Since the Bill passed…
… we’ve had the miraculous appearance of a new government department after only a single day*, the magic disappearing and reappearing passport renewal regulations, and one or two other events leaving us wondering whether we are the victims of a massive, cruel April Fools gag. Sorry – reality check. Yes. The Labour government still wants to do this to us. Damn!
*But at least they haven’t spent a million quid on designing a new website – yet.
April 6th, 2006 at 09:16
Actually, the IPS site provides some interesting reads, notably the Identity Cards Programme Company Profiles Directory at http://www.identitycards.gov.uk/downloads/Company_Profiles_v1.3.pdf
This gives a detailed list of firms who want a slice of the action, and whose products and services we may or may not wish to buy in future. It includes Capita, whose executive chairman Rod Aldridge had to stand down after lending New Labour a million pounds.
The site also states at http://www.identitycards.gov.uk/scheme-what-how.asp that “The National Identity Scheme will eventually become compulsory”. So a public service is predicting the outcome of the next general election.
April 7th, 2006 at 14:42
Grrrrrrrrrrr……….. I KNEW Capital were involved in this. How come this isn’t a stinking scandal? Why isn’t Michael Crick, of BBC’s Newsnight, all over them like a Rottweiler? If the government were instead a local authority and they’d so blatantly offered contracts for cash, the entire council would have had to stand down and very likely faced prosecution.
Just how DOES this corrupt government continue to get away with it? I thought when the Capital story broke, during the cash for peerages row, there was bound to be an almighty fuss as it was SO obvious what was going on. I don’t give a damn about pounds for peerages or euros for ermine. But I mind an awful lot when donations are traded for contracts that will cost us a flippin’ fortune.
For shame… but that’s the trouble, isn’t it? There IS no bloomin’ shame.
Which current government ministers will end up with a lucrative directorship on one of the boards of the companies offering to run ID cards for them? Go on, have a guess. One of them? Some of them? Or bloody well ALL of them.