Of all the utterly stupid things I've heard lately, one of the utterly stupidest has to be the idea that Ireland would "have to" introduce ID cards if Britain does.

Er, why?

The "informed political source" quoted in today's SBP explains it on the grounds that "we have a common travel area and a land border between the two jurisdictions". Big deal. Denmark manages to get by without one despite sharing a land border with Germany and a common travel area with a lot of countries.

I suspect that the Brits are leaning on Dublin because they don't want the hassle of resident Irish telling them "I don't need a British ID card, I'm Irish" - particularly in the Six Counties. The introduction of an Irish card that northern nationalists could obtain instead would neatly resolve that problem. The British may be pressuring Dublin with the threat of dissolving the common travel arrangement. Dublin should call their bluff. In my experience most people bring their passport when they travel to Britain anyway, either because of airline requirements or because, common travel area or no common travel area, you usually wind up having to show something at one end or the other. Crossing between the north and south of Ireland is another matter but does anyone seriously believe the Brits have the appetite to start instituting border checks again, with all that would entail. Not a chance.

If the British government wants to go ahead with this silly gimmick that will do absolutely nothing to prevent further attacks, that's their prerogative, but the Irish Government should show some spine and refuse to allow themselves to be threatened into doing the same.