The part about forcing non-EU nationals to apply has, as a Canadian living here since '83, had me somewhat concerned. Seeing the part about forcing application as part of the renewal of leave to remain is somewhat reassuring, as I had this renewed this year, so have a good few years left before I need to reapply, and get forced into that too. Hopefully the entire thing will be nothing but a bad memory by that point!!

Cheers for brightening my day even further, El Reg!

There is a rule when dealing with a policy disaster - get out fast!

I

So lets get this straight. The government are engaging expensive consultants to work on prototype ID card systems which won't be committed to any kind of significant operations until after the 2010 election.

If the conservatives win (and I'm not sure they are capable of losing at the moment) they have already stated their intent to scrap the whole thing.

So in all likelihood, all the money spent (or at least a large slice of it) will go down the toilet. Fantastic. I don't know whether to laugh - and try and get a slice of the work - or cry.

Have any of these idiots looked into the price of a terrorist operation compared to the price of a well worn 727 cargo version?

as Celtic do against Manchester United tonight.

(Lights blue touchpaper and stands back to admire the fireworks)

It seems that the plans now are to ensure that anyone in the U.K. who is not born and bred here will be carrying official ID. The trick is that if you are not carrying ID then you're either a terrorist, a non-registered itinerant or a resident.

A few simple road-side checks can tell the truth -- one chorus of 'Doing the Lambeth Walk' and if the person listening doesn't automatically finish the line with an 'OI!' then they are an imposter.

In addition to officially announcing the trial, on Thursday Jacqui Smith is expected to announce a "prospectus of market engagement" which the paper says will invite organisations with a high street presence to bid "for contracts in areas such as fingerprinting, application checking and photographing linked to the new biometric passports and ID cards."

Rush down to your nearest Marks and Sparks or Woolies for the latest two for the price of one offer; be fingerprinted like a common criminal, AND hand over all your personal information for the government to lose (again). All that for just £5.4billion, £9.1billion or £25+billion depending on who you believe.

"The trial has been inconclusive in terms of the cost/benefit of wider implementation and further consideration will have to be given to the introduction of this scheme or an amended version of this scheme at a date to be decided."

Can I have the £500k now please

Famous bit of film on YouTube

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=efyTZUxEXoA

Is that the "wacky one" (TM) will announce the whole thing as a rousing "SUCCESS!" no matter how it actually turns out and no matter how few are issued (for any purpose). Even when the card-holders details are lost on a CD or left on a thunb-drive in a bar by one of her contracted wet-ware, it will be swept under the rug and pronounced "fit to go ahead" for everyone.

...Best. Subtitle. EVER!

I see reputational damage coming up. I shan't be using a fingerprinting establishment for anything.

How does "market engagement" equate to security?

If you are collecting biometric data for the purpose of producing a secure ID card, surely you need someone more proficient than a checkout gimp to validate that it really is you?

I'm a small pilot, and I resent that remark.

Airports are targets because of the large concentrations of people. However terror strikes could be more subtle. What if you could contaminate the food supply. That would hit a lot of people. But surely any poisonous food would be removed from the shelves after the first person keeled over. The trick is not to have it so poisonous that it's obvious. Have it so that statistically people will die. It could then go on for years before anyone noticed. Even when it was noticed then people would argue for ages whether it was actually harmfull or not.

If you did this over several decades with several types of poison then it would become normal. A sort of trend. You could kill 20% of the earths population and a few scientists would fret, a few conspiricy nuts would spot it, but as I said in an earlier post they are wrong by definition. The cancer cure Doctors would be delighted with all the yonger people getting cancer since they have a higher recovery rate.

Everyone is happy, except for the terrorists since their work has gone un-noticed.

It's a good job that something like that can't happen because it's a conspiricy theory I just made up.

A letter-writing campaign to the CEs of all the potential High Street retailers stating that we will not be using any of their stores for any purpose should they assist the Government in this matter might actually have some effect. It's not like they're dogma-smitten politicos: they've a profit to make.