I read that Clarke admitted that ID cards wouldn't have prevented

[mr blur]

Thursday's bombings. So much for that then.

[mrfrapp]

1. Gorden Brown

There's are also reports that Gorden Brown will bin the scheme when/if he becomes Prime Minister.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article297922.ece

I don't suppose any of this will stop the bickering over the next few weeks about whether or not we should have them. But then again, as you know, my cynicism knows no bounds.

[mr blur]

3. My mistake. I should have guessed it might be Gordon.

just couldn't find where I read it.

[mrfrapp]

4. No, no, you were right.

Clarke also said that ID cards wouldn't have helped to prevent Thursday's bombings. In other words, there are two frontline MPs questioning the scheme - one publicly and one privately.

Bizarre.

[johannes1984]

2. Id cards

Lowland ID cards have been around for fifty or so years , and they have come to save us enough on social security and universal free health care to keep the balance on the green side .That said the reason they haven't had any bad side effects(the cards) is because we don't have intel apparatus .If the cards would be implemented in a larger nation , I wouldn't doubt though that they would be keen to overanylization from ever to eager analysts .

[ist rad]

5. Spanish identity cards didn't stop Madrid--

--and any attempt to force through ID cards on the back of thursday's bombings would have backfired horribly on the government, and Clarke knows it. But yeah, the fig leaves covering the authoritarian thrust of the proposed ID card scheme seem to falling away fast...