Anti-ID card campaign notches up 10,000 refuseniks

The NO2ID campaign group has signed up over 10,000 refuseniks to its pledge of resistance to the government's proposed ID card system.

The 10,000 have signed a pledge promising to "refuse to register for an ID card" and donate £10 each to a defence fund in the event of legal action. The pledge has struck a chord with protestors from all walks of life, with doctors, priests and pensioners having already registered their discontent with the scheme.

NO2ID has signed up the 10,000 ID card opponents well ahead of schedule and the pledge will remain open for new signatures until its original deadline of 9 October.

Some of the NO2ID's supporters are now setting their sights higher, hoping to notch up 20,000 signatures before the pledge is closed.

Supporters' objections to the ID card scheme range from distrust of the reliability of technology being used to cost and privacy.

One of the petition's supporters, Ross, wrote on the NO2ID website: "The national ID card system is a huge waste of our money that could be so much better spent in a myriad of public service areas, rather than be funneled into private sector interests. It will quite clearly be open to abuse and technical issues which will cause many problems and, most of all, we just do not need it."