Opposition to Biometric Identity Card Scheme and Voting Record of UK Political Parties
Last updated 31st May 2009
With European elections apon us and a General Election within the year, we review the position of the major parties and discover public statements of opposition by party leaders is not matched by UK and MEP voting records.
From media reporting and party websites it would seem the death of the ID cars scheme is close at hand with an impending Tory victory in the next twelve months. The British public are expecting the next government to abolish all aspects of the ID card scheme most notoriously the fingerprinting, surveillance, and the intrusive database.
But close scrutiny of the voting record of each party, especially in the EU, sheds light on their true position regarding the identity card scheme. Unfortunately for the British, they may think they have got rid of the ID card only to see it replaced by the EU biometric passport and an EU-wide database. More disconcerting is that the Tories and LibDems continue to support the introduction of an ID card 'through the backdoor' by implementing the biometric passport component of the ID card scheme, effectively implementing an 'ID Card Lite' scheme.
Click on the links below for analysis on each party: