ID Cards bill passes
On the day after the government finally overwhelmed the concerted parliamentary opposition to the ID Cards Bill, it seems appropriate to quote the story in the only national newspaper left that still supports the measure – The Sun. All the salient facts are here:
Compulsory ID cards were finally given the go-ahead by the House of Lords last night after a compromise deal.
Peers backed the plan by a majority of 227.
Now anyone applying for a passport before January 2010 can opt out of having an ID card.
The Identity Cards Bill later won a 217 majority in the Commons — 301 to 84.
Home Secretary Charles Clarke hailed the deal as a “sensible and acceptable compromise”.
But Shadow Home Secretary David Davis vowed that if the Tories win the next election his first act as Home Secretary would be “to do away with this Bill”.
Lib Dem MP Nick Clegg said the Bill would “erode privacy, curtail freedom and cost an extraordinary amount”.
He added: “It is a monstrous expansion of big, big government.”
We’ll see how The Sun feels about this in a year or two when its readers find they have to “prove their identities, day-in, day-out”, as promised by Andy Burnham on the Today programme earlier in the week.
March 31st, 2006 at 07:23
I’ve just been over the Today programme’s running order for the last week, where did he appear?
March 31st, 2006 at 11:20
This is what I wrote in my comment on 10th March: “MP’s will vote it in and the Lords will cave in. They always do. It will be down to the masses to resist it – just like the poll tax.”
The Sun has helped reveal the media’s true function – a mouthpiece for the ruling elite. It’s certainly not a paper for the people as it claims to be. They should carry a header that reads: The Sun – The British Government’s Favourite Newspaper!
Charles Clarke should have hailed the deal as a “sensible and acceptable cave in”. At least, for once, he would have been telling the truth.
March 31st, 2006 at 12:49
Although its clear the intent of Charles Clarke and Andy Burnham is to massively expand the states influence and control on our every day lives (and history will judge them accordingly) I would fret less about civil liberties and more about the massive waste of money since the project will become the biggest IT failure in history. They can’t say they weren’t warned.
I hope that the companies who take on this project have superb public relations personal..