Government shame on ID card abuse

Spy Blog rightly lambasts the government over their shameful treatment of LSE academic, Simon Davies, in their attempts to spin the criticism outlined in the LSE's Identity Project report.

"With the Third Reading of the controversial Identity Cards Bill 2005 in the House of Lords tomorrow, and its return to the House of Commons scheduled for next Monday13th February, the likelyhood is that the NuLabour public relations machinery will be in full swing again, briefing newspapers and the broadcast media.

It is an intolerable abuse of power, when powerful politicians, with unlimited resources paid for by the taxpayer, focus their spin and disinformation machinery onto a single named individual, who is not a professional politician, who happens to disgree with some detailed Government policy.

If the Government disgree with the well respected LSE Identity Project report, then they should simply publish their own detailed system architecture and their detailed cost benefit analyses, and their project risk assumptions, to justify their proposed multi-billion pound expenditure of public money, on a scheme which will literally change the relationship between the Government and every person in the United Kingdom.

"If they have nothing to hide, then they have nothing to fear".

The Government should not attempt to discredit either the London School of Economics, or the hundred or so experts who have contributed to the report, which is now required reading all over the world, by everyone who is working on e-government projects

They should definately not focus on a single named individual, who does not have the opportunity to speak out under the protection of Parliamentary privilige.

Shamefully, this is what the NuLabour government has been doing to Simon Davies, who is now considering taking legal action against individual politicians, for their repeated campaign of defamatory statements to the press and media...

It would be an embarassing shame for the Government to continue with its ad hominem attacks on Simon Davies, which are unfair and which threaten the time honoured tradition of academic freedom in the United Kingdom."

Well said.