Richard

UK for now

Designer

A biometric ID card would not help.

This again shows that when dealing with strangers, what they are is far more important than who they are. This is the same even when dealing with terrorists and other criminals.

Unfortunately, this vital aspect has been completely overshadowed by the government's ill-advised ID project which concentrates only on verifying the "who" rather than the "what."

Every day, we all have many interactions with strangers: paying in shops, showing our travel tickets, using the NHS, dealing with officials, etc etc.

In most of these transactions, the stranger's name is far less important than their role. So, we judge people by their uniforms, their behaviour and the context. Our judgements are usually right. Occasionally we're conned. However, the name on their ID card tells us very little - except their name.

Unfortunately, the government's proposed ID card will verify only someone's name. In our fast-moving society, these government ID cards could never hope to verify everyone's role in their working or private lives.

Just imagine having to update our details on a government database each time we stand in for a colleague, neighbour or friend who is on holiday or ill for the day, or while we literally mind the shop.

If Britain really is to become the best place to live, work and to do business, we need better ways of interacting freely and easily with strangers. We don't need the current expensive, intrusive ID scheme, which verifies only their names.