ID And The Golden State

Ministers have thankfully pulled back from compulsory identity cards which, on Radio 4, I hear "died a death from a thousand cuts." Alan Johnson, the new Home Secretary following the porno-expensing Jacqui Smith, announces that the only people required to have an ID card will be foreign citizens, which is us no longer (I think?). However, onerously, Government will press ahead with a national identity register that, from 2011-12, will include the details of everyone who applies for a passport. While the European Union mandates biometric chips in all EU passports by 2012, it does not suggest one hackable central database. We have watched in horror as Government has lost or misplaced data on thousands of citizens. My only comfort - for now - is that my personal records distributed across multiple storage points and therefore more difficult to access or mis-manage. I may have nothing to hide but this does not mean I willy-nilly grant any Tom, Dick or Harry such privilege to know. Photo from UK.gov.

Think of California for a moment: Tuesday, the Golden State ran out of money while owing $22 billion in arrears. Anybody expecting a cheque for the state gets .. an IOU. Seriously. I wonder if these things trade in a secondary market? Five IOUs get you a loaf of bread. Or a U-Haul, bye-bye.