Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has launched a site for young people to let her know their thoughts on ID cards.

As you’d expect from any government website, the site is neutral, presents the arguments for and against in a balanced and responsible way, and allows young people themselves to do most of the talking.

Erm… well, it’s not like that at all.

The site is so much in favour of ID cards that it wouldn’t be too much to accuse them of astroturfing.  Clicking on “Info about ID Cards” brings up a page called “Myths about ID Cards” which even to my untutored eyes seems a little happy-clappy.  “Police will have no new powers in relation to ID cards” it trumpets - erm apart from the new offences of failing to register and so on.

The site is having a little technical difficulty at the time of writing and the forums and comments on blog posts turn up as unavailble when you try and click them. But reports from friends earlier this morning suggest that the forum is full of people pretending to be significantly younger than they really are.  There’s certainly an irony in people obfuscating their ID on a site about ID - and it’s far from reassuring that the Government can’t keep even simple websites like this one running.