More bad news for Safety

ID cards would be of “limited value” against terror and would not have prevented the London attacks in July, says the reviewer of anti-terror laws.

Liberal Democrat peer Lord Carlile said he had changed his mind on identity cards, which he had previously backed.

“I can’t think of many terrorist incidents, in fact I can think of very few… that ID cards would have brought to an earlier end,” he told GMTV.

The bill introducing the ID cards plan is currently going through Parliament.

It recently suffered two defeats in the Lords, with peers wanting an entirely voluntary scheme, and ministers wanting people applying for new passports and driving licences to be obliged to go on the ID card register.

“ID cards could be of some value in the fight against terrorism but they are probably of quite limited value,” Lord Carlile told GMTV’s Sunday programme.

You know it. I know it. Now even the government’s own advisor on anti-terrorist legislation knows it.

So why can’t the Safety Elephant see it?

Answers on a postcard to Charles Clarke MP c/o the Home Office.

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