>>The ID card issue is to be shelved. This has already been mooted at Cabinet level as a part of the swinging cost cutting the UK government is required to perform in response to their borrowing more in the past year, than all British cabinets in the past 300 years combined.<<
Very naive. The ID Cards plan is not a New Labour proposal but a long term Home Office project. Currently it is being re packaged to sit on a shelf for a couple of years before the mandarins start pushing it to the next Governments incoming Home Secretary. New Labour would never willingly cancel the ID Cards scheme as they would have to admit they were wrong on so many issues. They don't do 'u-turns' only re branding.
Expect ID Cards to be back in a new guise with a Tory Government. Probably in the form of compulsory passports with a national fingerprint database. I reckon this is where Eire will get caught up in the scheme. It will be difficult for the Irish State to exist for too long on the old 'picture only' passport. Remember that the push for international biometric registration came from the USA with the Patriot Act. I have yet to read anything about President Obama rescinding that particular deal.The EU is latching onto this with Project Stork:
Fears over pan-EU electronic identity network - Telegraph
The fight against ID Cards is set to continue well into the next Government and possibly beyond.