Adam Smith Institute

As Sir Ian Blair’s career as Metropolitan Police Commissioner slowly limped to an end with his resignation, serious questions have been raised about our policing system. Although Sir Ian clearly had his own failings, there are other forces at play causing problems within the county’s policing.

Party politics are interfering with the effectiveness of the police. Sir Ian was seen as a New Labour man. So it comes as little surprise that when Boris Johnson became Mayor of London, with tackling crime high up on his agenda, he made Blair’s position uncomfortable. Perhaps he was right to do so.

But the safety of citizens on the streets should be of a greater importance to politicians than point scoring. Rather than concentrating on tackling crime at a street level, political interference causes the leaders of our police forces to focus on meeting targets and handling the media. Tellingly, the Met Police website displays a list of crimes which have fallen over the past year, makes no mention of the knife, gang or cyber crimes which people are increasingly worried about.

The police are not helped in their mission to make our streets safer by the poor allocation of government resources. Our prisons are over crowded, meaning that many convicted criminals are given suspended or shortened sentences, allowing them free reign to re-offend and failing to deter others.

The crypto-fascist scheme to introduce ID Cards is being slowly but surely forced down our throat. Foreign nationals will soon be forced to adopt these wicked devices of control. Next it will be you. Given the stark gravity of the situation, it is worth considering whether or not the scheme will in fact be introduced, and if so, what the reaction of people will be.

It has certainly been a while since the British people have defended for their civil liberties. In the mean time the British have become known for their obsequious, deferential and apathetic behaviour towards those in power. Will the introduction of ID Cards reignite their thirst for freedom?

Well, hopefully it won’t have to. We do have some sense in the House of Commons. Both shadow home secretaries are against the plan. From the Conservatives, Dominic Greave has made it clear that "ID cards are an expensive white elephant that risk making us less - not more safe”. Going on to say: “it is high time the Government scrapped this ill-fated project.” Chris Huhne of the Liberal Democrats has said that, "The Government has gone wobbly-kneed about rolling this out to anyone with a vote. This is the thin end of the wedge. It does not matter how fancy the design of ID cards is, they remain a grotesque intrusion on the liberty of the British people”.

However, if by some perverse miracle Labour manages to win the next election, or – politicians being politicians – the Conservatives change their position on ID Cards, the British people will be have to decide whether or not to burn them (the ID Cards that is) on the streets. The fact that all major newspapers – from the Telegraph to the Guardian and everything in between – are against them, suggests there are strong feelings across the political spectrum. Success will depend upon the organization of dissent by activists such as NO2ID. Provided action is peaceful, it may be the only solution. Imagine, Parliament Square ablaze with ID Cards. Perhaps the celebrations could coincide with November 5th.

The announcement that the government will now be issuing ‘foreign national ID cards’ is another step along a slippery slope. Although initially they will only be issued to foreign nationals entering the country, things will not stop there. A substantial timetable has already been drawn up which could see their universal use by 2018.

It is predicted that this scheme will cost £311mn of taxpayers’ money. Considering that a majority of the population are against the introduction of ID cards this is grotesque misallocation of government money. One of the main arguments for the introduction of these cards is to combat terrorist events such as the 7/7 bombings. But those terrorists were British; they would have been free to travel on any buses around the country with or without ID cards. If a foreign terrorist is determined to kill for his religion, will a piece of laminated plastic really make him think twice?

This is simply an expansion of the surveillance state and another example of poor top-down schemes from an out-of-touch government. Perhaps rather than simply adding another layer of bureaucracy to national security, the government should concentrate on freeing-up the police force with less Whitehall control.

The second main reason for the introduction of these ID cards is that they should help control immigration. But since 2004 there have been falls in the level of net migration into the UK and we have seen waves of past migrants leaving the UK in recent months. Perhaps our over-regulated and stifled labour market isn’t as attractive to migrants as the government thinks.

Personally, I think the government needs to rethink its strategies for combating problems such as national security; clearly generalised and half-blind schemes such as ID cards are not only an injustice on civil liberties, but also a waste of valuable money.