Comments on: British government makes $9 billion error: this is news? http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:/2009/02/08/british-government-makes-9-billion-error-this-is-news/ Top Technology news Mon, 13 Feb 2012 20:30:36 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Gareth Powell http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:/2009/02/08/british-government-makes-9-billion-error-this-is-news/comment-page-1/#comment-158504 Gareth Powell Tue, 10 Feb 2009 09:36:44 +0000 http://tech.blorge.com/?p=12522#comment-158504 There is much in what you say but this is more than a minor tremble. The idea of the cards has been around a long time and they were official last November. Readers of the cards are not that difficult to make. Yet the makers have been fobbed of by buck passing from the department to the assorted police forces and back again. It is a political hot potato. Yet I have carried one for many years and had no problems with it whatsoever. If a driving license, why not an ID card? There is much in what you say but this is more than a minor tremble. The idea of the cards has been around a long time and they were official last November. Readers of the cards are not that difficult to make. Yet the makers have been fobbed of by buck passing from the department to the assorted police forces and back again. It is a political hot potato. Yet I have carried one for many years and had no problems with it whatsoever. If a driving license, why not an ID card?

]]> By: DaveBG http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:/2009/02/08/british-government-makes-9-billion-error-this-is-news/comment-page-1/#comment-158363 DaveBG Mon, 09 Feb 2009 11:31:09 +0000 http://tech.blorge.com/?p=12522#comment-158363 It's purely a 'chicken and egg' situation. If there had been card readers issued first the complaint would have been that everyone had expensive readers but there were no cards in circulation. I reckon too many people want this both ways. They want control on immigration and for the Gov to know precisely what the situation on that is (a bit of an impossibility if you ask me) but they resent the necessary means to do it. There are also a stack of people who seem to imagine ID cards are some sort of new repressive mechanism and who prefer to ignore that several EU countries have them already and yet they are still open and free democracies. It’s purely a ‘chicken and egg’ situation.

If there had been card readers issued first the complaint would have been that everyone had expensive readers but there were no cards in circulation.

I reckon too many people want this both ways.

They want control on immigration and for the Gov to know precisely what the situation on that is (a bit of an impossibility if you ask me) but they resent the necessary means to do it.

There are also a stack of people who seem to imagine ID cards are some sort of new repressive mechanism and who prefer to ignore that several EU countries have them already and yet they are still open and free democracies.

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