That's why our government is now trying to introduce a national identity card. They will probably succeed eventually, despite the opposition from civil liberty groups and others, but this requires changes in the law and the whole thing has had to go back to the drawing board several times, so it'll be a few more years before the whole thing goes through.

Coming from a country which has always had national identity cards you may find this hard to comprehend, but it's a whole different culture and a whole different mentality. I have lived in both cultures so I can understand both.

For the moment photo driving licences serve as de facto identity cards. And I'm saying photo driving licences because our driving licences have only had photos on them for about ten years. Mine is still photo-less.

So many people in the US don't have passports, so I don't think they would ever, or at least not in the distant future require that to fly domestically here. People are outraged enough that they have to get one to go to Canada and Mexico now, though I hear they aren't enforcing that so much yet.

Patti hasn't been back yet to tell us about the outcome of her battle with Ryanair. but I read about it in the paper.

Here is the online version:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2066640,00.html