Re: What is driving this?
"I don't have a problem with ID cards per se although I have a problem with an obligation to (a) carry one at all times or (b) show it to any little petty official who asks."
I already have a passport that satisfies all of those requirements. An ID card system is duplication. A requirement to *have* a passport, so that you appear on the database, is (as you say) scope creep.
