Leeds says No to ID Cards

I don't usually put much stock in this kind of point scoring but I thought Wednesdays meeting of Full Council extraordinary in one respect. First the Good news. Leeds City Council voted by 53 votes to 0 to reject Labours plans for compulsory ID cards. With 44 members Leeds must have one of the biggest Labour Council Groups is Britain. Yet not one of them wanted to go on record as supporting there own Government over this issue. Now in many ways "good on them". I'd much rather have mass abstentions and thus send a sort of message rather than have them troop through the lobbies ( well actually you press a button) according to national policy.

Still I just think its extraordinary that 44 of the most committed and politically aware Labour members in Britain think the policy is indefensible. The Labour speeches against our motion were lacklustre and seemed to consist of nothing more than complaints that we shouldn't be discussing the issue in the first place. Yet the outrage didn't seem enough to get people to vote against the motion. How odd. Lets just hope that the silver lining of the recent "Slipped Discs" fiasco is this monument to waste and state control never sees the light of day.