MY passport expires next month. After the Identity Cards Act 2006 became law in March this year, passports have become "designated" documents, and applications for them will be treated as "voluntary" applications for identity cards, which, will double or even triple the cost of a passport.

However, if I renew my passport now, I will not yet be forced into the compulsory purchase of an identity card, (until 2010), but my details will be entered into the fledgling National Identity Register.

I have nothing to hide but, after following the debates through both Houses of Parliament, and reading documents on surveillance equipment, passive tagging, and the Galileo GPS satellite network, I am worried my private life will be offered up for scrutiny to any company willing to pay.

The justifications for the introduction of identity cards and the National Identity Register by the present Government have proved to be shamefully misleading and I suggest the real motivation behind both schemes is revenue and overt tax on identity.

We pay the Government to force us to an interview where our details will be taken and stored. They will then sell our data to anyone who wishes to pay to view it.

This has been confirmed in writing by the new United Kingdom Identity and Passport Service.

I am now faced with a terrible choice.

If I wish my life to remain private for just a couple of years longer, I must surrender my passport and give up my right to travel abroad.

Or I can renew my passport and be entered, (against my will), on to the National Identity Register, where the Government will give the details of my life to the highest bidder.

G Reid.

The Prinnels, Swindon