ID Cards
Time for me to be unpopular ( nothing new there I hear some say ).
Commercial pilots can most certainly afford ID cards, so BALPA's cries fall on deaf ears as far as I'm concerned.
You may well be covered already with ID, but after 9/11 nothing is too much...
The quoted '£ 5 Billion' includes £4 billion upgrading the general passport system, so the ID cost is 'only' £ 1 billion, which while handy to you & me - or the forces - is apparently nothing to bankers who screw up ( thank god they didn't fancy flying as a career ).
I am a lot more concerned however, that luggage & catering staff must have to go through these checks, they are the weak link in the security chain and as they are low paid I'd expect their employers to cover the ID cost ( if they pass ! ).