The British government has spent 6.6 billion dollars for a new identity card program that is based around biometrics. Like any new ID card program it is designed to help enhance security for everyone from public officials to private citizens. The problem is that there is not one card reader in the entire country, not at any police station, customs locations, anywhere in the entire country.
It would be understandable if the government had a plan to purchase card readers but it does not.
"We have always said that we would roll out the scheme incrementally. The card will not be as useful as it could be until we have got the volumes out there. There"s no prospect in the immediate future for the government directing anybody that you have to buy those things [readers] because we would be placing a burden on these organizations."
She continues, "The manufacturers of the machines have also got to decide whether it is worth their while to produce them. I think that organizations will decide in time that it is better, quicker and cheaper to have them."
The government produced a 6.6 billon dollar piece of plastic that no one can read and thus it acts like any other form of identification. If this isn"t a giant face-palm, then the term needs a new definition.