Not a Whim or a Luxury

The former Minister of National Vigilance, David Blunkett, who promoted ID cards as a means to "protect our identity from fraudsters, stop illegal foreigners in their tracks, save billions being leeched from our welfare system and beat organised crime" - sorta like Superman, with an overtone of Sean Bean in Outlaw - has taken a job as chair of the international advisory committee for a security firm with the charmingly New Labour name of Entrust. Based in Texas, as are so many things to do with New Labour, Entrust "specialises in securing digital information and combating identity theft" and has formally registered an interest in Tony's Surveillance Makes You Free project. Entrust has offices in nine European countries, including here on the mainland, and is in charge of the software for the Spanish ID card system, which did so much to prevent the Madrid train bombings in 2004. A spokesbeing said that Blunkett, with his extensive experience of advertising ID cards to the British market, "is not involved in the UK side. His contract excludes him doing work in the UK", and we all know the reverence which New Labour ministers have for the law.