ONE of the knee-jerk reactions to recent terrorist events has been a clamour from the right-wing to introduce identity cards.

Does anyone really believe that professional criminals, terrorists or illegal immigrants will have the slightest problem obtaining forged ID cards? Of course not.

I once worked in a Central African country where anyone not carrying an ID was immediately thrown into jail.

Do we really want to give our police such powers?

We have a police force that will, in my lifetime, never live down the zeal with which it earned obscene amounts of overtime willingly acting as Maggie Thatcher's army subduing miners whose concerns about pit closures were later proved correct.

The imposition of ID cards as a sop to right-wingers is a step too far.

BRUCE H THOMAS,

Droitwich.