I know I just said I was cheerful about everything, but I forgot this

[cosmolinguist]

I was so cheered, paging through the Grauniad yesterday at work, to see the headline "ID card scheme put off until after election." Especially because this is apparently according to something "leaked" from the government: imagine that, the UK government not keeping track of sensitive information!

But then I realize it's just a stupid Tory spin on something that sounds like it's no different from before anyway. "Last night the Home Office said it had always maintained that the scheme would be rolled out incrementally." Well they would say that, but still it sounds about right. And it's probably also right that the Home Office's action plan published in 2006 stated a key milestone was "2010: we will issue significant volumes of ID cards alongside British passports".

But I didn't care about all of that very much when I got to this lovely paragraph a bit further down:

The first group required to apply will be students and those married to British citizens or involved in civil partnerships or long-term relationships.

Oh for fuck's sake...

Comments

[quuf.livejournal.com]

Incremental roll-outs are wonderful . . . unless you're among the first increments. :(

[nameandnature]

Vote Tory, Cameron's said he'll ditch ID cards. I'm getting fed up of this lot.I'm not a natural Tory voter, but Labour are pretty close to losing my vote.

[cosmolinguist]

I'm not allowed to vote. :) For the very reason that I'd like to vote against this: I'm a dirty foreigner.

[diffrentcolours]

Cameron has promised to "scrap ID cards". He has failed to promise, when asked directly, to abandon the entire National Identity Scheme, or to commit to repealing the Identity Cards Act 2006. He has also said that it is "not appropriate" for Tory voters to join NO2ID.

So I'd like to believe that this whole database state malarkey would go away under a Tory adminstration, but I'm not going to hold my breath. Fortunately, in my constituency, voting Lib Dem to oust Labour will be slightly less a futile waste of effort than voting Tory, so I can do so with a clear conscience :)

[cosmolinguist]

Good point; I don't even know if there is a Tory candidate I could vote for here. I've never heard of one, I don't think.

[nameandnature]

In my constituency the Tories are in with a sizeable majority and the sitting MPs voting record has him against ID cards. The Graun says he's all right, so I guess he can't be all bad. Having moved out of Cambridge, I don't think we're in danger of being Labour seat anyway: rural East Anglia is pretty solidly Tory. I reckon the sitting Tory MP would have to do something really stupid to get a swing to the LDs big enough to oust him (like voting for tuition fees in a university town, say). If I were still in Cambridge city, I'd vote LD. It's not clear who I should vote for here.

[kaet.livejournal.com]

The main problem with voting Tory is that the tories can't be trusted. Cameron is only one person and even if he's wonderful, he's surrounded by a strong and rather insane party which really control their governments. If Cameron gets in, I'm sure the same thing will do him as did for Major. And we'll come out of their term with more bad laws which are rarely repealed.

The choice is dire at the moment: labour are anti-freedom, the tories are generally malevolent, and voting lib dem is like pissing into the wind. Still, that's what I'm going to do: I've always had a quixotic streak.

[matgb]

Cameron's said he'll ditch the cards he hasn't said much about the register, which is the bigger problem.

Clegg, on the other hand, has said not only that he'll ditch both, but he'll refuse to comply with the legislation and will risk jail by doing so.

So it's not just a vote Tory option, it's vote against Labour, in a chunk of Labour held seats, that requires voting Lib Dem.

Caveat: I joined the Lib Dems about 18 months ago, partially because of their stance over ID cards.