On This Day

07 December 1950

I am a Liberal and I am against this sort of thing

Liberal Party member Harry Willcock is stopped while driving by police who demand to see his ID card. He refuses allegedly replying, ‘I am a Liberal and I am against this sort of thing.’ Compulsory ID cards were introduced at the start of the Second World War and the Labour government decided to retain them. Willcock was prosecuted and although he lost the case and a subsequent appeal the Lord Chief Justice was critical of ID cards. In the wake of the publicity surrounding the court case, Willcock founded the Freedom Defence Association to campaign against ID cards. As part of the campaign Willcock tore up his own card on the steps of the National Liberal Club. Both the Liberal and Conservative parties were pledged to abolish ID cards and in 1952, a few months after the Tories were returned to power, it was announced that ID cards were to be scrapped.