Politics or paranoia?
The British government's failure to be open about its plan for an identity card is proving costly. In May 1999, ministers announced that a £500-million ($800-million) contract to pay state benefits by swipe cards through Post Office computer terminals has been abandoned, and the reasons for the can...
| Published in: | Economist Vol. 351; no. 8121; pp. 54 - 56 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Economist Newspaper Limited
May 29 1999
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=507632984&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 507632984 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00130613 ECO jtl: Economist issn: 00130613 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: May 29 1999 vid: 351 iid: 8121 pid: 161 pub: Economist Newspaper Limited artinfo: ui: 507632984 ppf: 54 ppct: 2 formats: tig: atl: Politics or paranoia? aug: su: Identification cards Public welfare United Kingdom sug: subj: United Kingdom Identification cards Public welfare ab: The British government's failure to be open about its plan for an identity card is proving costly. In May 1999, ministers announced that a £500-million ($800-million) contract to pay state benefits by swipe cards through Post Office computer terminals has been abandoned, and the reasons for the cancellation are obscure. An unacknowledged underlying cause for the expensive debacle is the Labour Party's schizophrenic attitude to anything that might be seen as an identity card: In opposition it was opposed the idea, but in government, ministers have discovered the need to identify citizens individually, not least to deter social-security fraud estimated at several billion pounds per annum. pubtype: Periodical doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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