Thursday, May 10, 2007
A good day to bury bad news
Liberal Democrat Voice report that the Government have taken advantage of today's announcement by the Prime Minister to slip out some bad news about their ID card scheme. The report, which by law should have been published on 9 April, revealed that the cost of the project has gone up by £640m since October 2006.
Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg MP said: “This bad news has been illegally postponed, and is only now published a full month beyond the statutory deadline. That shows the depths of cynicism and media manipulation to which ministers are now resorting to ram this increasingly unpopular scheme through.
“To add insult to injury, the statement itself is a laughable cocktail of statistical sophistry and contradictory claims.
“But beyond the smoke and mirrors, one simple statistic remains: the total cost of the ID card project by the Government’s own admission has gone up by £640m since October. The costs are now spiralling out of control. On the grounds of expense alone, the Government should do us all a favour and abandon this great white elephant before it is too late.”
Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg MP said: “This bad news has been illegally postponed, and is only now published a full month beyond the statutory deadline. That shows the depths of cynicism and media manipulation to which ministers are now resorting to ram this increasingly unpopular scheme through.
“To add insult to injury, the statement itself is a laughable cocktail of statistical sophistry and contradictory claims.
“But beyond the smoke and mirrors, one simple statistic remains: the total cost of the ID card project by the Government’s own admission has gone up by £640m since October. The costs are now spiralling out of control. On the grounds of expense alone, the Government should do us all a favour and abandon this great white elephant before it is too late.”
Labels: ID
Comments:
<< Home
Phil Booth, national co-ordinator at the anti-ID card group, no2ID, predicted the costs will continue to rise.
Booth said the Home Office is shuffling costs onto other departments and agencies and UK citizens will still foot the bill, no matter which part of the government spends the money.
Post a Comment
Booth said the Home Office is shuffling costs onto other departments and agencies and UK citizens will still foot the bill, no matter which part of the government spends the money.
<< Home
