05/07/2013 00:00
TW
0

by RAY FLEMING
THE British public has always had two major objections to the introduction of a compulsory identity card. One is the cost and the other and more potent is the belief that an ID card is somehow a restriction on one's freedom. So the decision of the new Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, to abandon long-term plans for compulsory identity cards will have been widely welcomed. However, Mr Johnson's decision may not be all it seems because the name of everyone applying for a British passport will in the future be added automatically to the national identity databases and identity cards will be available to those who want to hold them on a voluntary basis. Mr Johnson said that having a card should be a personal choice for British citizens just as it is now to obtain a passport - but that overlooks the fact that you cannot travel overseas without a passport.

It has always been a matter of mystification to most British citizens living in Spain that their counterparts at home are so opposed to identity cards. Here they have simplified life and added to our sense of security and now that the residencias have been withdrawn for obscure reasons many of us want them, or something with equivalent status, back. Criticism of the British government for its uncertain handling of the ID card issue is misplaced. The British public is irrationally opposed to this sensible measure and has been encouraged by Conservative opposition to it.