Blog:Compulsory ID Cards
From Bolton Interweb
Cary Urbagg, Political Correspondent, 3rd July 2009
Harriet Harperson, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, tells us on BBC Question Time that the Government haven't done a U-Turn on the issue of compulsory ID Cards, and that there was never an intention to make them compulsory for UK citizens without a vote in the Commons, and they will now be voluntary. So, since the Queens Speech in 2003, we have all been getting wound up over nothing it seems, a six year senior moment. We've stepped out of the shower and the last six years never existed. It seems billions of pounds have not been wasted on a compulsory ID card scheme but on a voluntary scheme. Somehow that makes it worse, particularly when the QT audience were asked to indicate if they would voluntarily apply for an ID card and only four hands were raised.
Meanwhile Gordon Brown tells Parliament that spending will rise in the years to come by 0%, yes nought. We all know that spending cuts will need to be made by whatever party wins the next election and denying the obvious and even denying the Government's own figures, is frankly ludicrous. The real question is whether you want Gordon's cuts or David Cameron's. On balance, I'd rather go with the one who faces reality and knows that 0% isn't a rise. Scratch that, I'd rather have Vince Cable as Chancellor, the only man in the Commons who seems to know what he is talking about when it comes to economics. Fingers crossed for Lib Dems in a coalition government.
Gordon also pontificates on personal attacks. This is the man whose right hand man, Damien McBride, was planning on publishing lurid fabricated stories about Opposition MPs' personal lives. This is the man whose machine has consistently used personal attacks to undermine even his own side for even the mildest criticism. You can't head the team making the attacks and claim innocence, it just doesn't wash. One of the rules of foul play is plausible deniability. Sorry Gordon, but there is nothing plausible about the denials of responsibility and hypocrisy just makes matters worse.
Full circle back to ID Cards; it seems this Government is intent on denying the bloody obvious and rewriting history but the public are not as stupid as Gordon might want them to be. If Labour are to remain a force in British politics after the next election, even though winning it now is probably less likely than Elvis turning out to have retired to a bungalow in Margate, they must dump Gordon Brown sooner rather than later. Alan Johnson might just save some seats.
© Evrose, 2010
