NO2ID: ID cards bill on the rocks - LSE vindicated

Tuesday, 17, Jan 2006 12:00

NO2ID this evening welcomed another devastating setback to the Government's proposed ID cards and National Identity Register. The House of Lords overwhelmingly passed an amendment by a majority of 81 requiring the full costs of ID cards to be properly audited and presented to Parliament before the scheme can proceed.

Phil Booth, NO2ID's National Coordinator said:

"The Government are attempting legalised identity theft. They want to take our most personal data and not only charge us for the privilege, but charge others for checking it. The Home Office's proposed scheme would create a

huge new State monopoly, funding the unprecedented surveillance of the British people. We applaud the peers who have brought the Government to account.

"It is particularly apt that the Lords should nail the Government on costs. They have tried throughout to make the argument about ID cards seem to be all about the costs; picking fights with anyone who contradicts them--most

notably the LSE. No-one believes the Home Office figures, and they've seriously undermined public trust in ID cards before even managing to pass the legislation.

"At last the Government are being forced to justify themselves, and they don't seem to have any answers. What price privacy? How do you value freedom? And what choice will there be for law-abiding, tax paying citizens-or are we expected just to foot the bill in silence and suffer the consequences?"