AMID the hype of the General Election, other crucial events continue to receive minimal media interest.

For example, Kettering Hospital in Northamptonshire has started identifying newborn babies by bar codes rather than traditional hand-written tags – quite an indignity.

Surely those who choose to have their babies – not the state’s babies – in hospital rather than at home can take the time to write name tags for their precious gift of life rather than allowing political expediency to dictate otherwise?

Everyone needs to take time to think extremely carefully about this, because in a heartbeat we could move from external barcodes to internal microchips, and not just for babies but for all of us.

BARBARA CROUCH, St Just Close, Ferndown