A proposal to make ID cards mandatory for people working at UK airports has been dropped, although the political figure behind the announcement - Alan Johnson, UK Home Secretary - stressed that the card scheme remained alive.

Under the terms of the original plan, ground staff employed at two significant UK airports - London City (LCY) and Manchester (MAN) - were compelled to submit their details in exchange for an ID card and, subsequently, be issued with the necessary security clearance. Such ID cards, however, will now not be compulsory - a revision that comes swift on the heels of strike threats from airport unions including the British Air Transport Association and BALPA - the British Airline Pilots Association.

"BALPA has always had aviation security high on its agenda and has a number of ideas on how we can improve airport security which we will be pursuing with the secretary of state for transport", the organisation's general secretary, Jim McAuslan, stated. "But we have never seen the national ID card as an improvement to security and we are glad that the new Home Secretary has listened to us."

ID Cards for Airport Workers

The legacy of ID cards stretches back five years to the time of Britain's former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who unveiled the scheme as an anti-terrorism mechanism. "It's said these measures are scaremongering, but the fact is that the threats faced by the country are real", the ex-PM said at the time. Then, it was proposed to mandate the carriage of an ID card by each and every British citizen - including ID cards for airport workers, of which Britain has 200,000 - but this has now been amended to apply solely to foreign workers and residents.

"People who worked airside were resenting the fact there was compulsion involved", Mr Johnson explained, adding: "Now we can have a much more constructive discussion about the issue if we remove that one element of compulsion."

According, however, to Chris Grayling, UK Shadow Home Secretary, the airport ID card revision represented "an absurd fudge", and was "symbolic of a government in chaos."

"They [the British Government] have spent millions on the scheme so far - the home secretary thinks it has been a waste and wants to scrap it, but the prime minister won't let him", he added.

"This is no way to run the country."

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