THINGS ARE GETTING UGLY

Yes those principled Labour backbenchers – all 30 of them (!) are threatening to rebel! Yikes!
As the Tories line up to back the ID cards – after all it was their idea in the first place – and QC Ian Macdonald resigns over Belmarsh ("an odious blot on our legal landscape") any signs that Blunketts resignation would signal a change of direction were quickly smashed.

The best Labour MPS can muster as the ‘People’s Party’ runs roughshod over centuries of rights is a paltry symbolic protest that's doomed to do nothing other than post a black-mark against their names.

Meanwhile it’s emerged that the government has banned the release of advice given by Lord Goldsmith, the attorney general, to cabinet ministers on whether the bill to introduce ID cards for 55 million British citizens will invade people's privacy or human rights.

The government's ban on the release of the information has come to light after Chris Pounder, editor of Data Protection and Privacy Practice, published by solicitors Pinsent Masons, applied for the document under the open government code. He was refused access on the grounds that its release "would harm the frankness and candour of internal discussion".

His concern arises from the fact that up to 50 items of information could be held on the ID card, including people's medical history and bank and mortgage details. He is also concerned that eventually the ID card would be essential for anybody using public services, even if the government did not intend this. He has lodged an appeal.

MPs will today be asked to accept a blanket assurance from the former home secretary, David Blunkett, that "the provisions of the identity cards bill are compatible with the European convention of human rights".

Incredible. Oh well, the stady march of the new right continues. It’s a day for quotes from old boys, Lenin springs to mind, who said: “Fascism is capitalism in decay". Certainly there’s an air of quiet desperation about New Labour lurching around in the policy territory of the far-right now.

Sad to hear of the wonderful Rumsfeld being exposed over his inability to personally sign the death notices to the relatives of people he sent to Iraq. Still he says he will from now on and the carnage has no sign of abating.

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