WHILE agreeing with Dave Taylor on two points - no totalitarianism and no voting Labour, either new or stale ('I don't want to use 'pass laws'', Letters, March 30) - I support ID cards and new proposals to centrally computerise medical records (the next bone of contention for the "freedom fighters").

My wife, French in everything but birth and education, married in France in 1961, later divorced, but worked there as a teacher until we were married in 1997.

Afterward we spent half of each year in Castres.

Sadly, in July last year she died in her beloved France among her family and many friends.

The formalities had to be tackled. In France everyone has an ID card and "carnet de sant", a complete record of everything medical from birth to death.

Although French bureaucracy is noted for its "difficulties," producing these two documents smoothed my path through officialdom.

Far from being a threat they were a blessing and from a very personal and stressed experience I commend them.

Liberty, equality, fraternity means just that.

As a Francophile I should welcome that here; it works, people are comfortable with it so why not here?

Mick Snowden,

Rue Maillot,

81100, Castres, France.

Updated: 10:19 Saturday, April 02, 2005