Do we really want to live in a country where each and every minor jobsworth in some sort of authority, however petty, can demand our identity documents and also have access to the sort of details that frankly the state has no business knowing, unless we are actively involved in crime, such as who we meet, who we travel with, where we go, how we spend such money as the State, in its munificence, allows us to keep from our wage-packet, and so forth?.    From Wordnik.com.  [Mr. Byrne's 'Progressive Britshness'] Reference