So the Prevention of Terrorism Act has been passed, after a day-and-night-and-day of bouncing the bill between the Houses of Parliament, scattering Lords and Commoners alike to snatch sleep on library tables and corridor benches. The Bill was passed largely as the government wanted, without a written expiration date and with only a promise to re-examine it. The deal had been done.
Will a similar fate befall the Identity Cards Bill? With broadsheet newspapers trumpeting the Bill’s imminent demise, the truth is anything could happen in the “wash-up” period before Parliament is dissolved for a general election.
The Bill has been contested by Liberal Democrats, vociferous Labour and Conservative rebels, and NO2ID and its thousands of supporters. Business groups, academics, civil liberties activists and ethnic minority groups have queued up to declare ID cards to be a terrible, impractical and illiberal idea.
The Bill’s passage through Parliament has not been a model of how things should be done:
Scrutiny Committee and Parliamentary debating time has been slashed, resulting in whole sections of the Bill going unexamined. The Home Affairs Select Committee and Joint Committee on Human Rights have highlighted problems with the Bill, and the withdrawal of Tory support leaves the only supporters of ID cards as the government front bench and their heavily disciplined Labour Legion of the Lost.
If rumours are true and the Bill is to be dropped, it will be because the government cannot afford another of its prize pieces of legislation to be savaged in the House of Lords, and would rather it slip through “lack of time” than to risk the Bill being publicly rubbished, and then vetoed.
The House of Lords, with its more independent, less party-centric approach has proved decisive in redrafting and amending defective legislation passed by the Commons, and NO2ID hopes that the Lords will continue to do so by voting against ID Cards, and not allowing last-minute deals that would guarantee an unscrutinised bill becoming law.
The ID Cards Bill may be shortly consigned to the Hansard shredding room, but as one of Labour’s Six Pledges should Labour win the election it will return again like the bad penny. NO2ID hopes that the MPs returned after the election are more in tune to their constituents’ opposition to the scheme, and more prepared to act on it.
The NO2ID Campaign
Box 412
19-21 Crawford Street
London W1H 1PJ
enquiries@no2id.net
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7340 6077
Press: click here
Register your support to receive a FREE supporters pack, regular email newsletter & alerts about NO2ID events in your area.
