NO NEED FOR IDENTITY CARDS IN BRITAIN
The Home secretary has denied reports in the "Daily Mail" that he is calling for identity cards to be introduced in 1994 as a protection against the supposed threat of waves of immigrants from Eastern Europe.
At present, only 3% of those claiming political asylum in Britain are from Eastern Europe. Moreover, Britain specifically refused to be drawn into plans of other EC countries to use identity cards as a substitute for the removal of immigration checks on borders.
Home secretary Kenneth Baker does however not exclude the introduction of identity cards in the future, "if this should prove to be necessary".
The Home secretary takes the view that with credit cards and driving licences, the introduction of identity cards would not be such a big step as it would have been 20 years ago. "There is much less hesitancy by people asked to identify themselves. So there is a voluntary system of identity building up".
Source: "The Independent", 28.12.91