ID Cards and Data Retention debates

This is going to be a course based on an extremely controversial topic. Data protection is currently being debated as part of 2 Europe-wide schemes:
[1] the use of ID cards - the UK doesn't have them currently, never has had, but government is intending to use them. See the LSE Report.
[2] mandatory retention of communications data. This is subject to many discussions, amongst them and quite enlightened several years - amongst them 'Carnivore'.