Davey probes ‘Big Brother’ Government

1.3.05

In the week of the anniversary of the abolition of the last UK ID card scheme over 50 year ago, Edward Davey sought to raise awareness of the Government’s proposal for their reintroduction. Typical of this Labour government, they have abused their oversized parliamentary majority to force through legislation, depriving Parliament time for full debate.

Edward Davey commented,

“This behaviour is especially dangerous when such a delicate issue as the balance of civil liberties and national security is at stake.”

As the Government has sought to intertwine the issues of ID cards and passports, and to imply that international obligations require us to introduce biometric databases, Edward Davey has asked the Government to clarify whether its current proposals actually go beyond those international obligations that it uses as justification.

Edward Davey further commented,

“The extremely curtailed time for debate highlights that the Government has felt unable to defend its policy to parliamentarians and the general public. In recognition of this, I have supported the motion asserting that, ‘a convincing case for the introduction of identity cards and a national database has not been made’.”