LSE vs Home Office

From the Times:

An academic claims he is being hounded by ministers for criticising the government’s identity card scheme and has compared himself to Dr David Kelly, the scientist who committed suicide over the Iraq weapons scandal.

Simon Davies, a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics (LSE), says he has lost valuable consultancy work and seen his income fall to below £10,000 a year as a result of ministers’ repeated personal attacks.

Davies has been backed by the director of the LSE, Sir Howard Davies, a former chairman of the Financial Services Authority, who said his complaints to Tony Blair about the treatment of the academic and the LSE had been ignored.

“Independent academics have done their best to produce costing for the scheme and the report has been dismissed,” he said. “This is brutal politics because ministers are desperate to win the vote on identity cards.”

When will people learn? You can’t go around criticising the government and its policies! Memo to Mr Davies: stay out of the woods & light aircraft.

What I find strange, though, is the following:

Blair last week agreed a compromise that new legislation would be introduced before the cards became compulsory. Ministers have refused to reveal the findings of a new official study of the cost, conducted by consultants KPMG.

Davies was one of a group of academics at the LSE whose investigation found the costs of the national identity card scheme would be as much as £19 billion — three times the government’s initial estimate.

Surely, if the government had a report which supported its policies, it would publish it and so discredit it opponents… The lack of action on the government’s behalf suggests they know he’s right, which would lead to the attempted destruction of his career… just like Dr. Kelly.