Identity Cards Bill

I heartily agree with the noble Lord, Lord Lucas; I think trying to behave like King Canute is totally futile. These things will change; perceptions will change in some crisis, and this information will be accessed. The one thing I think is very good about the Data Protection Act is that it deals with eight principles. We need to go back to legislating in strong principles, rather than trying to regulate a complex society, using rules that might work in simple systems but do not when applied to such complex issues as those we are dealing with here. We need to go back to thinking about principles.