Tories warn firms off ID scheme

[dipsydoodle]

The Tories have written to five firms bidding to supply ID cards warning them not to sign any long-term contracts.

In the letter, shadow home secretary Chris Grayling says one of his party's first acts, if it wins the next general election, would be to scrap the scheme.

He said he was urging the firms against large investments that may be wasted.

The government says ID cards, being trialled in Manchester from this autumn, will combat fraud, terrorism and organised crime.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8104481.stm

[Nihil]

1. It's a shame you can't do them under the Trades Description Act ...

> The government says ID cards, being trialled in Manchester from
> this autumn, will combat fraud, terrorism and organised crime.

There is not one chance in Hell that it will "combat fraud, terrorism
and organised crime" so how can they keep claiming that ridiculous
lie as "justification"?

:grr:

[dipsydoodle]

2. I noticed that too

Usual shit - using fear to sell a concept.

[TheBigotBasher]

3. In fact far from combatting fraud...

as banks and Local Authorities will not be given any access to the biometric details to prove the validity of the card, these cards will therefore aid fraud. This represents one very easily made saving from next years cuts.

[ikri]

4. It stopped being about those things ages ago

I think that everyone realised quite a while back that most of the justification for the cards was flawed as was much of the technology involved (fingerprints scans don't work correctly all the time, facial recognition falls down when faced with dark skin tones, etc.)

The ID card scheme seems only to continue because of either a scorched-earth policy by Labour, ensuring that the next government will have to live with the expensive failure and keep feeding it more cash to make it work or kill off the contracts leaving the government with hefty penalties or in the unlikely event that ID cards actually do everything promised then Labour can claim credit. Alternatively Labour might just be stubborn enough to continue with it all because they can't be seen to be wrong.

I can't wait until they publish the list of MP's second (and 3rd & 4th & 5th) jobs, I suspect there's going to be a lot of crossover of MPs working as non-executive directors or consultants for a number of the companies vying for huge government IT contracts.

[Nihil]

5. And that's another thing ...

> I can't wait until they publish the list of MP's second
> (and 3rd & 4th & 5th) jobs, ...

This should be illegal: MPs are paid a significant amount
to be MPs and so should be prevented - by law - from holding
*any* other job for the duration of their employment as such
additional jobs not only provide serious issues of bias
and loss of impartiality but detract from the time that they
are being paid to work for us!

:rant:

Bugger it ... time for a coffee!