That's OK then

Tomorrow the M(ental) P(atients)s go back to the asylum after their long long holiday. To me, it says a lot that the country has functioned quite well during their absence. Off blagging with their Big Business mates scoring free holidays and, doubtless, female researchers-to-be.
Seems that the major ideas in their collective brain boxes will be two supposedly main new sets of legislation allegedly concerned with anti-terrorism. ID Cards. Detention without charge for up to 90 days. The civil libertarians are against both measures on the claimed grounds that they interfere with our personal freedoms.
The ID case strikes me as especially weak. We have to have one. We do not have to carry it at all times. No one seems too sure as to when we will be asked to produce it or what circumstances will permit the police to hold onto someone until their identity is proven. So, not having one does not lead to draconian treatment. Given the large number of moonlighters and illegal immigrants who cannot be traced for deportation one can expect that a large number of people will not bother with an ID card. The first few caught and detained will inevitably consist of some who pose absolutely no threat and we will have all the publicity about "£10,00 spent detaining man who let dog off lead in park" There are supposed to be sophisticated anti-forgery measures. If someone has worked out how to implement these, within a very short time someone will have found a way to circumvent them as part of a lucrative trade in forgeries. We are told that identity theft is a major crime. How many valid ID cards will be issued to persons with a false identity?
I heard a lot of hot air on this week's Question Time about the 90 days detention. The talking heads were against it with exception of one who said it should be 100 and 90 days. Noone gave the obvious reason as to why we should allow for the detention. If the police want it in fighting terrorism, that should suffice. It is a bit like telling a PC to arrest a violent drunk but barring him using hand-cuffs, baton or police holds. The 90 days is basically needed to check out documentation which is notoriously tedious work requiring very painstaking efforts. The fact that someone came to police attention meriting arrest justifies the deprival of liberty. If they get it wrong - sue them.