As I blogged about a few days ago, the Labour Party in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election is attacking the Conservative candidate for opposing “making foreign nationals carry an ID card”. As I said then,
The use of the word “foreign” there seems to come with some rather unpleasant overtones in this context, the implication being that ‘ooh, foreigners – they’re terribly nasty aren’t they – so surely you can’t be against keeping tabs on them now, can you?’
But – as Alex has reminded me – there’s more to this than that. Because, you see, making foreign nationals carry an ID card hasn’t until now been Labour policy. Indeed, as the Home Office’s own website says at the time of writing:
Will it be compulsory to carry a card?
No.
That’s pretty clear really, isn’t it?
So what does this all mean?
One explanation of course is that Labour have got so desparate their leaflets are departing from the script and attacking other candidates for views that actually the Labour Party itself holds. Perish the thought.
The alternative? Well, that Labour have used the by-election to introduce a hasty change in their ID cards policy and gone for an (even more) macho anti-foreigner stance.
I do wonder, in that case, how many people in the Labour Party have been told that their policy has been changed in this way. Do you think, for example, that all the visiting Labour MPs have been told about this change? And I wonder if they are all happy with this extra anti-foreigner turn of screw slipped out during a by-election campaign?
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Have I seen and heard a different set of policies to you Mark? I’m pretty sure this has been policy for at least a year – I’ve been listening to ministers talking about ID cards for foreign nationals resident in this country or here for long stays consistently. In fact, I recall the PM challenging Cameron to disagree with the policy at PMQs.
A quick Google whilst writing has revealed these two documents:
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/managingourborders/compulsoryidcards/IDcards/foreignnationalsforidcards.pdf?view=Binary
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/borders-action-plan.pdf?view=Binary
Steve: I checked those documents too before posting, and the first one contains this phrase for example: “Foreign nationals will not be required to carry their identity card”.
That’s different from what the position Labour is now taking in their by-election campaign. ID cards for foreigners isn’t new, but what is new is their requirement to carry them round.
How odd – their first document in 2006 stated:
“From 2008, we will make biometric ID
compulsory for all foreign nationals coming here for work, study, or to stay for longer than six months, unless they are from the EEA, and will begin to issue a National Insurance Number only when a biometric identity has been established.”
The implication in Brown’s first PMQs of the year was that they were compulsory (I was left in no doubt anyway):
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2008-01-09a.294.5
Ah – so it was the plan that having an ID card would be compulsory, but carrying it around on ones person would not be, and that is what has changed. So now the authorities can start demanding to see the papers of anyone who looks or sounds a bit foreign! Well that’s certainly going to lead to an improvement in community relations and a fostering of the spirit of trust in our society. Tossers.
As Kinnock might have said:
If Labour start to head towards defeat in 2009/10, I warn you not to look a bit foreign, I warn you not to be young, I warn you not to be poor and not a key swing voters group…..
First class-hate, now race-hate, who is going to be the first Labour MP to break ranks and ask their party to take a good hard look at itself. The hate-campaigners, to my mind, are Labour’s new militant tendancy.
The Labour leaflet is so deeply unpleasant on so many levels that it’s hard to know how to comment. See http://freecommonwealth.blogspot.com/ for another attempt.
Clegg, you traitorous opportunist . The once principled (No longer) Liberal Democrat party will reap the whirlwind from you selling out to the right wing Tory scum. You utter utter Idiots. You have made an enemy of people like me who once supported you. (I campaigned for LIBERTY BTW).
Clegg has consigned the much cherished realignment of the left to the dustbin of history.
Oblivion beckons and god fucking riddance.
Clegg, you traitorous opportunist . The once principled (No longer) Liberal Democrat party will reap the whirlwind from you selling out to the right wing Tory scum. You utter utter Idiots. You have made an enemy of people like me who once supported you. (I campaigned for LIBERTY BTW).
Clegg has consigned the much cherished realignment of the left to the dustbin of history.
Oblivion beckons and good fffing riddance.