Some good news on the ID Cards bill:

Controversial plans to introduce the ID cards are also expected to be shelved, with both opposition parties again determined to block the them.

But given that Labour are still marginally leading in the election race, it looks like it’ll be a temporary reprieve:

Clarke said their position ‘was crazy’ and pledged to reintroduce ID cards if Labour is re-elected, adding: ‘It will then become an election issue – which it doesn’t have to be. If it is, it will be because the Tories and Liberal Democrats have decided to make it an election issue.’

I really think that a scheme that is to cost hundreds of millions with little actual advantage to the fight against crime – or anything else for that matter – should be an election issue, and the fact that Mr Clarke thinks otherwise is perhaps because he knows that he can’t form a robust defence in the eyes of the public.