back to article Government announces shortlist for ID card contracts

The government released the shortlist of five possible suppliers for its delayed ID card project this morning. The five remaining bidders are IBM, Fujitsu, CSC, Thales and EDS. Originally eight companies - the above along with Accenture, BAE Systems and Steria - were listed. But Accenture, BAE Systems and Steria have all …

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  1. Ash
    Flame

    Dear UK Political Parties

    I will vote for *ANY* party whos policy it is to scrap the National ID Database and ID Card schemes. *ANY*. If knee-jerk reactions are good enough for Govt, they're good enough for me.

    Sincerely,

    Me.

  2. MarmiteToast
    Alert

    Please let EDS get it

    I'm strongly opposed to ID cars and I think this would be the ideal way to kill the project and make it seem like a really bad idea to try again.

  3. b

    Good day..

    To bury bad news?

  4. AC
    Flame

    But this is what the terrorists want ...

    They don't care about anything but ruining our way of life. They are slowly but surely eroding all of our civil liberties that really shouldn't have been taken.

    Did you know that you can only fill up a maximum of 2 petrol cans at a petrol station and that each can can only be a maximum of 10 litres. What's with that? Obviously all terrorists go to the pumps with their 100s of cans just before committing their acts ... Sure.

    Then there's all the CCTV that intrudes our lives, that has exploded due to terrorist concerns and the yoofs {but let's not go there eh}.

    Then there's this ID card bullshit, I know I for one will not be getting one until I'm physically arrested and forced to hand over my stuff, I'll go into court to pay fines before I get an ID card.

    We are being restricted more and more now because of the terrorists and it's exactly what they want. It's this sort of bullshit that really makes me hate this cuntree, its people {that support these sorts of measures}, and just generally being alive, I think it's time to lead a revolution {but that wouldn't be very English and proper now would it :roll:}

  5. Jamie
    Linux

    Tory's will scrap the cards

    If I actually believed that they would scrap the cards I would make sure that I vote for them in the next election.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    EDS?

    Please noooooooooooo!

    Never mind the piss up in the brewery, they couldn't even fall over pissed afterwards properly.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Heart

    Let's hope...

    ... it's EDS... I could do with another "Dress Down Friday"

  8. Michael Coulter
    Happy

    Should that not be!!!

    IBM, Fujitsu, CSC, Thales and EDS - an HP Company.

    since EDS was bought out by HP last week!!!

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    Hmm

    No doubts all the systems created by the contenders will be over budget, late and completely useless. Its not like any outsourcing/contracting firm has a good track record. Its a shame Accenture did not carry it further it would have been fun to see them cock it up.

    Oh well

    Roll on the general election so we can remove this current waste of space govt.

  10. Steve

    The upside to ID cards

    Is that they might finally kill off NuLabour. There own estimates are that about a third of the country will refuse them no matter what, so unless they want to turn a third of the country into criminals, they're going to have trouble enforcing this.

    Fortunately, the leaked roadmap for getting people to adopt the cards means they are going to have a lot harder time justifying things like stopping people from getting a driving licence without an ID card.

  11. Simon Greenwood

    If anyone believed for a minute...

    that the next government will abandon the project, they're very much mistaken. It will be presented to the incoming government in 2010 as a fait accompli by the Home Office, primarily because the amount of money spunked on it by then will be hard to reconcile with abandoning the process at whatever stage it's at. ID cards *might* be abandoned, but the national identity database will go ahead in some form or another irrespective of who is in power.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A much better solution

    Alan Sugar could set it as one of the tasks on 'The Apprentice'.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    EDS?

    If EDS does get it, does it mean the rest of us HP staff have to stop wearing our No2ID t-shirts?

  14. Dunstan Vavasour
    Stop

    National Identity Database

    Please could we start using the term "National Identity Database", as the cards are an incidental item, it is the database which is the problem. I will vote for whichever party promises to halt the database.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    Democracy, freedom, liberty...?!?!

    Sooner or later, the OED will have to either update their definitions, or just remove the words completely...

  16. b

    shrill defeatism

    Why are people so determined for their doom laden predictions to come true?

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    It's too late!

    ID cards are due to be forced upon non-EU immigrants/residents "by the end of this year" and once they've started there, why stop?

    Sad thing is, so many people will just turn a blind eye to this out of xenophobia and a wish to see anyone non-British (or more accurately non-European) living in this country punished just for being here.

    It won't stop there though, as once Black/Asian British people get repeatedly stopped and hassled for their ID cards because they "looked foreign" New Labour will suddenly get all "inclusive" and decide that as we're not racists here we'd all better have ID cards.

    Makes you despair!........

