Today the Telegraph publishes the results of the YouGov poll it commissioned. In comparison with a similar one published two years ago, public support for the ID cards bill has fallen from 78% to 45%. As the Telegraph points out:
“Such findings suggest that voters have done something that their MPs almost never do: fitted their opinions to the facts, rather than the other way around.”
Given my recent experience, I can relate to that comment.
Here we have a mirror of what happened to the Australia Card. That unmitigated disaster started with huge public support until people realised the implications. For a while, I was beginning to think that the UK public were not going to wake up to this. However a plethora of media coverage has achieved the necessary awareness and inevitable backlash.
For most people the objections probably centre around the practical and cost features of the bill. Even if we ignore for a moment the LSE findings, the government has been touting ever increasing figures. The original “entitlement” card was going to cost somewhere in the region of £30 when first mooted. This rose to £70 then £85 and at the last count, £93. Even given that the Prime Minister has insisted that the cost be capped, the government are not saying how much it will be. The LSE research committee has taken into account such things as changing biometric identifiers and concluded from this that cards will need renewing every five years rather than every ten years. While this seems a sensible conclusion to the rational observer, according to Charles Clarke, it is “mad”. I suppose this is a mild improvement on his predecessor, David Blunkett who referred to those who disagreed with him as “intellectual pygmies”. Kettles and pots spring to mind.
In 1995, a similar proposal was being mooted by the then Home Secretary, Michael Howard. His opposite number, a young, idealistic Tony Blair had this to say on the matter:
“We all suffer crime, the poorest and vulnerable most of all, it is the duty of government to protect them. But we can make choices in spending too. And instead of wasting hundreds of millions of pounds on compulsory ID cards as the Tory Right demand, let that money provide thousands of extra police officers on the beat in our local communities.”
Whatever happened to him?
It is probably no bad thing that this has been seen as a flagship bill for Tony Blair. He is damaged goods and his dissembling over this is an echo of those quicksand speeches justifying war in Iraq. People don’t trust him, they don’t trust what he says and when he says that this bill is a good thing, they conclude that it probably isn’t.
The question now, is will the government do the decent thing and put this bill out of its misery? Or are they so entrenched that they are incapable of recognising that they were wrong and it is time to admit it with dignity? As the Telegraph points out:
John Maynard Keynes once told a questioner: “When I realise I’m wrong, I change my mind. What do you do, Sir?” We can only hope that our ministers are big enough to do the same thing.
Well?
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