Not a proper post, but a factlet for those who may be confused by the government's claims about biometric passports, and specifically that much of the cost of their ID cards programme would have to be spent anyway on biometric passports.
The ICAO biometric passport programme requires only that passports be equipped with a `smart-card' style chip containing information about the bearer (the same stuff that's printed in the machine-readable zone on the bottom of the back page of your passport in and angular OCR font), plus a digitised photograph and a cryptographic signature.
This is all that is needed to implement the new ICAO passports standard. How much will it cost?
What's actually going on here is a fairly simple scam. The idea is to add lots of bits of the ID cards programme (like the database that records every transaction you have with the public sector) into the cost of passports to make the cost of ID cards seem more reasonable, and then lie that these expenses are actually necessary under our international obligations. Fuck that, frankly.
By keeping tabs on everyone we make our world a better place
I promised myself that I wouldn't just use this to link to things on the internets,
A plastic panacaea for the problems of our populace
Thus Britain's streets will once again become a bold utopia
-- but this is really very, very fine.
Our freedom will be guaranteed (so long as they know where we are)
In fact, I think I'd go so far as to say it's splendid.
Each card will be a testament to our great nation's unityUpdate #2: I should probably link to this, too.
We'll flash our cards with pride at each and every opportunity
In fact without one you'll a become practical nonentity
It is the card that proves you have a notional identity!
Firstly, apologies for not having posted anything for a while. My time has mostly been taken up with work, curling up in a little ball and weeping about the antics of our glorious leaders, and sundry other early-summer activities. And secondly, apologies for this post just being another boring plug, this time for PledgeBank, the latest mySociety project, which launches today.
PledgeBank is designed to solve what I'm told are called `collective action problems' -- things that you want to do, but can only get done if enough other people will help. Why go out on a limb and say you'll do something difficult or expensive or embarrassing if you don't know whether enough other people will turn up to make it worthwhile? Anyway, PledgeBank is designed to help you get around that problem by letting people sign up to say they'll take part, and telling you when enough people have done so for your plan to succeed. Go and check the site out....
This is also one of those rare occasions when work and displeasure collide: I Heartily Endorse NO2ID's pledge, which reads,
I will refuse to register for an ID card and will donate £10 to a legal defence fund but only if 10,000 other people will also make this same pledge.
-- sign up by following that link or by texting `pledge refuse' to 60022 on any mobile.
This is all done with wwwitter.
Copyright (c) Chris Lightfoot; available under a Creative Commons License. Comments, if any, copyright (c) contributors and available under the same license.