Identity Cards Bill

Let me start by associating my party with the Home Secretary’s final comments about the staff involved—his civil servants, the staff of the House and the support staff for all the parties. I include the Liberal Democrats in that, even though, despite the generous and non-partisan nature of which he made so much in his speech, he does not. The Home Secretary started by attempting to tease me about my view on this amendment. The amendment reminds me of an old story told to me by a regimental sergeant-major some 25 years ago, which I shall repeat solely for the purpose of amusing the hon. Member for Ealing, North (Stephen Pound), who is in his place. The officers’ mess had given the sergeants’ mess a barrel of beer and the commanding officer asked the sergeant-major what they made of it and whether they liked it. He said, ““It was just right, sir.”” The CO said, ““Just right?”” He said, ““Yes, sir. If it had been any worse we couldn’t have drunk it, and if it had been any better, you wouldn’t have given it to us.”” That about sums up this amendment—just acceptable. The amendment is a major concession by the Government in one respect—nobody who does not want an ID card need have one before the next election. That, of itself, is worth having. If the election comes at its latest possible date, there will be a small gap from January 2010 until May 2010, but people can avoid that, I guess, by buying their passport a few months early. The Home Secretary referred to two unpalatable aspects of the compromise that he struck with Lord Armstrong, in which the Government drove Lord Armstrong away from his original intent. First, there is the maintenance of the requirement for entry on the identity register. Despite what he says, that is mitigated without the ID cards, because the information that goes with the ID card is limited—most perniciously, the so-called audit trail. The Home Secretary said what is legally correct—the audit trail will still exist. But, of course, the origin of the data for the audit trail is the ID card, so that will not be there. Secondly, and more interestingly, the Government desperately resisted having the sunset date, on which full compulsion takes effect, after July 2010. They insisted that it should move forward to January 2010. Why was there such agony over those six months? The answer is obvious—they are desperate to avoid compulsion becoming an issue in the next general election. In that, they will fail. The amendment mitigates and defers the worst aspects of a very bad scheme. It does not, however, cure the scheme.