Round 2 - Seconds Out

Ready to launch into quite a lengthy post about supermarkets, the current state of TV documentaries and Sainsbury's Magazine, I found this squatting on my door mat:

Dear Mr Scott,

I enclose a copy of a response I have received from Rt. Hon. Charles Clarke MP at the Home Office which I hope you find helpful in addressing your concerns regarding identity cards that you asked me to raise on your behalf.

Please do let me know if you feel I can be of further help in the future.

With best wishes,

Yours Sincerely,

Rt. Hon. Tessa Jowell MP

Dear Tessa,

Thank you for your further letter of 13 July on behalf of Mr Simon Scott about identity cards.

I wish to clarify here, regarding compulsion, what we say is that having the debate over compulsion now makes clear that we are building a base for a compulsory Identity Cards Scheme. It is important for service providers in the public and private sectors to have a clear message of the Government’s intent that this would become a compulsory scheme. The Home Affairs Committee agreed that the full benefits of the scheme would only come with compulsion. However, no date has yet been set for a decision on a move to compulsion. There are a number of factors which the Government will need to consider before recommending a move to compulsion to Parliament.

The identity card proposed will help individuals assert their identity in a range of every day situations. For example, many young people routinely carry their very valuable passport to prove their age, and an identity card would provide a more convenient way of doing this. Added to this are the benefits of protecting people’s indentity and their right to access services in a simple and convenient way. These benefits are reflected in the public support for identity cards and I can assure Mr Scott, with ergard to thesurveys conducted in recent opinion polls, the majority of the public are still in support of the Identity Cards Scheme which is reflected in the Identity Cards Trade Off Research report published recently.

I note the points made by Mr Scott and am grateful for the time he has taken to further write in on this issue.

Yours ever,

Charles Clarke

I love the "what we say is" from Charles Clarke. He sounds like he's letting an apprentice in on the secrets of peddling snake-oil.