Climbdown on compulsory ID cards
According to the BBC:
Home Secretary Alan Johnson has dropped plans to make ID cards compulsory for pilots and airside workers at Manchester and London City airports.
The cards were due to be trialled there – sparking trade union anger.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling said that the reverse in policy was “an absurd fudge” and “symbolic of a government in chaos”.
But Mr Johnson said the ID card scheme was still very much alive – despite Tory and Lib Dem calls to scrap it.
He said the national roll-out of a voluntary scheme was being speeded-up – with London to get them a year early in 2010 and over-75s to get free cards.
June 30th, 2009 at 21:39
This is not a climbdown. This is the age-old tactic of saying that they will be optional with every intent of making them compulsory later. No change there then. If anything they are speeding up the plan for the introduction. This is bad. We still have to fight.
July 1st, 2009 at 09:55
It’s not really a climb down. I don’t remember when they said that the cards would be compulsory. It’s the database, stupid! I don’t see any climbdown there. They will still number us by stealth via passports. The price of passports will go up, the voluntary ID cards will be much less – those who only want to travel in Europe will accept the cheaper ID card.
No change as far as I can see.