Labour's ID Card Nightmare

12.00.00am GMT Fri 9th Dec 2005

For some years, councillors from every party in Nottingham have been calling for more money and more officers for Nottinghamshire police.

Our city is desperately short of police officers compared to some other areas.

Our police officers work very hard, but they still have a very high caseload.

In 1995, Tony Blair said, “instead of wasting hundreds of millions of pounds on compulsory ID [...] let that money provide thousands of extra police officers on the beat in our local communities." Now he is Prime Minister, Tony Blair has changed his mind. He now thinks that plastic is more important than police officers.

Now, our Chief Constable is calling for Nottingham to be a trial area for Labour's proposed ID card scheme. This would mean spending millions of pounds on computers and scanners instead of on more police officers. Not only would this ID card scheme be expensive but it is not even sure that the Government could get the technology to work. The Lib Dems say that ID cards will not do much to stop crime in Nottinghamshire. The money should be spent on more police officers.