I am not aiming for a universal solution. I cannot and I do not insist that everyone have a mobile phone. Universal solutions soon fall into the trap of being single solutions. They create honeytraps for villains and reduce security instead of increasing it.

I prefer loose-leaf, overlapping, independent solutions which, between them, tend towards universality. Rather like what we have at the moment.

The NIS is not even theoretically a universal system. It excludes UK citizens under the age of 16. It excludes EEA citizens who are not UK citizens. It excludes non-EEA citizens who are staying in the country for less than three months (or possibly six months or 12 months, it’s not always clear).

And what’s more, the NIS doesn’t even exist yet. It may start in earnest in 2012. If it is geared to the issue of passports, it will take 10 years to achieve 80%+ coverage and only then will ID cards be made compulsory, if parliament decides that that is what it wants.

Compare that with mobile phones. We already have 80%+ coverage. Today. Now. HMRC, the police and goodness knows who else, in the UK and abroad, already use mobile phone data, among other things, to support their investigations and have done for years.

The NIS is a waste of money. Your money and mine.

We already have an ID card equivalent more effective than what we are promised for 2022. So let’s cancel the NIS project. Crime and terrorism are real problems. They need real solutions now, not in 14 years time.