What now for Alan Johnson?

I am one of the first to be glad that the government is now performing a U turn on the subject of ID cards,a scandalous waste of money introduced on the back of terrorism fears.

It was down to Alan Johnson in the poison chalice chair to make the announcement.Some may argue that this was Gordon Brown's way of enacting revenge on a potential competitor.

Mike Smithson writes that

Alan Johnson’s main claim to the leadership, beyond not actually being Gordon Brown, is that he is an honest man of the people. If this announcement is mere political posturing to make him more palatable to the civil liberties Left, whilst not addressing their core concerns, I suspect he will do his ambitions more harm than good.

adding that

I think Johnson needs to go further if he wants to gain political capital out of this. Abandoning the Identity Database for UK citizens would score him real points, and by (for example) making it purely a register of non-UK citizens resident in the UK he could paint it as an immigration issue, with the Tories and Lib Dems on what I would expect to be the less popular side.

Cameron-faling out with Europe

Besides upsetting most of Europe when imitating a German accent whilst explaining why he is against ID cards,he has also upset Mr Sarkozy.

The FT reports that

Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, was asked this week about the pledge of David Cameron, the UK opposition Conservatives’ leader, to hold a referendum on the treaty if he comes to power before it is fully ratified. The French leader’s response was ­telling.
“I am watching the debate in that country,” Mr Sarkozy said. “I simply want to say that we have been happy to have Gordon Brown round the table with us because he has assumed his responsibilities and he has acted with courage by bringing his country with him on the path of European integration.”

Fresh doubts on ID cards

There will be much debate over where major cost savings can be implemented,the favourites at the moment being Trident and the government's identity card scheme.

The Daily Mail.no doubt secretly wishing fuels the idea that the second option may be on the table this morning as it reports that

Labour's ID card policy was in fresh disarray last night after Chancellor Alistair Darling failed to back the £5billion project.
Mr Darling put the scheme in doubt by signalling the Government may just introduce biometric passports instead.
The Chancellor added that the Government would have to question every 'single item' of public expenditure to save billions for the taxpayer.

Business' critical of Tory infrastructure policy

An interesting story in this morning's FT which reports that

Projects worth billions of pounds face revision or cancellation if the Conservatives win the next election, analysis by the FT suggests.
Business leaders have called on David Cameron to fill the “huge void” in some policy areas to mitigate the political uncertainty affecting companies in the run-up to the general election.

The projects that could be effected are for example the expansion of Heathrow and the fst tracking of nuclear power stations build as well as the obvious projects such as ID cards.

business warned that Mr Cameron’s recent rhetoric had created damaging uncertainty over the underlying principles a Conservative government would apply. The Tory leader’s decision to cast doubt on whether the proposed third runway at Heathrow could be economically justified is cited as a case in point.