NOW that former spy chief Stella Rimington has criticised Government plans to introduce identity cards, saying they would not make the country safer, we need a much wider debate on whether or not we need ID cards at all.

After all, on the same day huge increases were announced in the costs of passports: do we really know how much these ID cards will cost, both to the Treasury and to us as individuals?

In order to have this debate and to tease out some answers, there ought to be a referendum on ID cards. The UK had, after all, been prepared for a referendum on Europe which I supported. Now we must be permitted to decide on something equally and fundamentally as constitutional as the Government holding all our intimate personal data.

I would be interested in your readers' views.

Diana Wallis MEP,

Liberal Democrat, Yorkshire & the Humber,

Ashdown House,

Station Parade,

Harrogate.

Updated: 11:01 Tuesday, November 22, 2005