SIR - The general arguments and government statements about the Identity Card problem seems to have died down at the moment, but I recently found my Identity Card from the 1940s.

It was issued to me without charge on my discharge from the Army in 1947.

During the 1939-1945 War every civilian had to have one of these free issue Identity Cards to ensure that infiltrated spies and fifth columnists could be checked.

Naturally I wonder why, firstly, so many people seem to object to the mere idea of identity cards, and, secondly, why our money-grabbing government seriously proposes to charge such vast amounts of cash for simple cards (and they need only be simple).

Ian R McDouggall, Hawkswood Avenue, Heaton