ID Cards - a threat resurrected

I really should have written about the Government's proposals for ID Cards, resurrected since the General Election, well before now - but I was just too shell-shocked and depressed by this and a number of their other legislative proposals outlined in the recent Queen's Speech that I couldn't get up the energy to do it (hence the gap of several days in posting entries here during this week). It will be no secret to anyone that I abhor the whole concept of Devolution, even if I have had to accept reluctantly that we are probably saddled with it for the forseeable future, but at least in Scotland we may not be faced with the need to comply with these noisone police state measures when accessing services controlled by the devolved Scottish Executive (unless over-ruled by Westminster?) so perhaps, ironically, it will be our 'beloved' Labour/LibDem duopoly that mutes the worst aspects for us here - who'd have thunk it?

This article, however, in Samizdata.net has at last broken the log-jam. If the Conservatives do now add their voice (*) to the continuing LibDem opposition to the ID Card bill this, coupled with what I hope will be a decent number of Labour MPs with a conscience opposing it, too, we may just get to a situation where the Blair/Clark proposals can be consigned to oblivion; but I am, frankly speaking, not tremendously hopeful. I really must get my passport renewed before this daft and dangeorous legislation reaches the statute book. A vos armes, citoyens!!

(*) This is another matter that I really should have written about before; the coming leadership contest in the Conservative Party, not forgetting the hoped-for (by me) comeuppance for David McLetchie, the Party's Leader in the Scottish Parliament. There has been a concerted effort in the last 10 days to try and persuade people of how 'reasonable' David Davis is, and how his own origins will ensure that it is a 'caring' Party under his putative leadership. His opposition to ID Cards is certainly a help, but I am still not entirely convinced - he has a reputation for being pretty traditional in his social views as they affect diverse 'lifestyles'. At the time IDS became leader my other greatest fear for the Party then was that David Davis might slip through any gap between Duncan Smith and Clarke - David Davis now looks, at this early stage, nearly unstoppable. So I would like some interviewer to pin Davis down on his current views on this subject and not allow the kind of soft-focus in last Sunday's article in The Sunday Telegraph to define his public image - that was very far from a full picture, I suspect strongly. More on this when I get the time (and energy).