The Poll Tax was killed off in the end, by the inability to track a constantly moving student population – there are something like 1 million+ students constantly changing accommodation every three months (if not more frequently during the first term). Then in somewhere corporate like London, rents are priced on a weekly basis – people move around that quickly – temp’s, secretaries, PA’s, shorthand writers, typists, all move around as their jobs change.

The ID Card scheme plans to charge people 80 pounds every time they change address. It will either have to be made simple enough to update online with term-time and home addresses (as with students), otherwise it will just become out of date very rapidly.

For those not in the know this was a blanket property tax: Whether you lived in an apartment or a mansion you were expected to pay the same. A tax clearly aimed at benefiting the rich.

This is far more important. Remember the U.K. government’s anti drugs campaign slogan?

It’s time to use it again: “JUST SAY NO!”

As for being able to trust the government with such information it’s simple. They can’t be, having lost the entire Child Benefit database, which was but one of many failures by them to protect our personal data.