let me think....funnily enough 'in the news' circa 2005...both emb and rimington spoke out about ID cards...saying that a 'national ID card' was a silly idea because hackers were so proficient nowadays that they would create forgeries....

a year or two later...a new standard 'secure' british passport was released...and hackers immediately put up an exact copy upon the internet....

so i suppose that the pair of them had had their fingers burnt circa 2005....and decided to 'jump the other way' once out of office as it were....

and i had dryly noted at the time....that once 'upon the other side of the fence' and out of 'intelligence' they were scared of what 'intelligence might do to them'....and that is why they were arguing against ID cards.....for once, 'on the side of the people' rather than exploiting and manipulating them like 'sheep'....

BI ONLINE are telling me "they wanted the same system 'hand in the till' to continue"