While not being one to soak in the glory of "I told you so" it would appear the the Central Database (always quietly whispered when the government is promoting its ID cards) will be avaialble for those with a little cash to spare.
Your data is secret and secure (unless we want to make a quick buck).
Personal details of all 44 million adults living in Britain could be sold to private companies as part of government attempts to arrest spiralling costs for the new national identity card scheme, set to get the go-ahead this week.
The Independent on Sunday can today reveal that ministers have opened talks with private firms to pass on personal details of UK citizens for an initial cost of £750 each.
Amid warnings today that the cost of a card for each adult in Britain is likely to double to £200, union leaders predicted that millions of public-sector workers could refuse to co-operate with the scheme, prompting claims that the ID scheme will become Labour's equivalent of the poll tax.
And the rest of the lunacy at:
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politi ... ory=649780Still, it seems someone in there still has a functional brain cell, no doubt due to be "retired" soon:
Whitehall insiders, who have already been passed a copy of the LSE report, say it also includes a warning by a former Nato security chief that the cards could be a "security disaster", are "too risky" to introduce, and could lead to a national meltdown in the event of a security breach of the central database.