Proof of Britishness

And here's yet another blessing that ID cards will bring: when the system breaks down, poorer people will suffer more. All systems are prone to error, and British systems run by private companies are not so much prone to it as built on it; fortunately, the only people who will have to rely on the ID card as their sole proof of identity will be those who cannot afford the forms of proof available to real people, such as having lots of credit cards.

Further proof of the Britishness of the scheme emerged when the Independent Scheme Assurance Panel noted the disbandment of the ministerial committee in charge of "coordinating identity management across government". Perhaps the number of illegal immigrants working in the Home Office puts the ID card at an unfair disadvantage. ISAP pointed out the "risk of shifting sands": ID cards could take so long to introduce that the technology involved might be out of date before the scheme is up and stumbling.

Meanwhile, Agent Smith is trying to build support for the scheme by allowing public sector workers in "positions of trust" (or, in Oldspeak, those for whom New New Labour has least use and most contempt) such as nurses, care staff and teachers, to obtain a card without renewing their passport. Dashed decent of her.