The Great ID Card Con

Tuesday, 28th April 2009

Identity Cards would be a Bad Idea even if there were any reason to suppose they would work. So I'm intrigued by the suggestion Pete mentions that this multi-billion pound absurdity might be cancelled. Because of the state of the public finances of course. I doubt it will be abandoned since a) government value control even more than money and b) if it were, the government would presumably have to agree that ID cards won't save lives. On the other hand - and from the Home Office's perspective, looking upon the bright side of matters - they would then be able to blame ID card opponents for the next terrorist attack. They might enjoy doing that, too. Not that this ministry would "play politics" with terrorism would it?

Filed under: Britain (736 more articles) , Civil liberties (52 more articles) , Labour (2131 more articles)

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Kevyn Bodman

April 28th, 2009 2:15pm Report this comment

They wouldn't 'play politics' with terrorism if there was any more discrediatableoption open to them.
They'll go as low as they can.

Steve.W

April 28th, 2009 2:39pm Report this comment

Alex – I agree with you and Peter Hoskin. The ID card is a typical Nulabour vanity project. The NO2ID movement has been working against this idea for ages now. They do the essential low-level stuff like having a petition in the High Street on a regular basis in small towns all across the UK. I've seen people queue up to sign. There is a level of anger against Nulabour that goes far beyond the ID card.

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