  18. George Johnson

    All balls

    "Cut back terrorism and crime" - Balls! The only ones who will be free are the ones who don't give a toss at the moment, so they sure as hell won't give a toss about a naff little plastic card. As usual the honest people are the ones hurt the most. Much like "MarmiteToast", I too hope EDS/HP get it, they are 100%guaranteed to cock it up big time. Time to look at those job sites and housing brochures in NZ, methinks!

  19. Spleen

    @Steve

    Turn a third of the country into criminals? Most of them already are. Pot smoking, driving over 70mph on a clear motorway, having a few unfortunate images in your browser cache, etc etc etc.

    If they really estimate that a third of the country will rebel they're mad. Most will just accept it for the sake of a quiet life. People only start rebelling against the government when they run out of food. A government in a country as rich as ours can pretty much do what it likes as long as it doesn't severely endanger the economy.

  20. Tom Chiverton
    Stop

    "so many people will just turn a blind eye to this"

    Until it adds over a hundred pounds to their council tax bill, presumably.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    RE: But this is what the terrorists want ...

    "Then there's this ID card bullshit, I know I for one will not be getting one until I'm physically arrested and forced to hand over my stuff, I'll go into court to pay fines before I get an ID card."

    I'm with you comrade (oop's, bad choice of words!). It matters not one iota if I can't get a passport or drivers licence (should it need renewing) without an ID card, by then I'll be booking my place in an *outgoing* container and claiming asylum (anywhere, even Zimbabwe would do!) because of the oppressive regime in the country I left.

    Who the f**k does this government think it is? Protecting us from them... protecting us from ourselves... new draconian laws... ever increasing databases containing information on law abiding citizens... The list goes on! How does f**k off sound you bunch of w**kers!! I've just about had enough of it! Unfortunately, I figure most British people are a bunch of procrastinators, too bloody lazy and apathetic for their own good... Sheeple, living in their own, ill advised little bubbles only concerned with their cars and mortgages who don't realise what they're sleepwalking into!

    Sorry, I do apologise, I don't know where that came from! Back to driving to work and then moaning about the cost of fuel. Back to moaning in the pub about the cost of beer. Back to worrying about the next holiday/vacation. Back to having to help your parents with the cost of heating their homes in the winter. Back to the usual routine of doing f**k all about anything!

    Mines the one with the Guy Fawkes mask in the pocket.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @b

    Since we can do naff all about it, we might as well have the smug satisfaction of being right.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    IBM and EDS

    An HP company. Therefore American companies, therefore subject, by default, to the Homeland Security provisions for demanding access to any data held by that corporation *wherever it may be*.

    Add the census data from Lockheed and the US govt will know everything about us.

    Welcome to Airstrip One. We have always been at war with Eastasia.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    Left the country

    Makes me sooooo glad I left the country just over 3 years ago... I won't be back except to visit.

  25. Ben
    Stop

    Alt.Strategy?

    Be better off equipping the thousands of first person shooter fans with a Barrett M82

    and employing them to sit on the Dover coast............job satisfaction , employment ,

    good numbers for Gordy and the Gurls , feckin' half witted , hectoring , adolescent ,

    Calvinist CHIMPS.......................... "O O O, A A A , E E E , is that a banana for me ?"

    " No , you ugly cretin , its a machete , c'mere "

  26. Thomas Jerome
    Thumb Down

    a vote against ID cards

    The current lot have to go. If that means voting for Carbon Copy Cameron and the Bullingdon Boys then so be it, much as the thought sickens me.

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Anonymous Coward

    'Democracy, freedom, liberty...?!?! '

    Has anyone noticed the Home Office has stopped using their slogan 'Building a Safer, Just and More Tolerant Society'?

    Were they afraid of being sued?

  28. Steven
    Unhappy

    Welcome to Hitlers Wet Dream...

    Oh no wait this is 'Great' Britain...

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If people don't want the ID card then vote with your wallets

    Just don't buy any products or services from the mentioned companies.

    If you are part of the buying process, then find holes in the product offered and concentrate on those, to the person who does purchasing.

    If you are an employee of those companies just quit.

    These companies have to realise that they are as much of the problem as the government are. I notice quite a few are not even UK companies, which is disgraceful, for something that involves the nation and our liberty so negatively.

  30. CodeGibbon
    Paris Hilton

    Mr Orwell has a lot to answer for...

    This bunch of cretinous slum-landlords we call a government are way too dumb to come up with these ideas themselves (no...wait...what am I saying?!)... so I choose to blame him for inspiring them in the first place....

    Paris, because I've already got a full database on her...

  31. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    becouse

    ID cards would so stop mentally ill fundamentalists.

