FOR as long as I can remember, I've given Worcester MP Mike Foster the benefit of the doubt. His ego has been regularly massaged on this page, even if some unkind comments have been made about the government he represents. He's even been given a nickname - Foxy' - and there can be no surer sign of affection than that.

However, the phoney war is drawing to a close and 2008 will see me taking an increasingly harder line with the politician whose cherubic features have so often helped him win the day.

So, in the first of an occasional series, we will today challenge MP Foster over the issue of identity cards.

How ironic that a Labour party intent on compelling everyone to carry ID is funded, it seems, by people who filter six-figure donations through third parties to conceal their own identities from the public. Any observations, Mr Foster?

And how doubly piquant that just as the ID card lobby is parroting tripe about "the innocent have nothing to fear" a roll call of chaotic Whitehall departments mislay the personal details of half the population. Comments, Mr Foster?

The thing about data is that it only takes one pull of the thread and the whole lot unravels. Everyone has access to everyone else - for example, that's why we are incessantly plagued by selling calls and junk mail. Your birth date and national insurance numbers are now the twin edges of the key that can unlock all your secrets.

The Government has demonstrated that it has an awesome talent to give this information away on a truly gargantuan scale. That's why talk of a national ID card revealing only limited information' is complete hogwash, for one database merely leads to another and another.

So once again, Mr Foster have you any thoughts that you'd like to share with the readers of the Worcester News?