Labour scorched earth policy is 'a cynical contempt'
Thought that you could stop the waste of money known as the identity cards scheme simply by voting Labour out when Gordon gets round to giving us the opportunity? Well we might be able to dump the cards, but not a large amount of the costs. Why? Because Labour has set up the deals with prospective operators so that they are still entitled to some of the profits that they would have made, even if the scheme is cancelled before it starts!
Today’s Independent carries the story, which was apparently broken by the Telegraph two months ago. The government has refused to reveal the amount of the compensation available, citing commercial confidentiality. A government spokesman said: “It is normal and fully within government guidelines to include break clauses in contracts of this kind, but such contracts are always commercially confidential and it would be inappropriate to release details“. Whose money is this, Ms Smith? How many multiples of Tottenham’s loss on Jermain Defoe are we talking about? The secrecy surrounding the agreements has led to the issue being reported to the Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas.
Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, has consistently opposed ID cards. Last year he said, “The ID card scheme should be scrapped immediately, and the money used to put 10,000 extra police officers on our streets.” Yesterday, having been asked about the contracts, he commented: “If these contracts are signed and then cancelled, it would represent a spectacular waste of taxpayers’ money on literally nothing”. The IT industry has had its own Mandy Rice-Davies moment and justified the unknown amounts, saying that they were ‘common practice’.
As Peter Blacksays, it’s all reminiscent of a Spitting Image sketch of early 1992, where John Major and his Cabinet wake up the morning after the General Election with terrible hangovers. They find to their horror that they have trashed the place, believing that they were going to lose the election. Is Labour going for a similar policy of retreat, blowing up the oil wells and instituting a scorched earth policy as it retreats? Knowing that it is likely to lose the election when it eventually comes, that a majority of voters are against the introduction of ID cards and that both main opposition parties will stop the scheme if in government, this is nothing more than the most cynical contempt of the electorate.
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