As predicted the ID Card business is of course not dead. I do sometimes wonder where exactly the government gets its ideas from. This is clearly some sort of response to the whole illegal immigrants story (TM Mail/Express Made Up Stories Inc) but what are they hoping to achieve. The basic thrust of the idea is guaranteed to be opposed by a significant section of the very people who have been critical of the government, so you won’t satisfy them. Obviously a large proportion of the population will oppose it because DB wants it : therefore it must be both muddle headed and anti-democratic + of course the expense. I honestly don’t see why TB wants to get into bed with this idea. 1) Even if carried out properly the scheme is unlikely to resolve any of the issues it is being introduced to resolve.2) If it goes wrong the government will be facing a Poll Tax sized revolt and ultimately they will be defeated. If I was TB right now I would be quietly backing away from potential tar pits of opposition like this where in all reality votes can only be lost and concentrating on things that people actually want : Schools, Hospitals, Transport.

The ultimate problem is that this is active legislation. What this means is that people will have to actively do something as opposed to refrain from doing something in order to remain legal. It is easy enough to pass a law banning what 99.9% of the population don’t do but introducing a law that requires active participation from the whole population; a large part of which don’t want a card anyway . . . It doesn’t take a genius to work out that large sectors of the population simply won’t bother. I’m guessing that anything over about 10% civil disobedience on this will bring the whole thing to a shuddering grinding halt.

So to sum up, Tony, Introducing the ID card for your chum DB will result in :-

1) No reduction in crime, benefit fraud, illegal entry or terrorism
2) An increase in Police / Public conflict and a further entrenchment of the public’s refusal to co-operate with plod.
3) Ultimate failure due to non-compliance.
4) £3bn in new taxation without good purpose
5) Making a whole new section of the population hate you.
6) Defeat, humiliation and egg-on-face all round for you and your little chums.

In fact reading the above makes very depressing reading. The idea is clearly insane therefore we’re doomed – they’ll definitely introduce.

Perhaps we should think of this as a watershed. Just as the pigs became the capitalists in Animal Farm, TB & Chums have slowly become more and more to resemble the Tories they replaced, maybe not in legislation, but in arrogance, hypocrisy and dogmatic conviction in the face of all common sense. If DB & Tony won’t back down on this we know there’s no turning back – the only solution will be voting them out.

On the other hand wouldn’t particularly mind having one if I knew that the government and plod could be trusted not to abuse the increased authority this gave them. Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha HA HA HA HAHA HA . . . ip

Sorry – just wiping a tear from my eye.