Why did the Labour government in the 1970s dismiss ID cards in the wake of the IRA's bombings in Birmingham that killed 21 people? Because then Home Secretary, Roy Jenkins, believed:
"It goes almost without saying that we must guard against the danger of being driven to more and more extreme measures involving unwarranted infringement of personal liberty... Nor do I see advantage in a system of identity cards, which apart from creating difficulties for ordinary people would be "extremely expensive and largely ineffective"
A Labour Home secretary who got it right.
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