The Home Office minister responsible for ID cards (Tony McNulty) has admitted that ID cards will not stop fraud or terrorism (reported by BBC News). Now, perhaps I’m being a perfectionist, but wasn’t that the whole reason they wanted them in the first place? So basically we get the big brother state, and other associated human rights abuses, without any benefits at all.
Second, what are ID cards trying to achieve? In the two years since the plan was first mooted, its primary purpose has skidded from public service entitlement, to fighting crime and terrorism, to cutting identity fraud, and back again, in a frenzy to keep up with the news agenda of the day.
Looks like NO2ID got it spot on (this quote is from an article posted a week ago)
Of course, it was already painfully obvious (the two sets of London bombers were British citizens, and would have had ID cards, and passports are supposed to be forgery-proof [we all know how true that is]), but for a government minister to actually admit it shows what these people are like- we’re going to pay £18 billion (£300 for every man, woman and child) for a card that does… erm… nothing. More great thinking brought to you by the Blairite Party. It ain’t my fault, I didn’t vote for them!