WRITTEN ON June 22nd, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Foundation of Trust, Identity, We told you so..., What do we want?

While digging out old presentations I found this private briefing to (the xxxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx) Sir James Crosby who at the time was advising Gordon Brown about ID management.

The presentation set out the communications problems surrounding the ID debate so far, and showed how narrow a “market” there was for what the Home Office was offering once one segmented the market with any clarity. To this day I dont believe any such thinking ever went into the Home Office’s business case.

I got the impression Sir James realised it was a terrible idea that government should do this. So he decided that banks should do it, without realising that that was also a terrible idea. His ideas were so blunt and radical they were buried I think for a couple of years (someone may recall more precisely). All credit to him for trying to break the Groupthink stranglehold. But low marks for suggesting an equally inappropriate alternative, and a self-serving one at that. Right, that’s enough old presentations for tonight.