The announcement yesterday that they’ve cancelled any plans to make ID cards compulsory was welcome for one reason: It means the tide of public opinion is against them. That’s a good thing. The Government’s on the defensive. Hurray!

But the bad news is that they’re going to proceed with ID cards anyway, with the ability to ‘designate’ certain things as requiring registration on the National Identity Database. If you want a passport, for example, you’re going to get an ID card.

The important thing is to get the infrastructure in place. They’re already claiming that they’ve spent so much money now that they may as well carry on (which incidentally happens to be a classic economic mistake). Once the infrastructure is in place, you can change your plans. So instead of saying, “we’re planning on having a vote on whether to make them compulsory in 2012″ you say, “we have no plans to make ID cards compulsory”, everyone relaxes, and in 2012 you say, “Hey! Let’s have a vote!”

It may be that the ID cards scheme is doomed – but the threat is still there if Labour, by some miracle for them (or some hellish nightmare for us) were returned to power.