Compulsorary ID cards abandoned
British nationals will not be forced to carry identity cards after Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, scrapped plans to make the controversial £4.9 billion scheme compulsory. In a significant climb down, Mr Johnson yesterday announced that the cards would only be issued to Britons on a voluntary basis. The move raises the prospect of the scheme being abandoned altogether if no one takes them up. The first attempt to impose compulsory ID cards on Britons - a pilot scheme involving airside workers - has now been scrapped. It had not even begun. In his first major policy announcement as Home Secretary, Mr Johnson admitted the Government had exaggerated the benefits the cards would have in tackling the terror threat. Instead the Government was now focusing on the advantages of the cards to young people, such as being able to prove they were old enough to buy alcohol. Mr Johnson insisted he was still an “instinctive” supporter of ID cards and that the programme was even being speeded up by making the cards - for which the holder has to pay £30 - available to more parts of the country earlier than planned. However, opponents said the announcement that they would no longer be compulsory signalled the scheme was in chaos and marked its “death knell”. Both the Tories and Liberal Democrats have said they will scrap the programme if they win power. Civil liberty campaigners welcomed yesterday’s announcement. However, they warned that under the terms of the scheme, people’s personal details would still be stored on the National Identity Register at the point when they obtained or renewed a passport. snip http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/5700798/Home-Secretary-abandons-compulsory-ID-cards.html

Re: Compulsorary ID cards abandoned
Instead the Government was now focusing on the advantages of the cards to young people, such as being able to prove they were old enough to buy alcohol. I'm sure that young people are well aware that it's cheaper to get a decent fake I.D. which is more than adequate for buying alcohol; seriously and more fundamentall I've never been asked to prove my age when buying alcohol, is this a genuine reason for a discredited multi-billion pound scheme. Civil liberty campaigners welcomed yesterday’s announcement. However, they warned that under the terms of the scheme, people’s personal details would still be stored on the National Identity Register at the point when they obtained or renewed a passport. Here's the money-shot. The database stays. I've always said that the I.D. card is just a piece of plastic; an odious piece of plastic, for sure, but just a piece of plastic - the truly and deeply nefarious part of the whole system is the Register; I haven't seen an unequivocal commitment to scrap it from the Tories either, they just talk about the I.D. card scheme.

the truly and deeply nefarious part of the whole system is the Register; I haven't seen an unequivocal commitment to scrap it from the Tories either, they just talk about the I.D. card scheme. _________________ I haven't seen an explicit pledge to scrap the database, either ... but I assumed this was part of the deal. The Tories expect to make substantial savings by abolishing the ID card, but those savings will not be there if the database is left in place, will they? And if people are not paying up for the card, it may even cost more?

I am cynical too. But I have to say that Cameron has been pretty clear on the ID card thing and civil liberties in general. Of course, the proof of the pudding....

Is it all significant, when contemplating the shadow cabinet, that David Davies left it in order to campaign about civil liberties? Does this tell us anything about the Cameroons?