THE recent loss of data scandal, potentially affecting some 25 million people, must act as a wake-up call to the Government.

It was always felt that having an expensive new identity card scheme would likely do very little to deter the determined terrorist.

However, it now seems clear that the even bigger threat to the UK population arises from a system that holds a vast amount of information about each and every one of us that could never be secure.

In the case of the two lost discs, it seems that an act of genuine negligence was involved. How much less secure would be a system that doesn't enjoy the support of most of the population? As we have seen, it only needs one or two civil servants, drawn from the same population, to cause the whole thing to come crashing down.

Scrap the ID cards and let's spend the money on more police and reducing council tax.

COUNCILLOR DAVID HARRISON, New Forest Liberal Democrats/