WRITTEN ON June 21st, 2007 BY Richard S AND STORED IN Identity

Apparently, the ID Project is still lurking, still resistant to all reason: In The Register, John Lettice reports Liam Byrne’s “vision” for ID cards in 2020; a Britain where everything requires proof of ID and even our electronic gadgets demand our fingerprints.

Also, last week the Whitehall & Westminster World published “The way of the Future” by James Hall. He rails at No2ID and states; “Not only are national identity cards supported by the majority of the public, they will also help to deliver improved services and joined-up government.”

In our new regime of “evidence based policies,” does the evidence actually support this or any other of the government’s claims?…

Interestingly, the current home web-page of that Whitehall fanzine carries three job adverts: Two are for ID related Civil Service posts, each carrying “a six-figure package” (but both with closing dates in April 2007). The third is a senior post with a hopeful supplier of ID cards.

Elsewhere, the fanzine has adoring articles about government ministers, senior civil servants and government projects.

It’s very nice to bolster the morale of Whitehall policy staff, but shouldn’t there be just a little hint that not everything has gone completely right and that lessons should be learnt?

Shouldn’t there be some response to outside opinions and even to the wishes of the electorate?

No wonder Whitehall produces such strange policies when it inhabits a parallel universe.

[b]Wibbi:[/b] Whitehall was less like the court of some medieval monarch.
[b]Wibbi:[/b] The ID project was scrapped before even more money is wasted.