Freedom from ID

SIR – Half my family were trapped behind the Iron Curtain, where the police were an enforcement agency for a totalitarian state. Before that, in Germany law-abiding citizens found out what it meant to be forced to identify themselves on demand.

I was always proud and grateful to be born a free Briton, knowing that it was nobody else’s damn business to ask who I was when walking peaceably down the streets of my own country – especially those paid with my money to police with my consent.

It therefore angers me beyond expression that our politicians’ failure to control our borders, know who is here, deport those who should not be, and keep criminals locked up is creating a situation where compulsory identity cards may become necessary. That used to take a war. Victor Launert

Matlock Bath, Derbyshire