Monthly Archives: June 2009


Jonathan Oliver writes in The Sunday Times: Alan Johnson, the home secretary, has launched an urgent review of the £6 billion identity card (ID) scheme, paving the way for a possible U-turn on one of Labour’s flagship policies. Johnson, who was promoted in Gordon Brown’s latest cabinet reshuffle, is understood to be “sympathetic” to critics who claim identity cards will undermine civil liberties. The home secretary told officials that he wanted a “first principles” rethink of the plan, which was launched by Tony Blair following the 9/11 attacks in 2001 and has since been championed by Brown as a way of fighting terrorism.

Alan Johnson eyes ID card U-turn


According to Computing: Information Commissioner Richard Thomas has been honoured in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List and has been made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). But there has been speculation around Westminster that Thomas, whose term of office expires at the end of this month, has received recognition at a lower level than his status might suggest. Thomas was indirectly responsible for the MPs’ expenses row by ruling that politicians’ spending should be published after a Freedom of Information request for the details was originally rejected by the government. He has also been highly critical of privacy scandals involving lost data at the Ministry of Defence, HM Revenue and Customs and other government departments, as well as warning of the risk to individual privacy posed by creating a central database on personal information for the national ID card. Thomas has perhaps become most famous for […]

Information Commissioner Richard Thomas receives OBE


The BBC reports that Labour MPs in the Campaign group, chaired by John McDonnell, are threatening to stand under their own manifesto at the next election if Prime Minister Gordon Brown fails to adopt their policies: Among the policies Mr McDonnell wants to see is the restoration of trade union rights, more council houses, an end to public service privatisation, scrapping the Heathrow third runway, freezing and then abolishing student fees, scrapping Trident and ID cards and electoral reform. He said: “If Labour is to stand any chance of surviving at the next election real change has to be visibly underway and progress demonstrated at the latest by the autumn. If we go beyond November without real change, what hope is left of Labour not only remaining in government but surviving as an effective political force at all?”

Labour MPs threaten own manifesto



James Slack writes in the Daily Mail: Creating a database of the 11million adults who work with children could ruin the lives of innocent people, the privacy watchdog warns today. Richard Thomas, who is stepping down after more than six years as Britain’s first Information Commissioner, says he has serious concerns about the system being launched in October for the Independent Safeguarding Authority. The ISA computer will contain detailed files on all the adults who work with children, whether professionally or as volunteers. But it will not only record criminal convictions, but also any so-called soft intelligence on individuals – which could include unfounded allegations, rumours or gossip passed to the police or social services. An official working for the ISA will then decide whether or not someone is fit to work with children – without the person knowing what he or she is accused of. Mr Thomas said the […]

Big Brother database on adults working with children may ruin ...


The Guardian carries a double-page spread on policy ideas that could “revive Labour’s battered prospects”. Alan Travis contributes idea number 6: Scrap ID cards A decision by the new home secretary, Alan Johnson, to repeal the identity card legislation would signal his intention to halt the growth of the database state and unite the government’s libertarian critics from both the left and right.

Need a big idea, Mr Brown? Here are 12 for ...


10
Denis MacShane writes on the Guardian Comment is Free web site with some observations about the European parliament elections made while campaigning both in his South Yorkshire constituency and in other parts of Europe. Amongst them are: 3. Racism and xenophobia are now part and parcel of European elections. Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel made their views against the accession of Turkey, a majority Muslim nation, the archstone of their campaign. The manifesto of the centre-right EPP federation explicitly referred to Europe as a Judeo-Christian concept. No room for Muslims then. The Federation of Poles of Great Britain recently published a dossier of 80 headlines from the Daily Mail which in their judgment amounted to anti-Polish xenophobia. This helps create the swamp the BNP grows in. The more Poles, Slovaks and other foreigners are presented by the right as a problem, the more the BNP and Ukip vote grows. 4. […]

Ten lessons for the left from Europe




Iain Macwhirter writes in the Sunday Herald: Some are beginning to wonder if this may be the end of the road for Labour as a political force in the land. The party lost its principles years ago. Is it now losing the will to live? It will certainly lose the election, probably in October, no matter who is in charge. Labour will lose badly and go through a period of internal turmoil as it tries to remember what it is supposed to be here for. The party lost its way under Tony Blair and became the political wing of the financial services industry. Brown was supposed to return Labour to its roots, and reconnect with core social democratic values. Instead we got identity cards, Trident, detention and the moral compass.

