Next Stop - Council Elections

If you, like me, were a little disappointed in the behaviour of our elected representatives last night, and writing to your MP is like shouting at a brick wall, your next avenue of protest will probably be the local elections taking place in May.

Dear Councillors Dixon, McHugh & O'Connell,

Last night the MP for Dulwich and West Norwood, the Rt Hon. Tessa Jowell MP failed to vote in favour of amendments to the ID Card Bill regarding the removal of compulsion from the scheme. This measure would have at least brought the Bill into line with the Labour Party Manifesto pledge of the introduction of a voluntary scheme.

I have followed the issue of the ID Card Bill closely over the past few months and it has been made clear that the decision to instigate the scheme is entirely irrational. Tony Blair, himself a staunch opponent of ID Cards prior to his election as Prime Minister, stated in a press conference on 28th June 2005 that the ID Scheme would allow people to check their NHS records online, something that at present cannot happen because of fears over proof of identity. This clearly cannot be the case without every home computer being fitted with iris and fingerprint scanners. Gordon Brown on Sunday 12th February embarrassed himself in an interview with Andrew Marr by suggesting that ID Cards could in some way have had a bearing on the recent alleged Ricin plot (one which would never have worked and relied on multiple foreign identity documents beyond the scope of the ID Bill) and the 7th July bombings, which were perpetrated by British citizens working with scant resources. Every time a senior Labour politician opens his mouth to discuss the ID Card scheme we are treated to either lies or incompetence.

On 7th February Andrew Burnham sent out a letter to Labour MPs briefing them on the Bill. One of the statements made implied that Mr Burnham could not see why the London School Of Economics report suggested that a five year renewal of documentation and biometrics might be more feasible if the scheme is to work. In saying this he clearly is attempting to wilfully mislead members of the house. Northrop Grumman, the company that runs the national fingerprint information system stated in a Memorandum submitted to the Select Committee on Home Affairs in January 2004, that ID Cards will require replacing on average once every three years. The UKPS Corporate and Business Plans 2004 –2009 mentions the desire to have the new biometric passports renewed every five years, one of the reasons being to avoid a problem with damaged chips. Mr Burnham also calls into question the level set for lost or stolen ID cards, a figure the Home Office have based entirely on the current loss of documentation associated with passports. KPMG, in a report we know Mr Burnham has read, also advise him that the Home Office have underestimated this figure. Yet in his letter, Mr Burnham suggested the LSE have pulled the five-year renewal out of thin air. How are we to trust these people when they can't be called on to be truthful with their own colleagues?

I have had a frustrating series of attempted correspondence with Tessa Jowell in which she shows no interest in discussing her own beliefs about the ID Card Bill, or dealing with any of the arguments I have put forward in criticism of the scheme. Instead my letters have been forwarded to the Home Office, who reply with the very kind of ill-grounded dogma I have been complaining about.

In following the ID Card Bill I have become increasingly aware of the levels to which members of the Labour party will stoop in order to foist its expensive, intrusive measures onto an unwilling public. For all of Mr Blair's talk of listening, and Mrs Jowell's talk of wishing to win back the faith of the electorate, the Labour party has, if anything, become worse - relinquishing its whip only when it can't make its mind up. In reading about the scheme I am confronted with the same dilemma over and over again - is the speaker in question incompetent or corrupt? Whatever the answer, they should not be in power.

I believe the ID Card Bill to be one of the most important issues of the day, and as a result of Labour's handling of it, I feel it is my duty to not vote for you in the forthcoming council elections.

Yours sincerely,

Simon Scott.