Friday, March 31, 2006
An historic moment
Look at this. The Conservative Party actually have a Tory policy. The Conservatives will scrap ID Cards if they win the 2010 election, shadow home secretary David Davis promised last night.
"While I recommend that my party support the amendment, let there be no doubt that my first act when I take over as home secretary after the next election will be to do away with the Bill," declared shadow home secretary David Davis in the Commons last night, after telling Conservative MPs to vote in support of the compromise amendment.
"It is still an unwarranted intrusion on the privacy of the individual," he said. "It is still ineffective, costly and potentially dangerous. It is still a massive reversal of the relationship between the citizen and the state."
As I think that most of the mechanisms for running an ID system will be in place by the next General Election I hope this isn't like the pre-'97 Labour commitment to a Freedom of Information Act, that in the still unlikely event of the Tories getting in at the next election they don't turn around and say 'well, now the program is so advanced it's too expensive to scrap it, we've decided to keep it instead'. Not that I'd consider voting Tory because of this...
"While I recommend that my party support the amendment, let there be no doubt that my first act when I take over as home secretary after the next election will be to do away with the Bill," declared shadow home secretary David Davis in the Commons last night, after telling Conservative MPs to vote in support of the compromise amendment.
"It is still an unwarranted intrusion on the privacy of the individual," he said. "It is still ineffective, costly and potentially dangerous. It is still a massive reversal of the relationship between the citizen and the state."
As I think that most of the mechanisms for running an ID system will be in place by the next General Election I hope this isn't like the pre-'97 Labour commitment to a Freedom of Information Act, that in the still unlikely event of the Tories getting in at the next election they don't turn around and say 'well, now the program is so advanced it's too expensive to scrap it, we've decided to keep it instead'. Not that I'd consider voting Tory because of this...
