Another Howard distraction

You've got to give it to him - he's good. Where did the ID card come from? We haven't heard of it for years, then suddenly it's all over the news. In fact, it's distracted us from the other big news - IR legislation. Just when Howard had suffered a drubbing as people come to question just who his IR legislation will really serve, along comes the London bombing. And with it, Blair's proposed legislation with possible identity cards in the UK, which would have done nothing to interfere with the bombings, anyway. (These were not people who had snuck into the country, or were otherwise unknown: they were actually considered and ignored by the intelligence agencies). Then Beattie comes along to give Howard his ammunition by raising the issue of identity cards once again. Presumably to avoid some blame related to Vivian Solon and/or Cornelia Rau, who were each caught up in bungles by DIMIA and perhaps by Qld govt agencies. But Howard's the master, and he lets it run. Questions on both sides. Divisions in his own party. Note that Labor's off the agenda, as the Liberal Party debates its soul, for what is more an issue of a liberal's (although perhaps not a Liberal's) soul than privacy. And where is IR? Lost. Forgotten. Except for the Govt marketing campaign there in the background bubbling away, and the dollars dropping.