MP to stay up all night to save £15 billion

Father of four Tim Farron MP is used to sleepless nights, however tonight may prove to be more of a challenge. Tim is expecting to be up until possibly 7am tomorrow morning as voting takes place on the ID Cards Bill. The majority of letters in Tim's post bag on this subject have agreed with his position to oppose the introduction of the cards.

Tim commented: "ID cards will be expensive, ineffective in tackling crime and a threat to traditional British liberties. The cost to run this system and introduce the cards looks like escalating to over £15 billion, a terrible waste of money that would be better spent on providing more police on the streets".

Police do not normally have problems identifying criminals, but because of overstretched resources, do have problems catching them - therefore the money earmarked for investment into ID cards could be used to better effect in funding our police services.

Tim's concerns on this issue extend to the computer system that will manage and hold the data collected.

Tim stated: "It is hard to think of an example of a Government run database system working effectively. One only has to look at the problems that the CSA have experienced, or the trouble issuing Single Farm Payments, to realise the chaos that may well result if this system is introduced".