UK Pilots to Strike Over ID Cards?

Having correctly sensed broad voter opposition to ID cards, cold, inhuman, incompetent Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has decided to impose them by stealth, firstly to people working air side in the aviation industry:

Ministers will publish draft regulations on Friday to set up a trial requiring airside staff at Manchester airport and London City airport to sign up for an ID card before they can get security passes allowing them to work there. If the regulations are approved, the first ID cards will be issued at the two airports from autumn next year as part of an 18-month trial.

Under the proposals, airport workers will be the first British citizens to be given ID cards, which are due to be introduced for young people from 2010.

British pilots however have ideas of their own:

(Jim) McAuslan, whose union (BALPA) holds its annual conference at Heathrow later this week, said he would be consulting members on the possibility of industrial action if the Government presses ahead with the plans. “It may come to an industrial dispute,” he said. “We would want to avoid that. We would want the Government to think again about the compulsory nature of it and think again about the whole scheme. The Government has said previously that ID cards will be voluntary but the indications are that if you choose not to have a card you will not get an airside pass.”

We can only hope they do strike. I’ll be there on the picket line, supporting them. Aviation workers are already amongst the most highly security vetted workers in the country, and this move is absurd. It’s not remotely a stretch to point this out for what it is – introduction by stealth. It’ll be young people’s turn in 2010 (if Gordon gets that far), and look how many of them will fail to get a student loan without one. Jacqui is convinced once she’s co-opted soft targets, the rest of us will follow.

She’s wrong.