WRITTEN ON December 1st, 2008 BY Ruth Kennedy AND STORED IN Foundation of Trust, Identity, What do we want?
Just a baby – “because oh we are soooo bored with this sorry saga now” – article in the Observer tells us that the first ID cards, issued with fanfare last week cannot be read by any official body because the IPS
has not issued a single scanner.
Apparently the new biometric-rich cards will not actually be (electronically) read by any employers, police forces, hospitals, or colleges because they have not been given any machines to enable them to do so.
OK, a timing issue? Errrr, no apparently not. The Observer tells us government has not plans to issue any scanners at the mo. So basically the new cards are as useful as a passport or any existing form of ID with a photo on it – the authority checking our ID will have to decide whether the card looks bona fide, and whether the holder looks like the person on the photo. If authorities are concerned that cards are not genuine, they will have to phone the border agency ‘hotline’ (hope it works more efficiently than the child tax credit one).
Apparently
Home Office documents revealed last month that the cards’ biometric details will only be cross-referenced with the National Identity Register in a minority of cases.
WIBBI …
6 Responses to “ID cards sigh boring blah blah”
It’s time.
David Cameron can put down a motion of no confidence in the government. Or David Blunkett can put down a confidence motion.
Either way, it’s time.
This just in from the Daily Cheat Industrial Correspondent:
Underground TUC
Composite motion 1642
Proposer: Reg Underarm, Co-operative of identity thieves and allied trades
Seconder: Rowena Farquasson Cholmondeley, Benefit cheats for justice
In the chair: Barney Spittle
———-
Comrades.
Over the years, our members have honed their skills at forgery, decryption and whinging.
We have overcome the ruses of a mighty imperial power deployed against us and through our own native wit, attention to detail and sheer hard work sought to better ourselves.
With all the cards stacked against us we have overcome.
Brothers. This is a disgrace.
Sorry. And sisters.
With the complete failure of government regulation, the collapse of standards, the abrogation of duty, the introduction of consultants, the corporatist model and Margaret Thatcher and the miners’ strike … er … quite frankly the barriers to entry have fallen and any idiot can become an identity thief.
Why did my members train for so long, often in HMP universities of unparalleled squalor, only for it all to come to this?
I mean our members.
Where is the honour now in ripping off the DHSS?
I ask you.
Typical privileged Tories, they get the counter anti terrorism police coming round in person.
We have to make do with IPS.
Comparabilities must be preserved.
Until we face a credible deterrent, I call on all members to strike.
We must withdraw our labour and soak the rich until they beg us to deliver quality scams once again.
Thank you. I move.
The motion was subsequently carried by a suspiciously large majority, considerably greater than the total membership.
The security checks are not just whether the card looks bona fide, the UKBA guidance (http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/employersandsponsors/preventingillegalworking/idcardguide) does state that “As it [the card] is made entirely from polycarbonate, it will have a distinctive sound when flicked”
This just in from the Industrial Correspondent of the Daily Cheat:
Daily Cheat
Notes & Queries
…
Mr Underarm has asked us to note that although he said “comparabilities must be preserved” he meant “deferentials must be restored”. We are happy to oblige.
Thanks for the link to that hilarious UKBA document.
I note UKBA’s strict instruction that this “state of the art” “world leading” ID card… must not get wet!
Really, it is the gold standard of vile idiocy. Yes, I’m soooooooo bored and wearied by this Benighted Scheme too.
I think the point which is coming to light here is the one we made all those years ago when we first tried to cost the Benighted Scheme. The Home Office has only ever counted its internal costs. So has anyone else budgetted for scanners? Er, no. Because no-one else wants the BS.
There won’t be any scanners until someone else pays for them. And they wont pay for them unless there’s a compelling business case. And there is none, unless and until it’s artificially created by laying down extra requirements to prove one’s identity.