Amidst the general noise about whether there will be an election at all, come the news being reported by Guido about a concerted single issue tactical voting campaign. NO2ID is "the UK-wide, non-partisan campaign opposing the government's planned ID card and National Identity Register" and is apparently looking into producing a list of ID card supporting MPs and indications of which opposing candidates have the best chance of defeating them.
The Government has claimed that ID cards will prevent
- illegal immigration
- unlawful employment
- benefit fraud
- abuse of public services
and be valuable against terrorism. NO2ID has been formed by the people that think that this is the biggest load of guff in modern politics; that even if the criminal element don't find a way to get around the checks and balances designed to stop fraud in the system, and lets face it they will, the costs both in terms of actual cash and loss of personal liberties will be far greater than the possible benefits could ever be.
Will the plan work? It all depends on whether people believe enough in this single issue to override their normal voting preferences. Of course as pointed out in Guido's reporting of the matter it could work if the government believe that this might be a credible possibility and therefore decide to drop ID cards to stop it, a big win for NO2ID and all of us who don't want a very large amount of money spent on a scheme that won't do the job it is supposed to and infringes on our basic freedoms.
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