Brown’s lonely battle against the Westminster WAGS and MAGS


2
Polly Toynbee, writing in the Guardian, wonders what policy initiatives might help save Labour’s reputation: Royal Mail privatisation hovers in the balance, a possible trigger to another revolt, if Brown and Peter Mandelson are foolish enough to pursue it; it would be easy, and true, to say the price is not right in a recession. Alan Johnson is said to be against ID cards. So will he scrap them before the final expensive contracts have to be signed? If so, what loss of face for Brown to admit the enormous waste of money already spent.

MPs will face liquidation in a near-Labourless landscape



1
Colin Challen MP (Labour, Morley & Rothwell) has a letter published in the Guardian: Whoever leads the Labour party in the coming year needs to make a bold break with the past – or voters will do the job for us. Boldness, for me, would mean recalling parliament in September to hear an early Queen’s Speech with the following commitments: to legislate for proportional representation in time for the next general election; to repeal ID cards legislation (I was wrong to support it); to introduce a strategic defence review predicated on dropping Trident; to re-energise Labour’s traditional internationalist stance; to abandon new nuclear power and to commence a green industrial strategy. Some contrition would not go amiss. John Major’s great feat in 1992, winning the highest popular vote of any incumbent prime minister in the 20th century, came about in great measure because he ditched Thatcher’s flagship policy, the poll […]

Reforms need to be more realistic


Murray Wardrop writes in the Daily Telegraph: Hundreds of teenagers are having their DNA taken by police in case they commit crimes later in life, an officer has disclosed. Officers are targeting children as young as 10 with the aim of placing their DNA profiles on the national database to improve their chances of solving crimes, it is claimed. The alleged practice is also described as part of a “long-term crime prevention strategy” to dissuade youths from committing offences in the future. The claim comes amid widespread criticism of government proposals to store DNA profiles of innocent people, including some children, on the database for up to 12 years.

Police ‘arrest innocent youths for their DNA’, officer claims


The BBC reports comments in the House of Lords about the Policing and Crime Bill during its second reading there: The government plans to hold DNA profiles of those cleared of crimes – or never even charged – for six years, except in cases of serious violent or sexual offences when they will be retained for 12. The details of about 4.5 million people are currently held with around one in five of them not having a current criminal record. However the government was warned to expect defeats if changes were not made at later stages. Liberal Democrat peer Lady Miller complained that “issues of major principle” – such as the retention of DNA samples and fingerprints – had not been debated at an earlier stage. “We will be joining with the other opposition party here to remedy what we see as many of the deficiencies in that part of […]

Ministers warned over DNA plans



Robert Verkaik writes in The Independent The new Home Secretary will find a brimming in-tray of pressing matters that need careful handling. The potential political banana skins include the ID card scheme which has become so unpopular. Jacqui Smith chose to fight the next election on a platform which would make ID cards central to the Government’s pledge to be uncompromisingly tough on law and order. But her successor could buy off a highly effective civil liberties lobby by ditching the scheme altogether. There are tough decisions ahead on the DNA database and plans to implement EU laws to monitor everyone’s email and internet traffic. Concessions have been made on both but there is room for political manoeuvre. After the European court found the Government had breached the human rights of people wrongly accused of crimes, Ms Smith grudgingly agreed to do the bare minimum to satisfy the judgment on […]

Home Office in-tray is full of lethal traps


Ian Dunt writes on the Politics.co.uk web site about Jacqui Smith’s tenure at the Home Office: And then, of course, there was ID cards, which the home secretary followed with the same dogged and ridiculous dedication as her predecessors. She started her terms saying it would cost £30 a head. We now know it will cost considerably more than that. She said the public were gagging for them, despite all evidence to the contrary. It remains a solution in search of a problem. She joined the game of finding things for the cards to fix. Immigration? Terrorism? Identity fraud. Most of the public has come to the conclusion of what they are for already – to help control and organise the population of Great Britain.

Good riddance to a bad home secretary


1
Mike Lowe writes in Public Servant Daily: As part of the initial roll-out of ID cards, the government announced plans – called the critical worker identity card (CWIC) scheme – for all those in sensitive roles at airports to be issued with an identity card. But when Home Secretary Jacqui Smith officially launched an early-adopter scheme for the citizens of Manchester in May, a much smaller announcement was made changing the rules of the CWIC scheme. Originally, and against much union opposition, all airside workers were expected to apply for an ID card once the pilot began or potentially lose their jobs. The British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) were fiercely outspoken on the matter and threatened the government with legal action if it went ahead. Yet in its May announcement, the Home Office changed the terms so that only those newly recruited as airside workers will be expected to apply […]

U-turn on airport ID cards