Home Office pops open ID procurement porkbarrel The UK government has formally launched the selection process which will choose a contractor to run the controversial National Identity Card scheme. Details of the "opportunity" were posted online (pdf) this afternoon. The Home Office Identity & Passport Service (IPS) said: "The procurement approach will select a small group …
So the Home Office throws millions at another dubious IT project on the same day that the Ministry of Justice (ex. Home Office) quietly suspends the hopeless C-NOMIS project. The expects fully expect that some £244 million of taxpayer's money will have to be written off, including a bumper £50 million cancellation fee to everyone's favourite IT provider: EDS.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article2224963.ece
Ok I know why the UK Gov are determined to go ahead with this. Not because of the benifits which are doubtful at best, not because it's a good idea (*laugh*, do I need to explain why it's not). It's because it's champions have some self interest, maybe even some profit to be made. The best we can all hope for is that the project is put into an endless circle of reviews until a way out becomes available.
I wonder how many - of the people already posting on this thread and those yet to post (and of all the people who posted on the C-NOMIS thread) - actually vote in the UK.
Or bother to get involved in any way in the political process there. Or actually meet with others who are of a similar mind in order to actually do something about their grievances.
No, I can't vote in the UK or do any of the other things I've listed. However, I do sometimes get a whiff - on these types of threads - of a nation that would rather bend over and take it in the wallet (all the while grizzling about the sheer bloody injustice of it all) than take any role in changing it.
Pointing at a thing and saying it's broken doesn't fix it.
What the opposition (Con/Lib) could do, is state upfront that, if elected, they will instantly void all contracts for ID card suppliers, with *no* compensation.
(It may require an act of parliament to do this, since it would be otherwise illegal).
The consequence is that no supplier will sign any contract lasting through a general election, but will all demand upfront payment. That might help kill the scheme.
Incidentally, I do vote in the UK, but it's very hard to get through to our stupid politicians (and our stupid voters!) that civil liberties are more important than the illusion of security.
This scheme was one of the many deciding factors.
I didn't have anything to hide, I'll be honest and open when asked in fact.
However, that doesn't mean I'll endorse a system which will happily shunt my personal & private data around to anybody on a temp contract in any of the massive bureaucracies. I think its a little naive to do so.
I haven't taken a new nationality yet, so I still have the opportunity to vote. Problem is, I can't endorse any of the options available, and in all honesty I'd feel ethically violated in lending my support to them.
Quote: "What the opposition (Con/Lib) could do, is state upfront that, if elected, they will instantly void all contracts for ID card suppliers, with *no* compensation."
The following article:
file:///home/bd/Politics/Identity%20Cards/%20Tories%20warn%20firms%20bidding%20for%20ID%20card%20scheme:%20'We%20will%20scrap%20the%20whole%20idea'.htm
states that the Conservatives:
"wrote to Sir Gus O'Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary, giving formal notice that an incoming Conservative government would scrap the project.
It has also warned firms bidding to run the ID card scheme that their contracts would be cancelled shortly after a Tory election win."
I would ask, nay, beg anyone who does not usually vote to use it to defeat this disgraceful legislation - if ID cards can be defeated, it will be the greatest gift you can give to yourself, your children and all future generations in this country.
New Labour: Tough on freedom, tough on the causes of freedom.
But none of them quite got it so when they tried to stop us cottoning on in true poorly thought out legislation they accidentally banned viewing bestiality online instead.
B*** the pensions, I think they should be made to make up any shortfall out of their own estates as they imposed upon the "local" councillors.
Yes I really need to move to a decent country.
Problem is I was gonna vote tory until they said that they we're going to extend the copyright licenses for music companies from 50 to 70 years and give them 3 billion quid to make happy songs.
Tories can get fucked. So can the lib dems - crazy tax raising bastereds.
Brian, your link points to a local file...
Without checking, I don't recall the opposition parties promising to ditch the contracts with no compensation; any contract would usually have an early termination penalty for the Government, and that would make any contractor drool at the prospect of doing sod all work until the result of the General Election were known, then possibly getting a nice lump sum for having done so...
Nevertheless, ID cards are pernicious.
Early termination is still a fuck load cheaper than going the full 500% (perhaps another order of magnitude?) overbudget route to completion. Its a sickening waste of money but id rather they scrapped it at a price than finished it for a hell of a lot more.
Even if the tories say they will scrap the scheme, they wont, half the manifesto promises of half of our recent governments have been quietly forgotten or twisted.
I do vote in the UK and I live in a lib dem area. voting tory here will do nothing, voting lib dem here will do nothing (they wont lose) and voting labour here will get me stoned in the street (posh bastards round 'ere). I'd rather vote for my local independant MP who, while pretty powerless, still makes me feel better at night.
"I would ask, nay, beg anyone who does not usually vote to use it to defeat this disgraceful legislation - if ID cards can be defeated, it will be the greatest gift you can give to yourself, your children and all future generations in this country."
I agree with that. Even the copyright extension (in no way certain) is a minor cost comparing to killing the ID cards scam.
Not voting does not do anyone any good, it's a head-in-the sand strategy, only useful as an excuse to say "I did not vote for them - I'm not responsible". Won't help at all when you are detained indefinitely because your biometric ID card has been cloned...
Well, I'm a UK voter, I've participated in conversations and get togethers with some the No2ID chaps, I've lobbied my fat, lazy, pussywhipped MP for all the good it did, I've signed the petitions, and I do occasionally even provide informal technical advice and advocacy to people working on large government IT procurement projects for the relevant departments.
So fuck off, John A Blackley, I'm plenty engaged, thanks.
Fact is, so are rather a lot of other people with far more juice than me (like the LSE for a start), and it still isn't making any difference. The great unwashed don't vote, the middle classes don't think they have anything to hide, so swing voting by the concerned isn't going to have any effect.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
