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Thanks to all those who wrote to Lords to ask them to stand by their amendments which will remove the "compulsion by stealth" mechanism from the scheme. Our campaign paid off, opinion in the House of Lords has actually hardened against compulsion by stealth. Last time these amendments were passed by just 44 votes, but this time it was by 61 votes.

Now the bill will go back to the House of Commons, so that it can barely scrape through with all the Labour MPs in attendance and a three line whip.

Let's be ready to lobby Peers again when this rotten bill returns to the House of Lords.

The BBC are screwing us over national ID cards

The important defeat of the government in the Lords yesterday over "compulsion by stealth" for national ID cards was not deemed of sufficient interest to even be mentioned in passing on the BBC's national flagship TV news programme at 10pm on BBC1 last night.

Government defeats in the Lords are significant political news and it is only NuLabour that will benefit from people not knowing what is going on.

Let's face it, there has been no real informed public debate on this very expensive and potentially repressive policy and that is hardly going to change if our main public broadcaster doesn't cover this subject during prime-time news. TV license payers who will become unwilling ID Card holders may care to take note of this.

There was only a two second mention in passing on BBC Newsnight on BBC2 yesterday and their audience is much smaller than that of BBC news at ten. Most local BBC radio stations didn't cover the Lords story at all. Also, the BBC's commentary on this issue on their news website and on TV is usually biased in favour of the NuLabour government's scheme.

If this sporadic and inadequate BBC TV coverage continues then we are screwed, since the general public will not be aware of the unpleasant parts of this proposed legislation and the government's dishonest justifications, until it is too late for their opinions to make any difference to the passage of the bill through Parliament.

Everyone who cares about this issue should complain to the BBC news team as soon as possible to encourage them not to be Tony Blair's puppet in the future.