Is an “urgent” decision justified? Why does the European Parliament not question the legal basis of the measure? Why does the parliament’s draft report accept the need for biometric passports?
Statewatch

A typically thoughtful Financial Times piece The Identity cards set to boost biometric technology (subscription required for full article) points out there will be commercial winners, but also that there are some less-than- obvious problems that haven’t begun to be addressed…
A much trickier question, however, is who will run the distribution of the cards across [...]

Computerworld’s reportU.K. biometric ID card plan unveiled in the Queen’s Speech contains some interesting discussion of the technical challenges.
Ovum Ltd. analyst Graham Titterington agreed that the database is the key aspect of the system. “It is quite unique what the U.K. government is proposing and would be absolutely vast,” Titterington said. “A number of European [...]

Still too many unanswered questions about cost and scope… Silicon.com

The Home Office’s objective for the ID scheme doesn’t actually have a great deal to do with the kinds of ID card and passport you either want or will get, and rather more to do with what it thinks you’ll put up with paying. The money extracted goes towards what they really want – the [...]