The Times reports that the Labour Government's ID card scheme has hit another snag with the British Airline Pilots Association saying that its members, who comprise 84 per cent of the commercial pilots in Britain, will not co-operate with Home Office plans to make airside workers “guinea pigs” for the cards:
Manchester and London City airports have agreed to take part in an 18-month evaluation of the benefits of identity cards, starting in the autumn. Balpa has told the airports and the Identity and Passport Service that pilots would refuse to take part. This would mean pilots would not be given airside passes and could not fly.
Balpa said that ID cards would have “absolutely no value” for security and that pilots were being coerced into accepting the scheme.
This must be a major blow for the Government who, recognising that they do not have the general support to make ID cards compulsory, are trying to introduce them by stealth. As the Brtish Airline Pilots Association say:
“It is clear that the Government's staged introduction of biometric identity cards first to overseas students, then to migrant workers and then for aviation workers, represents a way of picking off what are seen as easy targets.”
Can the Government really persist with this expensive and pernicious scheme in the face of such resistance?
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