Welsh Lib Dem AM Peter Black brings our attention to Cabinet Minister James Purnell who has misplaced important documents for a second time.

Rather than poke fun at the unfortunate Mr Purnell, I’d like to second what Peter Black says:

The purpose of this post is not to draw attention to Mr. Purnell’s double whammy, though he does appear to be particularly accident-prone, but to show how easy it is for valuable identification papers to be lost, even by Government Ministers. 

If we were to be forced to carry ID cards it would be a simple matter for somebody to acquire one, clone it and use it. Where is the security in that? The fact is that an over-reliance on these plastic cards could lead to danger in itself. Not only would they not achieve the purpose they were designed for but ID cards could create new problems.

As I often need to point out to people, an ID card will in time become over-relied upon to prove you are who you say you are. Anyone who’s suffered a cloned credit card will know the difficulty in regaining control of your affairs. Imagine the nightmare if your ID card is cloned…