ID cards an expensive farce

by John Fitzsimons on 02 July 2009  |  8 comments
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We will still face a massive bill for identity cards, despite the Government’s latest U-turn.

I like Alan Johnson. He is clearly a very decent bloke, from pretty humble beginnings, and is one of the few politicians (certainly on the Labour benches) whose stock has risen over the past couple of years.

And I have a lot of sympathy for him over the latest Government fudge - ID cards.

After years and years of being told they would be essential in fighting terror/illegal immigration/benefit cheats/Ant & Dec (delete as applicable), and millions and millions of pounds of public money going into the scheme, turns out we don't need them now.

No, ID cards will now be voluntary for all UK citizens. Only foreign national workers will be required to carry them.

What on earth is the point? What can a voluntary card possibly achieve?

Now personally, I didn't really have that much of a problem with ID cards. Yes, it's all a bit Orwellian with the Government knowing where you are and what you're doing, but I'm not daft enough to think that isn't already the case.

And I never bought into the idea that it would somehow fight terrorism (a sales pitch even Johnson has admitted was daft) but, perhaps naively, believed it might be useful in tightening up on benefit cheats, and clamping down on illegal workers.

But is that really going to happen now the cards are just voluntary? Why would anyone want to sign up? This scheme could end up costing £20bn according to the London School of Economics, which is an awful lot for a bit of card that serves little purpose.

Quite clearly, Johnson doesn't want the cards. That's why a month into the job there has been this change. And I'd wager that if he had his way, they would be gone completely. But after all the years of spin and wasted money, I'm sure that he was not allowed to scrap them entirely.

The fact that the Government have even pulled out of running a trial with airport workers because of fears of industrial action is just further proof that the Government knows nobody wants them, but is too pig-headed to scrap them completely.

What do you think? Should the cards just be binned altogether? Or is this a masterstroke? Let me know via the comment box below!