Further to Alistair Flockhart's letter (Adver Aug 28) Anne Snelgrove's ID event is a response to the wider debate staged earlier this year Whose Identity Is It Anyway, which Mrs Snelgrove was too busy to attend.

While we welcome any debate on the Government's plan to create a compulsory national register of all citizens, it would not be right to imply our problems begin and end with this vast white elephant.

The Government is going to roll out an identity register for children next year - ContactPoint (formally known as the Children's Index).

This week has heard social services and town hall bosses ring alarm bells over the integrity and cost of the scheme. Estimates have council taxpayers footing the bill for the predicted £224m cost of the children's register which is already under attack of the threat of abuse by paedophiles.

That equates to £50 on council tax for a system not considered safe enough for the children of celebrities, who are likely to be excluded.

The event Anne Snelgrove is staging at Liden Community Hall on September 20 is heralded as an ID Information Event.

I welcome new information to persuade me there is merit in rounding up each citizen and taking their details for a vast data-sharing exercise for which we will be charged a fee.

But it is time for our MPs to protect our rights, as well as our children's, to a safe identity.

For those not able to get an invitation to Anne Snelgrove's event, NO2ID Swindon may be contacted via www.talkswindon.org.

L Warren.

NO2ID Swindon, Broad Town