John Reid, the Scottish Home Secretary, has announced that plans for a single ID database have been scrapped and that the National Identity Register will instead be serviced by three existing systems.

The single database was proposed – at a cost of £5.4bn – with the intention that it would be a “clean” system with no duplication and no pre-existing duff data.  Now it will consist of three existing databases that will apparently be full of errors and duplication.

Biometric details will be stored on an existing system used to keep information about asylum seekers and biographical information will be kept on DWP systems which are supported by EDS who have a record of being incapable of implementing large-scale IT solutions in the public sector without making a complete balls-up of it.

The British government is also planning new legislation in the new year to require immigrants from outside of the EEA to submit their biometric details to the identity database which will be a requirement to get a national insurance number, without which they will be unable to work and will have to scrounge off the state instead.

The latest list of “benefits” to ID cards from the Home Office is:

• Tackling illegal immigration (because people illegally entering the country will obvously apply for an ID card before doing so)
• Tackling identity fraud (the “secure” RFID chip on the new electronic passports has already been cracked using a reader purchased off eBay)
• Fighting organised crime (because criminals carry ID cards when they commit crimes)
• Fighting terrorism (the Home Office has already admitted that they won’t prevent terrorism)
• Protecting vulnerable children by allowing better background checks (so criminal records, sexual preferences, employment history, etc. will all be on the ID database?)
• Improving public services (by preventing anyone not in posession of their card from having access to public services)

ID cards and the ID database are a serious attack on our rights and liberties.  Every time the British government announces a new proposal or change to the scheme it makes me more determined to resist.  I will not submit my biometric data or personal details to the state for inclusion on their spy database.  Hell will freeze over before I submit myself voluntarily to this illiberal database.