Northerners give up ID cards for Lent figures suggest
Joe Fay writes in The Register:
Back in January, Hillier told the commons that there had been 3,800 applications/appointments as of January 18. Her answer almost coincided with one from Home Secretary Alan Johnson, who said that 3,700 applications had been registered as of January 16, suggesting a mid-January surge of applications running at 100 a day.
At that point the scheme was only being piloted in Manchester, though non-Mancs were free to register their interest in the scheme. An earlier answer had said that as of January 14, 1,300 Mancunians had applied “and attended an enrollment appointment”.
The figures disclosed yesterday refer to a wider area and, excluding all the applications made prior to January 18, suggest a run rate as low as 14.5 applications (not appointments) per working day since then in the Northwest.
There was no explanation for the apparent drop in interest. Perhaps the easing of January’s big chill means people have other things to be getting on with. Maybe people have given up biometrics for Lent. Or perhaps the earlier figures were boosted by journalists and other oddballs trying to be the first in the UK to get an ID card.
