Party Leaders Humiliated by ID Card Revolt

And rightly humiliated.

At least some are objecting.

That's a start.

I expect Orwell is again laughing uncontrollably
in his grave.

(UK) The Government's flagship plans for ID
cards suffered a rebellion last night as more
than a quarter of the Commons failed to turn up
to vote for the Bill.

Labour and Tory MPs defied their whips in droves
by openly voting against the ID cards plans or
making their disquiet known by not voting at all.

The huge scale of abstentions by both the Tories
and Labour will be acutely embarrassing to Tony
Blair and Michael Howard, who both pitched their
personal authority behind the ID cards plans.

But MPs argued that the cards would breach civil
liberties and would be too expensive. The
proposals were described as "intensely
authoritarian" in the Commons yesterday.

Read.