Home Office job full of challenges for ‘doer’ Smith
Alan Travis writes in The Guardian:
Jacqui Smith made history yesterday by becoming the first female home secretary and the second youngest person to hold the job since Winston Churchill nearly a century ago.
…
The conventional wisdom at Westminster is that she is not close to Gordon Brown but that he likes her. As far as the Home Office is concerned – even in its slimmed-down version – she will face a number of tough challenges.
If Jack Straw had been given the job it would be a fairly strong bet that the future of the identity card scheme would now be in the melting pot.
But a quick glance at Ms Smith’s constituency website is enough to demonstrate that she is a strong supporter of the project and is likely to resist any Treasury attempt to scale it back.
Mr Travis’s comment probably refers to this item on Ms Smith’s web site:
ID cards will help the police fight crime. They will fight fraud and they will tackle crime that involves individuals who build up multiple identities and it will help in the fight against terrorism.
In addition, when we provide benefits or people receive free treatment on the NHS it is important that we know who the recipients of these services are. ID Cards will help us ensure that only those who are entitled to these services get them.
