Is this true?

On the Boris Johnson blog it says:

Tomorrow is the big vote: Second Reading of the ID Cards Bill at 9.30/10.00pm.

...

Boris has always been opposed to ID cards and now the Party are fully with him on this; and what with the Lib Dems on board and Labour's majority reduced the result should be tight.

Boris has, as far as I can tell, been against not only the government scheme but also against state imposed ID cards in general. Does and now the Party are fully with him on this mean that the Tories are against state imposed ID cards in principle or just against this particular Labour scheme?

We need to know.

I've received the following reply to my above posting from Melissa at Boris Johnson's office:

Thank you for your comment [trackback] on the Boris-Johnson.com site. Here is a reply to your question from Michael Howard's Office:

The Identity Cards Bill which the Government introduced to Parliament in the last session before the General Election would have established a national ID card scheme in the United Kingdom.

We have always judged the ID cards scheme by five tests: the purpose of the scheme; the technological capability available to Britain; the capability to manage the scheme; the cards’ value for money; and, most importantly, civil liberties – including the database and the security of the system. Adequate time should have been provided to debate these very important issues, but the Government did not allow it. It has failed to answer our five tests. Consequently, the Conservative Party does not support the ID Cards Bill recently re-introduced to the House of Commons by the Government.

So I guess there's no change then.

I think they are saying that an easily managed, technologically feasble, fully secure system using value for money cards where the aim is to identify people to the satisfaction of the government would get Tory support in the current political and social climate.

Well, at least I'm still a conservative.

Posted by John at June 27, 2005 12:12 PM | TrackBack