Ministers “bullied” critics of ID card scheme
The head of the London School of Economics (LSE) has accused Government ministers of “bullying” academics who wrote a report criticising their plans for identity cards.
The LSE report, published earlier this week, sparked a row after it claimed the cost of ID cards could reach £19 billion over ten years, more than three times the £6 billion cost ministers have estimated.
In a Commons debate on the issue, Home Secretary Charles Clarke said the study was a “technically incompetent” piece of research which discredited LSE’s reputation.
Mr Clarke also claimed the report’s findings were “fabricated” and accused one of the academics who oversaw the study of being “partisan” because he was already set against the introduction of ID cards.
In a letter to The Times newspaper, LSE Director Howard Davies has hit back at the Home Secretary’s accusations.
Mr Davies stressed the report was the result of six months’ work, involving contributions from 60 people, which had been overseen by a dozen LSE professors.
The academic, who said Mr Clarke had branded the research “mad” before he had even seen it, accused the Government of adopting a “bullying approach” to critics of the ID card scheme.
“The report is not, of course a ‘corporate’ LSE document. It does, however, represent the honest and considered views of a team of experts,” Mr Davies wrote.
“It is unfortunate that, on an issue where the civil liberties concerns are so serious, the Government should have chosen to adopt a bullying approach to critics whose prime motivation was to devise a scheme which might work at an acceptable cost.”
As well as highlighting concerns over costs, the LSE research also claimed the plan for ID cards lacked the trust of the public and warned the proposed system was so complex it could become a target for terrorists itself.
