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Clegg calls for ID cards to be scrapped in first TV debate

UK politics took a step forward last night with its first television debate and digital Britain wasn't far from one of the prospective prime minister's lips.

16 Apr 2010

The leader of the Liberal Democrats has reiterated calls for ID cards to be scrapped in the UK's first televised political debate.

In the long-awaited and ground breaking election move, the Tory leader may have taken centre stage but, instead Nick Clegg brought a focus onto technological policies during the debate surrounding domestic issues.

"This Government wants to waste lots of money on ID cards.... we could put 3,000 more police officers on the streets for this [amount]." said Clegg early on in the ITV debate, the first of three to take place in the lead up to the general election.

However, both the current Prime minister, Gordon Brown, and number 10 hopeful David Cameron, neglected the technology industry throughout the discussion, even with controversies that have been growing over the likes of the Digital Economy Bill, public sector IT schemes and biometric passports.

Referring to the opposition leaders as "these two," Clegg discussed the problems in education, discussing the "4,000 emails received by headteachers" regarding the national curriculum as well as claiming: "It is an easy thing to say is how much we... love the NHS... but we have a computer system which doesn't work, yet in Burnley they have closed the A&E and you now need to travel to Blackburn."

But again both the leader of Labour and the head of the Tories did not come back with a response on the technological influence on the public sector.

There are two more debates set up over the next two weeks before the general election due on 6 May one on Sky and the following on the BBC.