ID cards limp on to the Lords
October 20th, 2005So the Government won the third reading of the ID cards bill, despite some curious absences. I myself wonder if the Government didn’t time the bill’s reading deliberately to coincide with the Conservative leadership election, so that it would go unnoticed by the majority, but that is only a suspicion…
I haven’t the time to write properly about it at the moment, but many others have. Chris Lightfoot points out that Charles Clarke’s supposed concession on restricting it to information that is only on the passport is not much of a concession. Meanwhile, Spyblog highlights a jaw-dropping piece of stupidity by the minister responsible, Tom McNulty, who wants the ID register accessible and editable via the Internet (so much for the watertight security). Talk Politics has not just one, but two very long pieces on the subject in general.
Now the Bill is being sent over to the Lords, Politics of Privacy has pointed out that the Salisbury Convention will mean it won’t be blocked. I’m not so sure about that; unlike the government that swept to power in 1945, New Labour only got in on 35% of the vote as opposed to 50%, and won the Commons vote on Wednesday with only half their normal majority. At the very least, I hope the Lords will put up a good fight, at least.
October 21st, 2005 at 12:24:17
It’s also worth saying that the Salisbury Convention requires only that the Lords don’t defeat manifesto commitments of the Government party. The Identity Cards Bill goes far beyond the one-sentence description of an ID cards scheme in the 2005 Labour Manifesto.