The biggest issue (out of many big issues) is the fact that there isn't a clear guideline on the systems.
It started out as one thing, and has been hacked and chopped and slashed through the years. However, if you asked a member of the government to tell you what information was being stored, where and how - none would be able to tell you. It's just kind of been cobbled together and thrown at a company to develop.
So, we'll start with lack of scope and design procedures for a major failing - considering that this is meant to be something that protects YOU. How can it, if nobody knows how the systems actually work, or what the overall remit and scope is? It's immediately open for abuse from everyone but the people it's meant to protect.
I have photo ID - I had to pay for it. It's called a passport! I use it to leave and enter the country. The system is designed to protect us from people we don't want entering the country and to protect other countries from OUR undesirables. If it doesn't work, then look at why it doesn't work.
The ID card will NOT replace anything. It will not let the government follow you (and stop things like benefit fraud), it will not make your life simpler by integrating passport, driving license, NHS number, NI Number, etc.
It is simply a card, that proves who you are - which a passport should do anyway. Passports can be forged... Erm, guess what? If you have a system which is badly designed and implemented, then you're going to have forged ID cards. Brilliant, the criminals will now be legitimate with accurate fake ID cards. Or they won't have an ID card. That means that they'll be limited to... Erm, just a minute, if I don't have an ID card can I not go shopping? Go to the pub? Go and buy guns and drugs from other criminals?
Ah, it won't stop any crime at all. It won't back up an immigration system. It won't make our lives any simpler. It won't make the government more able to find criminals amongst us. It will... do nothing.
Even psychologically it is ineffective, as nobody is scared by the 9/11 stuff any more anyway.
Though, I'll bet your salary that there will be another "terrorist threat level" thing within weeks of the card going live...
Ian - the government aren't supposed to be allowed to use that data for any other reason than proving you are who you are... Unfortunately, that bit seems to have been missed out of the specification of the system. This is the problem, nobody really knows just how much information the government will be able to use and to what purposes. It's quite worrying, especially when you consider it's all outsourced - to the same people who have lost CD's of our personal information!!!
