Tom Espiner writes in ZDNet UK:

Former Tory politician Chris Patten has said that a fundamental lack of understanding in government is to blame for a rash of ill-thought-out technology projects and related legislation in recent years.

Lord Patten of Barnes was especially critical of the government’s ID card scheme, which is heavily reliant on technology. Speaking at the RSA Conference Europe on Wednesday, Patten said the scheme would not achieve one of its possible objectives of making borders more secure.

“I don’t think ID cards make citizens more secure, or frontiers more secure. People would still have been blown up on the Tube last July if they’d had ID cards,” he said.

He also criticised the support given to ID cards in 2003 by the then Home Secretary David Blunkett, calling the scheme a “populist Pavlovian Blunkett twitch”. Blunkett resigned from the cabinet in 2005 over his involvement in political scandals.

Others agree:

“Tony Blair’s ongoing belief in ID cards shows he has no sense of that technology whatsoever,” said Dr Edgar Whitley of the information systems group at LSE. “The Home Office is the same. They haven’t told anyone about when the technology will come or how it will work, and they haven’t fully tested it.”

Professor Ian Angell of the LSE said: “The complexity of the ID cards scheme means it’s going to fall apart. Basically [the government has] gone beyond the limits of the technology. But you can’t blame the politicians — they’re just reflecting the zeitgeist.”

This entry was posted by andrew on Thursday, October 26th, 2006 at 23:45 and is filed under (In)security, Anti, General, UK News Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.