Leader: Watch the ID card retreat

Signs of a definite change of gear in the government's ID card strategy came today with Home Office minister Tony McNulty's admission that the government had got a bit over-enthusiastic and "oversold" the benefits of the magical bits of plastic to the public.

ID cards, the government now accepts, aren't actually a panacea for all society's stated ills of terrorism, ID theft, benefit fraud and illegal immigration - something that the plan's opponents, silicon.com (as evidenced by our ID Cards on Trial campaign) and people with an ounce of common sense have said from the very beginning.

But take the government's supposed U-turn with a pinch of salt. All it means is they're going to try a different spin in the battle to bolster crumbling public and political support for the wounded bill.

Despite McNulty's rather damning admission that the government over-spun the ID card benefits to the public, he has refused to apologise and remains committed to introducing them.

He even hinted that the provision for secondary legislation before the cards can be made compulsory could be done away with because it is likely the House of Lords would vote against it. That would mean deadlock as the government is unable to invoke the Parliament Act to push secondary legislation through.

All of which only goes to show the minister's contempt for centuries of parliamentary procedure and checks and balances, which are in place to ensure governments can't simply railroad through unpopular or poorly drafted legislation.

Behind the scenes Home Secretary Charles Clarke and his team of ministers also face more battles. It is becoming increasingly obvious Clarke doesn't have the stomach for the ID cards fight and he admitted the cards wouldn't have stopped the recent London bombings.

Noises are also emerging from the Treasury - which hasn't yet done any costing of the ID card scheme - that it will now scrutinise the budgeting for the project. Here's betting Gordon Brown's people will be unimpressed by Clarke's 'back of a fag packet' sums.

The scheme is supposed to pay for itself but all independent scrutiny shows it won't and if the Treasury plays hardball with the purse strings, that could well leave the current ID card plans dead in the water - to be replaced by a vastly scaled down chip and PIN-style card instead.

When silicon.com launched the ID Cards on Trial campaign in June, our opposition was based on the massive cost of the scheme (which the LSE claims could hit £19bn), creeping scope and flaky aims, and unproven biometric technology.

Nothing the government has said or published since then has done anything to allay our fears about the ID card plans. In fact our resolve has only hardened as public and political support for the cards has plummeted. We will therefore continue our fight for common sense to prevail.