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Identity Cards Bill

My Lords, we should be indebted to the noble Lord, Lord Pearson of Rannoch, for his research into the possibilities of an ID card being imposed on us by the European Union whether we like it or not. Everything he said is true. We simply have to look at the history of the European Union to know that things do not proceed in huge leaps or jumps, but by ratchet. That is precisely what the noble Lord, Lord Pearson, has been describing tonight: the EU ratchet. The EU realises that if it jumps and leaps about, it frightens people, but it can do things by stealth because EU decision-making is so complex that people do not understand it. It becomes so difficult that even Members of Parliament in both Houses do not know what is happening and, as it is so complicated, they often do not even read what they are being asked to decide upon, after it has been agreed in Brussels by unanimity or by qualified-majority voting. The noble Lord, Lord Pearson, is absolutely right in pointing out, yet again, that once Ministers have made a decision in Brussels, and once the 22 nations, by qualified majority, have imposed a directive on the European Union, neither this House, the House of Commons, nor anybody else has any power to change that. It has to be accepted whether we like it or not. That is why we must be doubly indebted to the noble Lord, Lord Pearson, for bringing this before us so that we can make it absolutely clear to the House that if the Government go along the lines that he has outlined, and agree or have it imposed on them by a qualified majority vote, neither the House of Commons nor this House will be able to do anything about it. I believe that the Government already intend that there should be an EU identity card. It will be a standard card, and the biometrics and the other information that will be on it will eventually be dictated by the European Union, probably by a qualified majority vote. I say that because only last year the Home Secretary told the Home Affairs Committee that he looked forward to the day when there would be a usable EU identity card. He did not say that it would be compulsory, but he said that it would be used throughout the European Union. The noble Lord, Lord Pearson, is right to be suspicious, as is this House. The House of Commons should also be suspicious, because the matter, I believe, has already been secretly decided, and this Bill is part of the stealth towards an eventual European Union identity card. I know that the noble Baroness and her colleague the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, will strenuously deny that that will happen, but in my time in both Houses of Parliament I have heard so many denials that have eventually proved to be completely and utterly misguided and wrong that I shall continue to be suspicious of whatever reply I receive from the noble Baroness, because I believe that it has already been decided that we shall have an EU identity card eventually.