It's blue and pink, just the size of a credit card and the first thing you ask yourself is why is there an imprint of a bull on the new UK identity cards?
The creature embossed on the sample cards unveiled by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith yesterday is actually representative of the Greek myth in which Zeus turns himself into the white beast and abducts Europa, a beautiful princess. It is a common feature of all EU identity cards and Britain's design is distinguished by inclusion of the royal crest and four flowers representing the nations of the UK.
But there is a feeling that the ID card for foreign workers, like the bull, might be something else in disguise. Held in the hand, the little photo-ID, with its embedded gold chip containing biometric data including fingerprints, seems harmless enough but when the first real one is issued on November 25 Britain will have crossed a rubicon in the information age.
For civil liberty campaigners the cards, which will be issued first to foreign workers in Britain, represents the first step towards an Orwellian Big Brother society in which the state will hold and monitor information on its citizens to a degree never experienced before.
Between 50,000 and 60,000 cards will be issued by the end of next March to foreign nationals wishing to extend their stay in the UK. The UK Border Agency will begin issuing the biometric cards to the two categories of foreign nationals who officials say are most at risk of abusing immigration rules - students and those on a marriage or civil partnership visa. Within three years all non-EU foreign nationals applying for leave to enter or remain in the UK will be required to have a card.
Ministers predict one million a year will be issued from 2010 when they will be rolled out to young people, on a voluntary basis, and those working in security-sensitive environments. The following year we will all be able to buy one for £30 and use it to prove who we are and to travel across the EU.
The £30 fee is not the half of it though. The Conservatives say the set-up costs of the £4.7bn scheme are an outrage and have promised to scrap what they see as an "expensive and ill-conceived policy". For traditionalists and libertarians, and you will find plenty of both in the Conservative party, this is an intrusion on British privacy and freedom that increases the risk of ID fraud.
Former shadow home secretary David Davis, who resigned over the alleged erosion of civil liberties and the creation of a "database state", calls the ID cards for foreign nationals the "thin end of the wedge".
"It is typical of this government to kickstart their misguided and intrusive ID scheme with students and foreigners; those who have no choice but to accept the cards, and it marks the start of the introduction of compulsory ID cards for all by stealth; one step at a time," he says.
"Even during wartime, ID cards did not contain fingerprints, this is the first ever Government to try and fingerprint every British citizen. There is no justification for requiring every British citizen to have an identity card and for innocent citizens to be required to submit their fingerprints to a state controlled database, with all the risks that go with that."
It's really not that bid a deal insists Meg Hillier, the under-Secretary of State at the Home Office. "More about your habits is known through a supermarket loyalty card than will be know by this scheme," says the minister. "The card simply holds information that is on the passport, 80% of people have a passport and where do you go now where you aren't asked for your identity?"
Being minister for passports does not mean she has to carry her's around all the time but, like thousands of others, Ms Hillier has no other suitable photo identity so she carries the expensive crimson document in her bag. "I need my passport to get a parcel from the Post Office, which seems a bit over the top, but this will simplify things for people," say Ms Hillier who challenges the Tories to say how they would protect people from criminality and fraud and illegal working. "We can use this to catch people who are wilfully breaking the law while making life more convenient for people," says the minister.
In a pilot scheme in Croydon, south London, 12,000 people had their biometric data collected and that threw up four convictions and an investigation into an alleged child trafficker.
Every weekend in night clubs up and down the UK, passports are swept up and sent back to the passport agency, costing young people a fortune, making that group an ideal demographic for the scheme's roll out in 2010.
It will never come to pass if the opposition parties can help it. Liberal Democrat shadow home secretary Chris Huhne said identity cards "remained a grotesque intrusion on the liberty of the British people" and says the scheme "will prove to be a laminated Poll Tax". The Lib Dems are convinced that the scheme will prove unworkable and unpopular but ministers think the public will take to the idea.
Phil Booth, of the No2ID campaign says the government looks "absurd" for pushing ahead with such a costly project but MigrationwatchUK, the right wing pressure group, welcomes cards as a move to restore control of Britain's borders.
For some, the only prospect worse than the government holding information about you is the fact that it is so prone to losing the data. SNP Home Affairs spokesman Pete Wishart MP says his party had opposed ID cards from the outset but the government's "abysmal record on data protection" is reason enough to cancel them.
"The Home Office is trying to salami slice the population to get this scheme going in any way they can," says Mr Wishart. "These cards will not make our communities more secure, they will not reduce the terrorist threat and they will not make public services more efficient."
Aware of the security fears, Ms Hillier has taken a keen interest in how the databases are developed with visits to places like the concrete bunkered police national computer databanks.
"You can't download the information through the web, for example, or mine it from someone's desk. You can't put a memory stick in there and download the information. I was quite reassured in seeing that," says the minister. "You have to prove the case for access to the custodians of the system and request information on good ground, with exceptions for terrorist suspects.
"Only if you give permission can information about you come from the register. It actually puts power in the hands of the citizen," say Ms Hillier, who succeeds in saying that in a way that does not make it sound like Orwellian doublespeak.
What's on the cards?
What does the card do? The foreign nationals' card, pictured right, is blue and pink, credit card-sized and carries the individual's name, photograph, the card's expiry date and details of how long they can stay and work in the country.
On the back it will also show their date and place of birth, their gender, nationality, and whether they are entitled to benefits.
Biometric data, including copies of the person's fingerprints, will be stored on a special security chip.
What's it useful for? The government says it wants to give people a sure-fire way of proving they are who they say they are.
It argues ID cards will boost national security, tackle identity fraud, prevent illegal working and improve border controls.
What are the objections? Critics say identity cards interfere with civil liberties, are too expensive and will do little to tackle problems like terrorism.
There are fears the ID cards would be made compulsory and alienate ethnic minorities targeted by police stop-and-search policies and worries the cards would force illegal immigrants into avoiding contact with hospitals and police.
How do I get one? Everyone over the age of 16 applying for a passport will have their details - including fingerprints and facial scans - added to a National Identity Register from 2011/12.
The cards will cost no more than £30 when made available to British citizens from 2011.
The cards, which will be voluntary, will enable the holder to travel without a passport around the EU.
The Conservatives and the LibDems have promised to scrap the scheme.
