ID Cards

D - No surprise to learn that Home Office Minger Charles Clarke is going to fight the Lords defeat of his plans for ID Cards to be tied into passports Clarke vows to continue ID battle.
Nor was it a surprise to learn that the New Labour Government (Who I merrily voted for in '97 and '01. Ha!) wanted to make all passport applicants have an ID Card as well, whether they liked it or not. Another example of the sneaky, backhanded method of creeping authoritarianism so beloved of this Government.
It's an odd sensation though to be relying on the unelected Lords (Target for plenty of youthful leftie criticism by myself) to uphold the civil and personal liberties of the English. For years they were the enemy, blocking any progressive legislation or waving through anything the bastard Tories proposed but now, they're the champions for those of us who don't want a bunch of smug and self-satisfied middle-class wankers telling us how we must live our lives.
While I never particuarly gave a stuff about Hunting one way or the other, the fact that Labour used the Parliament Act to force through the ban Hunt ban forced through Commons shows their priorities are seriously skewed.
While the assualt on an Englishmans civil liberty is important to me and many others, it's pretty obvious that the best way to counter attack the ID proposals are to highlight the cost. The public will accept them if they're free, but having to fork out £30-93 for one as the Government expects (Dependant on whether it is a stand-alone ID Card or incorporated into a Passport) let alone the scandalously high £170-300 estimated by the London School of Economics will soon make them turn against ID Cards. Any compulsion to have them by law will leave a nasty taste in the mouth and resentment will grow at what will be, in effect, a tax on being English in England.
The last time a British Government implemented such an unpopular and expensive tax on the British, full scale riots led to the downfall of Maggie Thatcher and the swift demise of the hated tax Poll Tax Riots.
The only hope is that the English won't put up with the expense (Or the ever-changing reasons the Government gives for the need for ID Card), the Government continue to dismiss all opposition and make the cards compulsary, riots break out once again and the whole worthless and offensive scheme is scrapped. And the Labour fucking Party can pick up the bill for the millions, possibly billions, of taxpayers money wasted on it.