Afternoon:
14°c
The scale of the national debt is such that any sane government would be searching for every possible saving it could make. But not this one.
Just as the National Institute for Economic and Social Research has suggested that the entire population will need to work to 70 if the debt is to be brought under control within a decade, the Government has decided to press ahead with perhaps its least popular policy proposal,the introduction of ID cards.
The scheme is to be introduced in a pilot project in Manchester, the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, announces today, prior to its national introduction in 2012. People there will have the opportunity to sign up voluntarily for a card, in post offices and pharmacies, though quite how many will want to pay £60 for that privilege remains to be seen. The estimated cost of the scheme is £5 billion.
Given that the funding even for crucial projects such as Crossrail is still being debated, it seems astonishing that this scheme is even being considered, when there is no evidence that it will actually combat fraud and terrorism.
It may be that the Prime Minister is proceeding with this initiative to give the impression of purposeful activity at a time when his cabinet is riven with speculation about a reshuffle and his public standing has rarely been lower.
In which case, his capacity for judging the public mood is worse than anyone thought. This is an issue that will further divide Labour backbenchers, many of whom are already in near-rebellion on the far more relevant subject of keeping the post office in public hands.
Most people will doubt that this is the best way to deal with illegal immigration and fraud. As the former Home Secretary David Blunkett has pointed out, many of the benefits of the card can be delivered with biometric passports. As for illegal immigration, it is best dealt with through effective border controls, which for most of the last decade ministers have failed adequately to implement. But it is on the basis of cost that this project really falls down. We cannot afford ID cards. Simple as that.
Social service
One of the realities about child protection services revealed by the death of Baby P was that frontline staff often struggle with large caseloads and inadquate support.
The Government is now trying to raise the status of the profession and bolster recruitment with a new £58 million initiative to train new social workers and attract high-calibre staff. Part will be spent on conversion courses, to enable the best graduates to train as social workers. This has a precedent in the Teach First initiative which attracts graduates into teaching. The funding will also be used to recruit retired social workers.
This is a genuinely praiseworthy attempt to address some of the underlying problems affecting the profession. There is an appetite for public service among many graduates and it is worth attempting to harness their idealism.
Yet in child protection work especially, there is no real substitute for practical common sense. And while graduates may be useful recruits, so, too, are individuals with family experience of their own.
Ed Balls, the Children's Minister is to set unspecified targets for child protection workers. That will almost certainly be less useful than a requirement that social workers should examine children away from their parents.Why recruit better social workers only to tie them up in yet more red tape?
Trees, please
Trees give beauty and shade to our streets, and diminish pollution. This paper has campaigned for more to be planted.
Now the Mayor is to enable Londoners living in areas with few trees and parks to register a request for one to be planted in their street.
It's an admirable initiative. Except that his target of 10,000 trees by 2012 is too modest. Let's have more, please.
Reader views (10)
secretary Jacqui Smith claims will protect from identification fraud and improve national security. Both of these have been proven to be untrue see http://www.no2id.net/ for details. It's just another way for Labour to control the populace, it adds no value whatsoever for the taxpayer and smacks of Big brother.
- Mike L, London
By allowing this government to introduce identity cards we are sleepwalking toward totalitarianism.
We have a perfectly good identity system right now called NHS number.
- Peter, London UK
I think this is another waste of Tax payers money.
There is no more security with this card than all the other forms of ID.
Within seconds of them being issued they will be copied by some criminal.
I will not pay to have this card as I have a passport, driving license and Bus Pass all with my picture and information on that's my form of ID.
- Mrs Valerie Tesdale, Bristol
I think the idea of introducing ID card is a good one however to link its benefits mainly to fraud and terrorism prevention makes it disputable. I think its main function should be for identification inthat not all citizens need a passport if there is no need to travel abroad likewise a drivers license if he/she does not drive. Countries like France, Germany, Italy and Spain all have national ID cards which is also used for ,for example, to establish the difference between one's official residence and one's casual address.You can live and work in London but have your official address in say Manchester. I think it is an important document of Identity however to charge £60 is exhorbitant and to make it voluntary questions its effective compliance.
- Kofi Ben, Essex, England
I live most of the time in Spain, away from the Brit enclaves on the Costas. I have a Spanish residencia card which is used like an ID card.
It is useful and increases security. It is identity when paying by credit card, withdrawing from a bank which is not the branch or bank where my account is held, it identifies me when completing contracts, insurance forms or something else similar. It reduces the chance of fraud and stolen identities.I have a separate social security card showing what I am and am not entitled to in Health and other benefits so I cannot scrounge only get what I am entitled to.
On balance I would support ID cards not oppose and, if used properly, cut down crime and fraud.
- Richard, Cheltenham
This is not about what the cost is, this is about then government controlling our every waking moment, knowing what we are doing, who we are with, how much we spend and on what. It's true, we a sliding slowly and surely into a police state which will be controlled by the Jacqui Smiths and Gordon Browns. Nobody has done more to destroy our great British traditions and bring down our sense of national pride than this government.
- John Billam, London, United Kingdom
This scheme is so stupid, its laughable.
We already have two id card schemes in place - these are passports and driving licenses. We do not need a third and I will not be paying for one, along with the many people out there that are sick of this governments inability to do anything with any competence.
Anybody that values thier privicy will vote these buffoons out at the next election - however all that will happen is the labour chimps will be replaced by the conservative baboons!
- Precilla, london
This is another way that this Government are going to waste our money
There is NO need for another form of identity we have enough
Most people carry SOME form to identify themselves and this SHOULD be good enough
I for ONE will NOT pay for an ID Card if this lot want us to carry one THEN let THEM foot the BILL
- Alan Hammond, Egham Surrey
Wacky Jacqui's last fling!
- Paul Freeman, London, England
Is this goverment mad? We are in a deep finacial crisis and they go and WASTE £5 billion on an identity card system who's cost WILL spiral out of control which will put us further into the red. How long will it be before we get a governmtent that is interested in the people who pay for all this excess? At the end of the day it is YOUR pound that these people are squandering and its now getting to the point where we can no longer afford the cheques the they are writing on our behalf.
- Glen, Huddersfield UK
