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Alan Johnson has used his first major announcement as home secretary to break with years of Labour policy by saying Britons should never be forced to own an ID card. In an abrupt U-turn to the position of the party’s former home secretaries, Mr Johnson said the identity cards would only be issued to Britons on a voluntary basis. A trial scheme requiring 20,000 airport staff and pilots to carry the cards will therefore be ditched, as will the state’s claims that the £30 identifiers are a “panacea” against terrorism. Mr Johnston explained that the government was wrong to allow this perception to grow, and said he preferred to see the cards as a means for youngsters to prove their age in bars. The cards of the £4.8bn identity scheme have already been hailed by the government as a solution to identity theft, benefit fraud, illegal working and organised crime. However since Mr Johnston replaced Jacqui Smith last month, the long-term contract for the production of the cards has been delayed by the home secretary until 2011 or 2012. The uncertainty for the IT contractor firms in the running for the deal is compounded by Tory pledges to cancel all ID card contracts if they win power at the next general election. That would represent a much bigger turnaround for the identity scheme than the one the home secretary has just announced, according to the scheme’s apolitical critics. They point out that while Mr Johnston said “holding an ID card should be a personal choice” Britons will still have their details entered on the National Identity Register when they apply for a passport. Failure to notify the register of updated names and addresses will carry a fine of up to £1,000 - which critics fear will lead to compulsion by the backdoor. “Once you sign up, you will be tagged for life,” said Phil Booth, national co-ordinator of NO2ID. “And it’s only voluntary in the sense that you can choose never to have a passport and volunteer not ever to travel.” Isabella Sankey, director of policy for Liberty, said:“ However you spin it, big ears, four legs and a long trunk still make an elephant. And this white elephant is as costly to privacy and race equality as to our purses. “As long as entry on the National Identity Register is automatic when applying for a passport [from 2011] the ID scheme will be compulsory in practice.” When ID cards were first suggested by David Blunkett, the Home Secretary in 2001, the intention was that they would eventually be compulsory, by 2013, and then by 2018 at the latest. In an initial review of the scheme, police forces said the advantages of the cards would be reduced if people did not have to own and carry them by law. The Tories seized on this early recommendation yesterday, saying: “If this system is not going to be compulsory…what’s the point of it?” Under Mr Johnson’s announcement, identity cards will still be compulsory for foreign nationals, while they might be given away for free to the over-75s. A scheme allowing Britons to buy the identifiers will also go live across the whole of the north west of England from next year, Mr Johnson said. Mr Booth reflected: “In reality nothing has been scrapped, they have merely backed down from a messy fight with the unions over issuing ID cards to airside workers this autumn. Not so much a U-turn, as hitting a brick wall.” Jul 2, 2009 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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