You know, I’ve come to the balanced and reasonable conclusion that hanging is simply too good for the likes of Charles Clarke, everyone’s favourite Safety Elephant.

Take a look at what Nosemonkey’s found out about his speech to the EU Parliament today.

But data retention’s not all. As predicted, Clarke’s trying to get ID cards in through the back door:

"That
is why we argue that internationally consistent and coherent biometric
data should be an automatic part of our visas, passports and identity
cards where we have them – and would even suggest driving licences as
well."

This, Clarke admits, "can only be achieved
through international agreements, particularly in the European Union" –
because he knows all too well that they’ll never be able to pass the
kinds of measures they want through the British parliament, or get them
past the suspicious Chancellor, nervous of the insanely vast cost of
this hare-brained and intrusive scheme.

That isn’t all, no, merely the least of his idiocies. Unlimited surveliiance of all and every email, telephone records, well, go read what the cretin is proposing for the citizenry of a supposedly free country.

Are there actually enough Labour MPs with spine to vote down a Government bill after this?