After the Lords voted again yesterday to stand by amendments that would have made Identity Cards voluntary in Britain, MPs have voted again for creeping compulsion.

That's three times MPs have thumbed their noses at libertarians in the House of Lords whose amendments to the Identity Cards Bill are blocking the government's move to impose ID cards on everyone who wants a new passport in the next 10 years, which is pretty much about everyone, while maintaining the cards are voluntary.

The usual ground was covered, the semantics of political doublespeak being a favourite. Did the government use vague manifesto language to imply that it wanted ID Cards to be voluntary, just to win a few votes, when it planned all along to make them compulsory?

Orwell and ancient civil liberties got their usual mention, as did fascism.

But civil liberties are making way now for a constitutional debate about whether the Lords have any right to keep denying the will of the Commons.®

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