How many people relish the idea of queuing up to have their fingerprints taken, have their mouths swabbed for DNA samples and to be interrogated on their family background and history?

Not many, suspects Maidstone art gallery owner Richard Baker-Howard. But that is the scenario he predicts for us all if the government continues with plans to introduce a national identity card.

Mr Baker-Howard is a committee member for the Maidstone branch of No2ID, a nationwide body campaigning against ID cards, and he is working to make others aware of the proposed changes.

From this autumn, workers at two UK airports will become the first Britons to be required to carry biometric ID cards. Since November, such cards have been issued to foreign students and marriage visa holders coming to the UK.

The scheme coming to Manchester and London City Airports is part of the government’s plans to introduce ID cards across the nation.

But Mr Baker-Howard said: “Many people find it difficult to believe; they haven’t quite got their heads around what is happening.

“They don’t realise the government is going to require everyone to give their fingerprints, their retina scan and all their personal information for this card. It’s a fundamental reshaping of our society.”

Mr Baker-Howard, who owns the Leaf Gallery in the Royal Star Arcade, dismissed the government’s rationalisation that such cards would help fight terrorism.

He said: “The terrorism that we face today, the terrorists want to be known. They want to become martyrs. Holding an identity card will be no deterrent at all.”

Instead he fears people’s personal details will fall into the wrong hands, if their cards are stolen or the government’s agencies lose the information.

He said: “We’ve had no end of examples of how trustworthy the government is about looking after our personal data - with briefcases and laptops left on trains and in taxis.”

The government has estimated the overall cost of the ID card scheme over the next 10 years will be £5.1 billion, but the estimate keeps creeping up and the London School of Economics has predicted it will be nearer £18 billion.

It is expected that people will have to pay for their card, with the price currently estimated at £30. But on top of that, individuals may have to pay to have their details scanned at a registration centre at a further cost of between £20 and £47.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has said the cards would be made available on a “voluntary basis” to young people from 2010 and to everyone else from 2012.

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