Bad Good News

ID Cards got yet another Lords smack down, so now will be voluntary until a whole piece of legislation is passed to make them compulsory (BBC Article). Thus, if ID cards came in tomorrow, they'd have precisely no use what so ever.

Now the government has a two pronged job to do. First, it must try to get the legislation through to make ID cards compulsory. Second, it has to start denying services to people without ID cards. This is the only way they can artifically create 'value' in the cards. Theyhave to take things away from you (that you want or need), so you become coerced into getting an ID card. The 'denial of service' doesn't need parliament's approval - they can pretty much just do it.

This concession is good news, but we're still well and truely lost in the woods.