UK cancels the use of biometric national ID cards

[thewayne]

They estimate saving 800 billion pounds ($1.1US trillion) with the cancellation since the program has not been nationally deployed yet. The sucky element is that it cost taxpayers 30 pounds (about $43US). There's a lot of commentary that the UK government had no specific goal and kept changing the announced purpose for the card.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8707355.stm

http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/05/28/0230259/UK-Home-Office-Set-To-Scrap-National-ID-Cards?art_pos=9

Now, interestingly there's a lot of people who like the cards and don't want them to go away. Apparently a lot of EU countries have no problems accepting the cards for ID.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8707112.stm

Comments

[silveradept]

D'you think the US will notice this and decide to put the brakes on REAL ID or barrel forward harder now that the UK isn't the lead on it.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

I doubt it. If there's one thing that the US gov't is amazingly good at, it's spending money.

[silveradept]

Yep. And now more than ever they'll be able to get their anti-terror jollies on this.