The locals will huff and puff....and accept what they are told.
As usual.
I think you'll find that the British, while accepting of most things provided they can whinge about them, are capable of really making life difficult for the government when things really do annoy us.
Road pricing protests started quietly and ended up with over a million people taking the trouble to let the government know what they thought. Poll tax suffered a lot of protests from outright non-payment to those who just made it difficult. Fuel tax was another one that got them going a bit.
The UK government budget for ID cards includes an amount to deal with those who are not going to willingly participate in the process, so don't assume that ID cards will ever reach the masses. If nothing else, hopefully the electorate will just go for one of the main opposition parties, both of which have said they'd abolish the cards and the evil database behind them. The next election must take place either this year or next year and ID cards aren't due until 2012 for the masses.