Compulsory ID by the back door

Passports will be needed to buy mobile phones

"Everyone who buys a mobile telephone will be forced to register their identity on a national database under government plans to extend massively the powers of state surveillance.

Phone buyers would have to present a passport or other official form of identification at the point of purchase. Privacy campaigners fear it marks the latest government move to create a surveillance society."

Does this remind you of any other databases, by any chance? Like the one that collects DNA, which wasn't going to be compulsory but now just happens to include information on nearly 5 million UK citizens?

I'm trying to keep up, but so far it seems to me that if you want to avoid being on a database, you need to:

1. Not have children;
2. Never have any dealings with the police or courts;
3. Not use the NHS; and
4. Not buy a new mobile phone.

And counting.