Peter Hoskin

The ID card scrap

There’s much ado about ID cards ’round Westminster today.  Reports in this morning’s papers suggest that the Government is thinking about scrapping the £5 billion project, to help combat the debt crisis.  The Independent even has a “senior Cabinet minister” telling them that, “My sense is that ID cards will not go ahead.  We have to find savings somewhere, and it would be better to shelve schemes like this that aren’t popular.”  Yet the PM’s spokesman has just briefed the lobby that the government “remains committed” to the scheme.

To my mind, this highlights the political difficulty that the government will face in dealing with the debt crisis.  If they don’t slaughter certain “sacred cows” (as the Independent’s source calls the ID card programme), then they’re open to the charge that they’re not taking the problem seriously enough. 

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