Identity Cards Bill

After that devastating intervention, no doubt this clause will be called the ““George Orwell clause””, and rightly so to remind those outside the House what this Bill is all about. In an earlier debate at about this stage in the evening, a noble Lord on the other side of the Chamber reminded us of a very unfortunate piece of Conservative legislation—the poll tax. I suggested that this Bill might be the Government’s poll tax Bill. Poll tax Bill or Orwell Bill, we are beginning to get to the real nasties in this Bill. It is unfortunate that so important an amendment should be moved at this stage of the evening in a thinly attended Committee, but no doubt we shall find a better opportunity to return to a matter of great importance. I agree with my noble friend who moved the amendment that this is a key amendment in our proceedings. Surely it cannot be right to make this great step forward except by primary legislation. The Bill has been interestingly divided into two parts. The first part is the ““We all want it because it is all going to be so helpful and convenient”” part. Apparently, the great British public may not realise what they are demanding, but if they fully understood it, they would be standing on the street corners saying, ““We want this Bill. This is for our convenience. The Government are putting it forward with no other purpose than to be helpful to all of us””. But then we suddenly jump to another part of the Bill—to ““The Government want it because it suits them”” part. We heard a classic argument just before we broke for dinner on those lines. The time and place amendment was justified by the Minister on the ground that the Government considered that it was essential to their purpose to have a smooth running Bill. Some of us consider that it is the job of this House to attach equal weight to guaranteeing that the citizen has a Bill that suits him and guarantees his freedoms and conveniences. So when we start to move from the ““Let’s all have it and actually, you know, this is a lovely popular piece of legislation”” stage to the point when it becomes compulsory, Parliament ought to be allowed to stop and consider very carefully. Of course one of the justifications that the Government have advanced for the way in which they are proceeding—in other words for dividing this Bill into two parts—is: ““We want to see how it develops. We want to make sure that it all works in a way that is helpful, suitable and not too expensive. We want to make sure that the biometric systems work in the way that we forecast they will work; that all the things that we say are going to go so smoothly really do go smoothly, before we go on to this much more difficult phase, in which we are going to have to persuade the British electorate that it really was a rather good idea to impose compulsion on them””. Already, we know from the debates that have taken place in this House that there have been a good many misunderstandings. On Second Reading, we had a speech from the noble Lord who is the former commissioner of the police. He defended the legislation, but in terms that made sense only if it was compulsory to carry the identity card and if you not only carried it but you had to produce it to a policeman whenever he asked for it. Otherwise, the whole defence that the noble Lord advanced made no sense at all. We are moving to a stage where something quite different is being proposed; not something helpful where we might find it useful to be able to prove who we are, but to a stage in which the Government will find it very useful because they will have much more effective control over citizens and the lives of citizens. I am sorry to say that I am old enough to remember the war and the aftermath of the war. I remember the rejoicing and the delight when the old identity card was abolished by a Conservative government. The abolition was welcomed because people had discovered that carrying an identity card was something that they did not really like doing, although they understood perfectly well when the nation was threatened in a world war that it was necessary that they should do it. Now I suppose we will be told that we are threatened by terrorism and by crime on a scale and of a form that makes a similar sacrifice necessary, although no evidence has been produced that that is the case. There is no evidence that the card will really make a practical difference. Before we take such a step, the Government have got to justify to the nation that that is the circumstance of the time when we go to compulsion; that there really is such a threat to our society that a measure of this kind is necessary and essential. They clearly are not making that case now. If it was necessary and essential, as they say it is, they would be introducing it now and at this moment, because the threat is supposed to be with us now and at this moment. If you think you have got a measure that will prevent us being decimated by international terrorism, you do not say, ““We may introduce it in two, three, four or five years’ time””. You say, ““We will introduce it now””. The Government clearly do not believe that it is necessary or they would introduce it now. Therefore, before they take this step at some unknown date in the future, they must come before Parliament and justify it to Parliament not in a constrained way, not when Parliament is in a constrained condition debating an order-making process—even if that order-making process has been extended and enlarged—but in a process under which we examine, probe and amend all serious legislation, as we are seeking to do tonight. Therefore, I strongly support my noble friend’s amendment. It is a key amendment in our proceedings and if, as seems likely at this stage of the evening, we cannot press it to a conclusion, I hope that she will choose a suitable moment later in our proceedings to ask the House to look at this issue and give it the importance that it deserves.