As the population still digest the enormity of the loss of confidential information for 25 million people in the UK, many are starting to ask the question, “Can the ID card program survive?”

The confidence in the governments ability to securely retain the type and amount of data which will be required for ID cards has forced many of the public and MPs to think again.  Can they really afford to back a system which has the potential to be even more damaging than the loss of 25 million records, can they take the chance that security systems and procedures are in place to retain and protect this information? The answer at the moment is no…………

It would be greatly unfair to say that the current Labour government were the only ones ever to lose such information, as it has happened time and time again in the past and will no doubt happen in the future.  One of the main problems for today’s government is the speed with which rumours grow legs and are manipulated by the press.  There will have been many occasions in the past, throughout the years, where information has disappeared in a similar fashion (although not on the same scale) and it has been kept quiet.

The government effectively had their hands forced with the current situation with rumours rife in the press and on websites, that something was seriously wrong.  Faced with such a problem and the fact the news was leaking out, a hurried statement needed to be issued, perhaps giving the authorities less time to stop the potential for fraud or find the discs in question.

The saga also puts the spotlight back onto recent redundancies within the civil service, at a time when MPs are holding out their own hands for more and more benefits, pensions and greater salaries.  Many are asking how MPs can justify putting the very services which we consider safe and secure at risk, while increasing their own income from the same pot – i.e. the tax payer.