Identity Cards Bill

We have only five minutes left, so I will be brief. Members who are interested in this debate will acknowledge that I have a long-standing involvement in it. I put forward the proposal before the Government did, and I believe that it is a good one. I accept that we need to try to reach a compromise with the Lords, because it is an important issue and it is much better if we can take it forward in some degree of harmony. I should like to propose a compromise that would be acceptable to me and, I hope, to the Government and the Lords. Let me first explain what Lord Armstrong is trying to do, as I see it. He is saying that as long as the electorate have not explicitly voted for compulsory ID cards, it should be possible for people to get a passport without having to accept an ID card. We understand the logic of that. However, the amendment has some specific problems. First, it would result in the creation of parallel registers for the passport and the ID card, which would be very similar, if not identical—we would need to debate that. Secondly, not everyone whom we would wish to accept an ID card would do so. With respect to my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent, Central (Mark Fisher), it is not true that everybody is against terrorism—terrorists are not against terrorism. Nor is it true that everybody is against crime—criminals are not against crime. If we have a voluntary scheme whereby people can say, ““No, I don’t want to be on it,”” we know that in practice people of goodwill may or may not sign up, but those who are not of goodwill will say, very politely, ““No, thank you—I choose to opt out.”” The law enforcement objectives of the Bill would be completely undermined. Finally, the electorate voted for us without scrutinising every line and comma of our various manifestos. I appreciate the role of Opposition Members as guardians of the Labour manifesto: perhaps they would like to stand for the party’s national executive committee. The majority of our voters who took a view on identity cards simply want us to get on with it, and will be baffled if we wait until 2012 to involve a significant proportion of the population.