Deine Papiere, bitte.

Nice story - reminds me of Cheif Wiggan from the Simpsons. But to say \"If Blair gets his way, this will happen in the UK.\" is bollocks. Unless you have a quote that backs up Blairs intention to do this?

Well, that's a prediction. We'd put money on it.

Ok, would you take a £20 that by this time next year (or by the end of his term if that is sooner) Blair will not have ordered the police to start surrounding public buildings and doing a compulory check of the IDs of everyone going in and out while handing out leaflets about terror threats?

If ID Cards are introduced I predict swoops like this, probably on the grounds of detecting illigal immigrants or suchlike. As to a bet, well it's hard to bet against someone anonymous ; )

"... well it's hard to bet against someone anonymous ; )..."

Quite right - put your name where your money is, Anonymous.

What do illegal immigrants have to do with \"random shows of force\"? Or ID Cards for that matter? Does Miami have a compulsory ID Card scheme? Spin, then wiggle, where have I seen those tactics before....

If you\'re not happy betting against someone anonymous, why not just make a pledge to your readership. £20 to a charity of your choice if it hasn\'t happen by the time we get a new PM.

Why won't you give a name?
Any moniker will do :)

All I\'m saying is that compared to the fairly interesting writing I\'ve seen from this site in the last few days, this article is one of the worst I\'ve ever seen. Its a fairly funny story - yes. But there is absolutely no link between it and Blair. And to draw one makes you look like a crank.

I would have thought that a site dealing in political rumours wouldn\'t have a problem with anonymity. Why do you need me to give a name? Call me Monica if a name helps you to somehow better understand my comments.

I don't know where Anon lives, but the police are already a lot like that round my way. Perhaps you haven't seen an immigration raid or had to go through two rows of sniffer dogs and policemen body-searching people in order to get home from the local railway station. Maybe Anon has missed out on stop-and-search, and doesn't generally see the police arrive mobhanded in half a dozen vans at once. But I can assure you, it's fairly normal. And yes, it is noisy, dramatic, threatening and scary.

ID cards will increase this kind of thing, not introduce it. That's without talking about the sudden appearance of clumps of armed police in public places around London these days - not just Stockwell tube...

I don't think the phrase "shock and awe" has quite made it over here yet, but the principle behind it has been around for a while as far as the police are concerned... riot police beating their shields with their truncheons, anyone?

Anon - I think perhaps you should hand over a few quid to Quarsan now ;-)

Anyone who has spent any time in counties where the authorities abuse and misuse Identity Cards, and has seen the fear in people's faces when the demand for papers is made, on a bus, in a market, at a roadblock or simply on the street might be more inclined to understand the point's Quarsan and Red are making.

Anon might be prepared to take this government on trust, and attribute good intentions to the Bliar.

Suggesting that anybody who doesn't is talking bollocks, because Blair has never stated that he intends to misuse or abuse ID cards seems to me to be moving far beyond trust, and into the realm of blind faith.

Argggh! Talk about twisting the facts to match your prejudices.

Q took a story, and related it at a complete tangent to a completely different and unrelated matter without anything to back it up. Thats bad journalism. There are no two ways about it. To try and twist the story into an ID Card/Illegal Immigrant issue is disingenuous and blatent arse-covering. The article quoted isn\'t about ID Cards or Illegal Immigrants, and to the best of my knowledge Florida doesn\'t have ID Cards. Its just a cheap unsubstantiated dig.

But hey look, here\'s a story to run tomorrow: \"A bail application by former singer Gary Glitter is being considered by the Vietnamese authorities, officials say.\" If Blair gets his way, all paedophiles will be freed without trial and automatically made headmasters of primary schools. Its true you know, cos I say so.

Realise your mistakes and you might learn from them.

Monica.

And you say I'm twisting things! This has got nothing to do with Gary Glitter.

But the Blair administration's authoritarian tendancy, coupled with his namesake in the met, does make me think that, if ID Cards are introduced then we will see this sort of sweep happen. The Met have already floated the idea that all people using the London Underground should have to show ID.

You disagree. That's fine.

I think it would properly be "Ihre Papiere bitte" or just "Papiere bitte".

Deine is the familiar version.