All could have been avoided if identity cards had been followed through by the con/lib government following labours defeat in 2010, the legislation was in place, cards had begun to be issued ( even though on a voluntary basis at that time) but one of the first things that unholy alliance did was to completely scrap the plan. Brilliant work by Clegg and Cameron, proof of entitlement could/would have solved a lot of the immigration problems and subsequently we may never have got to this clusterf**k
ID cards wouldn't have solved any issues at all - they would have just made even more of your data available to government agencies. The cost was utterly stupid - it went up by nearly £1bn in just six months. The IT systems to administer it barely worked. To top it all off we would ALL have had to paid £93 each to have one of these white elephant cards. I can already prove my identity - I don't need an additional card to do so thank you. But if you have £93 to easily available to waste may I suggest donating it to charity.