they worry at the mess they've left behind. Shame on you.

Worse, those Agencies charged with ensuring the population informs the State of their where-abouts in future can merrily ignore their own requirement to tell us the costs? And so shame on you too.

Is there anyone out there that doesn't now believe this will be the most universally hated and ill-fated legacy of this Government?

John Pickworth, Blackpool, UK