Cabinet dither over ID Cards
The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman's Official Press Briefing tries to spin the line that the Cabinet is unified over the issue of ID Cards.
"In principle, Cabinet believes that a national ID card scheme could bring major benefits. In practice, given the size and complexity of the scheme, a number of issues will need to be resolved over the years ahead.
So we intend to proceed, by incremental steps, to build a base for a compulsory national ID card scheme, with a final decision to proceed to a compulsory card later, when the conditions for moving to a compulsory card are met.
We will legislate to enable the scheme to be introduced, and plan on the basis that all the practical problems can be overcome. But we will reserve the final decision on a move to compulsion until later this decade."
We await the more detailed statement to Parliament by the Home Secretary.