Jon Bright (London, OK): Last week we covered the Welsh Assembly's preemptive action on ID cards - guaranteeing that they will not be needed for access to devolved public services. I've since been in touch with Phil Booth of No2ID, who proved why research should be done before rather than after - this is, apparently, the second preemptive motion Wales has passed, and follows this more robust one from Holyrood passed in December last year (both tabled by Lib-Dems). Harry Kemp also wrote in to point out that Eastbourne Council passed a motion condemning the scheme last week, becoming the 33rd local council to do so.
Local councils, of course, won't genuinely be empowered to resist the scheme. But Wales and especially Scotland have serious devolved clout - and they are using it effectively to hamstring one of the possible coercive measures that might have been employed for ID cards before it is ever brought into action. This is a taste (albeit a small one) of how power might operate in a decentralised system - where the decision of the executive might not be final. Will 'No ID cards' form part of the pitch Salmond eventually makes when offering the people of Scotland independence? You can see how it might prove attractive.
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And in the dawning age of barring fatties and smokers from NHS treatment in England, perhaps Salmond could offer universal healthcare without nanny-statism caveats.
Cradle-to-grave Little Scotlandism would be preferable to Brown's market-driven Britishness for most Scots.
Besides ID cards Nu Lab are lining up more skittles for Salmond to knock over.
If Salmond does go for the right to tertiary education, he will have stiff competition from Nu Lab students trained by McDonalds, Network Rail and Flybe to contend with.
You could not make it up:-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7211958.stm
mcjob 'A' levels !!!!!!!!!
I agree. The ID card plans are just one more thing playing in Salmond's favour. It gives him a great opportunity to set out a vision for a liberal Scotland in contrast to Nu Lab's controlling database state. One interesting point, which I first heard made by Colin Harvey, is that Brown's Britishness/Bill of Rights agenda gives Salmond a great chance to launch his own "Scottish" bill of rights with additional bonus rights, so thwarting Brown. It might include the right to tertiary education, for example, but it seems to me that any modern bill of rights worth its salt would contain a right to privacy appropriate to the digital age, a right against the database state if you like (not dissimilar to what is already in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights). In my opinion this would be a fruitful strategy to pursue.
Perhaps the Stannary Parliament could veto the ID card law after all the charter of pardon (1508) gives the CSP the right to veto all English laws.
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