Dale’s Al Gore Moment

Remember when Al Gore claimed to have ‘invented the Internet’…?

Well, Iain Dale’s at it…

I don’t have many claims to fame, but inventing the phrase “plastic poll tax” as a description for ID cards is one of them – back in 2005. I see it has become Chris Huhne’s phrase du jour. Royalty cheques should be sent to…

2005? Oh dear…

ID cards may be Blair’s ‘plastic poll tax’

Analysis: A large majority think they are a good idea, but a small group of passionate opponents could prove to be politically lethal, reports Anthony King

By Anthony King
Last Updated: 9:35PM BST 07 Sep 2003

Any attempt to introduce a system of national identity cards could land the Government in deep trouble, according to YouGov’s survey for The Telegraph.

The survey’s headline figures showing a large majority in favour of such a system conceals depths of potentially lethal opposition. Identity cards have already been dubbed “the Poll Tax in plastic”. They could turn out to be just that…

Looks like, at the very least, one of the subs at the Torygraph beat Iain to it by a couple of years…

6 thoughts on “Dale’s Al Gore Moment

  1. No-one at the time seriously believed that Al Gore was claiming to have invented the Internet. He was selling his longtime support of the Internet, which he was involved with in the seventies as an example of how he usefully supported new technologies to enhance the economy.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gore_and_information_technology#1999_CNN_interview_controversy

    It was the right-wing noise machine that took this and labelled it as “Al Gore claiming to have invented the Internet”.

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