Bob Piper has been a Labour Councillor for the Abbey
Ward in Sandwell, West Midlands, for 10 years. He is a lifelong supporter of Aston Villa Football Club and a follower of Yorkshire County Cricket Club.
The views expressed here are mine in a personal capacity, not those of the Labour Party, Sandwell MBC, Aston Villa or Yorkshire County Cricket Club. Get it! Mine... just mine!
Promoted by Bob Piper of 115 Barclay Rd, B67 5JZ on behalf of the Labour Party, care of 39 Victoria Street London, SW1H 0HA . Hosted (printed) by Swaithe Internet Solutions who are not responsible for any of the contents of these posts.
Please note however, that The Labour Party is not responsible for the content of this website or individual posts as, unless specifically stated, I am writing solely in a personal and individual capacity.
Promoted by Bob Piper of 115 Barclay Rd, B67 5JZ on behalf of the Labour Party, care of 39 Victoria Street London, SW1H 0HA . Hosted (printed) by Swaithe Internet Solutions who are not responsible for any of the contents of these posts.
Please note however, that The Labour Party is not responsible for the content of this website or individual posts as, unless specifically stated, I am writing solely in a personal and individual capacity.
Alan Johnson's announcement that id cards will not be compulsory for British citizens is to be welcomed. The Government always insisted that it would not be an offence not to carry your id card, and on that basis alone its capacity to counter terrorism was seriously ineffective. The notion that Osama Bin Laden, stopped by police shopping in West Bromwich, would be given 7 days to produce his id card at a local police station was always a bit daft.
However, I suspect the 'not compulsory' element does not run to UK passports. The biometric passports are going to become compulsory in many countries in the world in any event, so I would imagine the Government will plough ahead with that. So, I suppose the fact that you can 'choose' whether or not you have a passport means it removes at least some element of the compulsion, but I suspect some people will still be uneasy about the amount of information the biometric database will hold.
I write this having sat for hours on one of Richard Branson's high speed railway carriages, in heat way into the nineties, with the air conditioning broken down whilst a signal failure was addressed near Watford Junction. Bloody private sector... couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery!
Too right Bob. For what it wanted to achieve, there were obvious pitfalls. And the costs...
I'm still partly under the suspicion that a lot of people will, given the right conditions, entrust organisation's with some private information anyway - such as their consumption trends shown by clubcard usage, or even the amount of people who DID NOT get removed from the DNA database after Mark Thomas' appeals. But this still does not make it necessarily right.
In any case, it frees up some cash in the (ever-decreasing) kitty.
Pity about your train journey. As for me, I was working in what I believe to be the hottest classroom in the history of ever today. And apparently open windows does more harm than good...nightmare!
jethro tull said:
June 30, 2009 9:19 PM | permalink
Gov should scrap Trident as well, IPPR and former defence minister says it should be scrapped. 10's of billions of pounds would be saved.
Ian McNee said:
June 30, 2009 10:57 PM | permalink
Oh Bob! As if Osama bin Laden would be shopping in West Brom!
As any fule kno, Wolverhampton centre offers a far superior shopping experience to the discerning fundamentalist ideologue about town.
June 30, 2009 8:40 PM | permalink
Too right Bob. For what it wanted to achieve, there were obvious pitfalls. And the costs...
I'm still partly under the suspicion that a lot of people will, given the right conditions, entrust organisation's with some private information anyway - such as their consumption trends shown by clubcard usage, or even the amount of people who DID NOT get removed from the DNA database after Mark Thomas' appeals. But this still does not make it necessarily right.
In any case, it frees up some cash in the (ever-decreasing) kitty.
Pity about your train journey. As for me, I was working in what I believe to be the hottest classroom in the history of ever today. And apparently open windows does more harm than good...nightmare!