Saturday 23rd Nov, 2009
I.D. Card not Popular in Labour Heartland
Adam Pegley, www.idcardandyou.co.uk
I.D. Card not Popular in Labour Heartland
Adam Pegley, www.idcardandyou.co.uk
Manchester, the long-term Labour heartland is showing characteristic indifference to Home Secretary Alan Johnson's beloved piece of plastic. The scheme which goes live at the end of this month has so far only attracted the interest of 2000 people out of a population of 2.5 million.
Proportionally, this figure is higher than nationally where only 0.02% have enquired about the card (12,000 people out of a population of 62 million). The cards, which include biometric photos and fingerprints, will be rolled out nation-wide on a vountary basis from 2012.
One of Johnsons early acts as home Secretary was to make the card voluntary. Johnsons who said "I think it (the ID card) should be a voluntary decision, one that people choose to take, because they agree and welcome the benefits an identity card will provide"* will be troubled by the lack of interest. Similar disinterest nation-wide will scupper Labours plans for the ID card scheme if it remains on a voluntary basis.
Whilst Alan Johnsons committment to a voluntary ID card is commendable, the same should be extended to the full biometric passport (supported by Labour, LibDems, and Tories). As the people of Manchester have shown, given the choice, we would not choose either.