Is anyone surprised?

Town hall bureaucrats are to be given sweeping new powers to investigate homes for identity card evasion and to impose heavy fines on occupants found without one.

The revelation, in an obscure Whitehall consultation paper, calls into serious doubt the Government's repeated promises that planned ID cards, already hugely controversial, will be voluntary and that no one will be forced to carry one.

It will stiffen resolve at Westminster to oppose the Identity Cards Bill, which is due before the Lords again next week.

I should damn well hope so. From Samizdata.