ID Cards Kill All Known Germs

It's been a while since I mentioned ID cards. This'll no doubt change when parliament gets back from their summer holidays. Am I the only one who's starting to think it might be better if they just stayed on holiday indefinitely? Big JP would still be in charge though. Hmm, talk about devils and deep blue seas.

Anyway, I noticed an interesting story on ID cards. A researcher studying criminal behavior has said that the introduction of "gold standard" ID cards will reduce the incidence of identity fraud to virtually zero.

Of course I'm joking. Criminals adapt. In fact, the over-reliance on a "gold standard" system can actually lead to increased problems.

The more people rely on the production of a particular piece of identification to verify identity, the less vigilance people will exercise themselves - that's the problem. If there are ID cards we will trust them to be unassailable.

I think I have a reasonably good idea how the government will respond* to this.

*Sorry, this really is poor quality photo-choppery, even by my low standards.