Government bullies LSE over ID cards
I mentioned this in a news roundup the other day but The Times has a bit more on it. Labour are upset that a report didn’t smile favourably on their ID cards and so the ex-Marxist Charles Clarke has decided to put the boot in.
Sir Howard Davies , who has lengthy experience of dealing with senior ministers, said the response of Charles Clarke and his officials to the university’s research on ID cards last week had left him “genuinely shocked”. LSE governors claimed the Home Office had tried to delay publication until after last week’s finely balanced vote in the Commons.
The home secretary accused the LSE, regarded as the academic birthplace of new Labour’s “third way” ideology, of “fabricating” research which indicated that the true average cost of ID cards would be £230 per person. Clarke earlier described the study as “mad”.
Davies claims he’s been subjected to a series of aggressive phone calls prior to his report’s publication on Monday.
“They are stepping over a line that hasn’t been crossed before,” he said. “On the one hand they say it (the ID card) is not an attack on civil liberties, but then, if anyone questions any aspect of it, they abuse you and accuse you.
“I have read the report myself and I’m completely satisfied it is a rigorous piece of work. Ministers may disagree with it or they may not, but the idea that it is deliberately biased or fabricated seems to me to be fatuous. I am genuinely shocked, surprised and disappointed at the response.
“This kind of bullying and intimidating behaviour is just totally unacceptable. They are not even arguing on the facts,” he said.
I’m surprised Mt Davies is surprised. He should expect more of this in the future. The government is wounded and desperate. If the ID card bill fails they, having put quite a lot of their eggs in one basket, will be in serious trouble. Don’t expect them to fight fair.
