In a tense third reading of the ID Cards Bill, MPs of all parties tore holes in the proposed legislation and delivered sustained attacks on the Government’s behaviour.
But with less than 45% of MPs voting, the Bill was passed despite 36 cross-party rebels joining the Liberal Democrats and Nationalists in opposition. The Conservative’s withdrawal of support meant that despite the highly vocal criticism from their front bench, almost the entire party abstained.
“I remind the House that we are elected representatives. I am not a robot, a sheep or a button to be pressed”, said John Bercow MP, voicing outrage at the government’s contempt for Parliamentary scrutiny.
The Government has “steamrollered” over the concerns of MPs and both the Home Affairs Select Committee and Joint Committee on Human Rights. The timetable for the Standing Committee (where the Bill is supposed to undergo proper scrutiny) was drastically cut to just 4 days within a fortnight, leaving over half a dozen clauses completely unexamined. And Parliamentary debate was guillotined to a few hours on a Thursday afternoon, already noted by the Speaker as “unsuited for major legislation”.
The Home Office response to the Joint Committee on Human Rights was returned late, on the day of the vote – so late that most MPs were unable to read it. If they had, they would see that it is filled only with a cut-and-paste of the same lip service to the important issues of liberty, privacy, and protection from the state that has been seen in previous Government replies.
David Davis MP, in a withering speech, surmised: “ID cards involve a completely new view of citizenship. Being a subject of the Crown is a right, which it is not for the Government to give or take away… The Government have denied debate and treated this House with contempt.”
And at the third reading, even the Home Secretary Charles Clarke could not bring himself to repeat some of the unfounded benefits of ID cards: “There is no guarantee that any scheme will be able to deal with and eliminate the terrorist threat. There is no silver bullet to solve the problem.”
But this is exactly what the Government has sold the British public – a magic bullet that will protect us from terrorism, end our immigration worries and keep crime off the streets. And incidentally, an idea to placate the voters on the eve of an election whose themes will be security, immigration and crime.
The Government’s claims for ID cards remain unsubstantiated, and the supposed ‘benefits’ simply don’t add up – especially when measured against the spiralling cost of the scheme - whereas the implications that each law-abiding member of the country be tagged and tracked by police with powers to stop and scan are all too real. The Lords may need little persuading to throw out such illiberal and arbitrary legislation.
Those politicians who failed to vote to protect our liberties and rights as democratic citizens can be sure that NO2ID and our many thousands of supporters across the UK will make sure they are held to account when we next come to vote for them!
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