Who will decide who gets what project? There is no-one in the UK Govt qualified to make those sorts of decisions which means they will have to outsource that as well, and the fee would have be outrageous...the caveats for avoiding responsibility of cocking it up in that contract alone would also make hliarious reading.... as for the outsourcers themselves, its just business, unless of course the requirements change ... scope-creep is the term, but we all know when a Govt project is at hand it is usually scope-sprint...

As for getting all the outsourcers to play together to form one cohesive service, well herding cats comes to mind...

If the ID card really is a reaction to too many illegal immigrants living life on the lam (and/or being up to no good)... take away the 'lam'... vote-winner I reckon (DaveC, all yours); personally I'm not convinced that the ID card is the way to go.

Lastly, the UK Govt is now fast approaching a mirror image of the US Govt; where snooping on the public is as natural as farting on the bus... not nice near to you but it happens. [I just love that movie, V for Vendetta......fully recommend it.]