Letter: For collection

John Hein shows commendable sympathy to the 15,000 people who were gullible enough to apply for early-issue ID cards.

However, his proposal that the cards should continue to retain their validity may not be the most helpful suggestion. So few of these cards have been issued that they have not established themselves reliably across Europe. Indeed, some border posts have been refusing to accept the cards, demanding a full UK passport instead.

My best advice therefore to anyone who has such a card is to hang on to it, for it is likely to become a limited edition collectors' item and worth much more than its 30 face value. This card is surely destined to become a highly-prized token of New Labour's profound folly in attempting to impose compulsory ID cards. People in this country have never liked these cards, and so the previous ones had to be scrapped in 1952. The same thing has predictably just happened once again. So do hang on to these cards, and I for one have my 30 ready to offer to the first person who contacts me with a card they wish to sell.

DR JOHN WELFORD

NO2ID Edinburgh

Boat Green, Edinburgh

Paul AJ Hamilton (Letters, 29 May) makes much of the presumed motives of those who purchased ID cards.

Many people will have purchased them as a cheap alternative to a passport (without which, or an equally expensive to obtain driving licence, it is impossible even to board an internal flight with a low-cost carrier, let alone leave the country).

Who said anything about a refund? Why is Mr Hamilton so vindictive to those poorer, less intelligent and less freedom-loving than himself by opposing these cards simply remaining valid until their original date of expiry?

JOHN HEIN

The Liberal Party in Scotland

Montgomery Street

Edinburgh