Crunch Time

Today see's the third reading of the Identity Card Bill in the House of Commons. It is important that this bill becomes law because:

1. ID cards will stop terrorism.
2. ID cards will stop benefit fraud.
3. ID cards will stop indentity theft.
4. ID cards will stop immigrants working illegally.
5. Tony Blair says it is.

Just the one left then really. Don't believe me? Try this.

As I've said before, I think this is a very stupid bill for all sorts of reasons. I also genuinely believe that if it passes it will come back to haunt the Labour Party in the style of the Poll Tax. If it is ever to be implemented the whole scheme is going to go A over T and probably sooner rather than later. Errors, misuse of the database, fraud, huge budget overruns and the rest are going to plague this project from the moment it is launched. It'll be the National Millenium Dome of incompetance and mismanagement and it won't go away. And people will have a much stronger reaction to it as they start to realise that the government has endangered the very same private and personal information which the scheme is supposed to protect.

Still, at least that won't happen to me because I, along with 11,000+ other people, have already pledged to refuse to register if the bill becomes law. Will the bill get enough votes today? I don't know but we'll know pretty soon. If it does, things are going to take a turn for the ridiculous in no time at all.