    Hey lets play a game, list the latest terrorist attacks in the UK commited by non UK citizens.

    P.S. you can't not buy products from a number of those companies as they're services are entrenched in the backbone of so many critical utilities.

  32. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Oh Christ

    So CSC, a company who can't be trusted to run National Grid's AD database, are in the running?

    God help us!

  33. Christoph

    @ Tom Chiverton

    You expect protests about adding a few hundred pounds to the council tax bill?

    Olympics.

  34. Shabble

    Scottish independence getting closer

    Just a reminder that this won't be happening on the same scale in Scotland as the SNP have already said ID cards won't be needed for using any Scottish government services up here. The Scottish government has also voted against the principle of ID cards and the SNP will be able to use the removal of a highly expensive, ineffective and unpopular ID card system as leverage for Scottish independence.

    It is worth noting that if current voting trends continue, it is quite likely that the next Scottish election will give the SNP an overall majority, and Salmond will be able to force a vote for independence through the Scottish parliament. That will probably be 2012 - just as ID cards are being introduced.

    I can see the campaign now: save Scotland from the tyranny of Tory-boy Cameron's English ID card by voting for independence!

  35. Maurice Shakeshaft

    Simon Greenwood has it about right...

    The Civil Servants - the ones who benefit from your taxes - are the ones that want us to have ID Cards and a National Identity Database. If they didn't it would have been kicked into "the long grass" by several "Sir Humphreys" a long time ago. Why they should want it I have no real idea and I suspect that the Politicians, who are their stooges, don't really either. The Politicians may think they have an agenda but if it coincides with the Civil Servants then that is a happy accident.

    The quantity and scope of incompetent ID Data leaks by the Government and the lack of interest in, and prosecution of, commercial organisations for their leaks and "Phorm" type practices demonstrates the contempt "the Authorities" have for personal ID security - so why the ID card and NID pressures???

    Can the Politicians and "those who Know", please give some straight, meaningful, credible, coherent answers. Until those in power do then the suspicions will continue. That the 5 sets of clowns identified are all, effectively, non UK make the whole scheme even more laughable as UK PLC wont obtain any intellectual advantage from the UK tax expenditure when it all goes ahead.

    Mines the one with "Cynical BOFA Member" on the back.

  36. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Erm..

    This will be push through regardless of how many people will reject it.

    Unless there is a overwhelming reaction when it is forced upon us, by which I mean a large part of the population end up in front of a judge, I dont seem any of the part'ies' changing a thing.

    They don't care what we do and do not want, if your in the party democracy is just a word.

    */ Mines the one with the barcode on the back - just like the ones all the other slaves have.

    We have never been at war with Eastasia.

  37. kain preacher

    @ac

    "An HP company. Therefore American companies, therefore subject, by default, to the Homeland Security provisions for demanding access to any data held by that corporation *wherever it may be*.

    Add the census data from Lockheed and the US govt will know everything about us.

    Welcome to Airstrip One. We have always been at war with Eastasia.

    "

    don't worry the CD's in the mail to Langley

  38. Slaine
    Dead Vulture

    continuation from kain preacher above

    HP - American.... coolio.... we already have an American system for booking hospital access and it works like ... errrr ... it works like um ... ah... it doesn't work either.

  39. yeah, right.

    bricks

    I guess they only need to provide 5 bricks for the final decision. I'm guessing the battle should only last about 30 minutes, assuming that one of the participants doesn't bring in a brick-throwing ringer...

    The BOFH would be proud.

  40. John
    Black Helicopters

    ID db & Cards a good idea.

    Personally I think that a database & cards would be a good long term goal if they were used properly. By that I mean they were to replace driving licence, passport, NI etc. This would save having any number of documents kicking around and potentially able to be lost.

    However until the Governement reassesses its stance and gives up on the all the Terrorism bullshit and learns how to utilise IT I think it is a very poor idea that is going to end in tears.

  41. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    I've worked for three of those companies

    and none of them would even tie their own shoelaces without hiring an external consultant after putting it out to tender, sending the resulting document to committee, then getting feedback from the shoes to see if they need the laces tying. They would then actually consider the method of tying the laces, then they would tie them up. It would be three to five years later than the laces got tied, and they would be about 1.4Bn overbudget.

    No I have no respect for any of these companies (Mindless management hubs from my experience), plus US Law dictates that the data they are handling must be turned over to US Government Agencies. what a GREAT way for the US to get a nice list of folks in the UK they don't like the look of. That said, they'll probably already have it after they bought some nicked DVDs off ebay.

