Andrew Gabriel wrote:
snip
Yet another cock-up from start to finish -- exactly as predicted
by everyone who gave the issue even the slightest thought at the
outset.

The government is good at that, organising large sweeping changes, often
hugely unpopular and rarely get off the ground (ID cards is another dead
herring), but hey-ho, a lot of people have already made millions from them
so the main objective has been fulfilled - complete success!