  42. RW
    Flame

    @ Maurice Shakeshaft

    "The Civil Servants...... are the ones that want us to have ID Cards and a National Identity Database. ... Why they should want it I have no real idea"

    It's just a manifestation of the "bureaucratic mindset", closely related to the "MBA mindset." These people deal in highly abstract representations of the people under their gaze, and in the process forget that it's suffering individuals that individually pay a price for their nonsense.

    Just look at the way pensioners are mistreated: it's like the old commmie states:

    "You there, you're no longer a productive member of society, so you are denied medical care, food, housing, and warmth. Too bad, you wicked parasitic wrinkly, you." This is shadowed by memos saying "if we delay treatment, a certain fraction will die, lowering costs."

    The role of politicians is to tell the bureaucrats not to be silly, but your current govt. is a bunch of pol-tards who <insert favorite pejorative phrase indicating complete lack of intelligence, common sense, gumption, and *humanity*>. Hence the bureaucrats and police state enthusiasts have gained the upper hand.

    Apologies, dear Moderatrix, for the rant.

  43. Anonymous Coward
    Go

    EDS couldn't even get the DWP smartcards to work!

    EDS - an HP company, have a lot of experience of smartcards on their DWP account. Only trouble is...suprise suprise....they've can't even get them to fully work....just ask anyone who works there about known problems with activIdentity! Poor DWP staff can't even go to the toilet without their smartcard rebooting their PC, locking up or even not being able to log on! It'll be great fun watching EDS - an HP company, explain why half the population can't get through customs in Terminal 5. Bring it on!

  44. Keith Langmead

    splitting the wealth

    All those who have commented that they hope it'll be awarded to EDS seem to have missed :

    "The five will then 'compete in a series of mini-competitions to win specific contracts for the various projects.' "

    So the entire project is being carved up and in theory all 5 could end up working on it.

    Now considering the previous record with this kind of thing, does anyone REALLY believe it'll be a genuine contest? Maybe I'm paranoid but I have visions of someone from each of the five companies meeting for a coffee to decide how to split it up between them, therefore minimising the amount of profit they'd need to shave off the quote to get the work... but of course that could never happen now could it!

  45. Anonymous Coward
    Alien

    So....

    A choice between three American, one Japanese and a French company. The continuing story of outsourcing to the rest of the world, no wonder we have no money. Why not try a whole new idea for an IT project how about keeping it internal????? By my last count EDS owe us a $4bn refund on the DII project.

  46. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    So BAE Systems pulled-out?

    Presumably they failed to find a member of the royal family with sufficient influence.

    Now, remind me again, why do we want this identity system?

    Paris, because she's also lost track of why she's being screwed.

  47. David Simpson
    Flame

    Nazi ?

    Funny that IBM are in with a shout, they were famously involved in the last national ID database that the Nazis put together for the Jews.......hmmmmm makes you think.

    I for one (and the Mrs.) will be leaving the country before this comes in and instead of renewing my british passport I think I'll go for an Irish one instead (one of the few perks of growing up in Belfast)

    There is no longer liberty or freedom in the UK it is a police state, but don't you feel lucky that they delayed the 2p fuel tacx rise til September, they really must care.

  48. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    Half Life 2

    Playing it is just like being in the Britain of 2050AD.

    Move along citizen, there is nothing to see here! [whack!]

  49. Guy Herbert
    Pirate

    @AC: Petrol cans

    "Did you know that you can only fill up a maximum of 2 petrol cans at a petrol station and that each can can only be a maximum of 10 litres."

    It's a piece of bureaucratic control-freakery left over from the 1973 OPEC crisis, when massive powers to control the distribution of fuel were assumed, not a lot to do with terrorism at all. But doubtless that is the present excuse for retaining them.

    Goes to show that stopping ideas such as ID cards is easier than scrapping them. There is no ingenuity like that of officials in retaining and elaborating old regulations, and repurposing them when challenged.

  50. Ascylto

    Nazional ID Cards!

    It's mind-blowing that some of these companies can even get on the list let alone be considered!

    There must be a lot of money in this, whether or not Nazional ID comes about because ...

    1 The Tories are heading for a General Election win

    2 The Tories have promised to scrap the Nazional ID Card

    4 Comrade Brown plus apparatchiks may be doomed

    So, along with others, I hope it's "Let's Ruin Another Project" EDS who win the day.

  51. Edward Pearson
    Flame

    @Please let EDS get it

    Why? So the government is forced to borrow yet MORE money?

    In the UK, we're already taxed into the deck, why they insist on spending insane amounts of money on companies who'll only fuck it up is beyond me.

    I for one will refuse to carry, or possess any form of compulsory ID, they can send me to prison if that's what they want (it's a fucking holiday camp nowadays anyway)

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