Grovelling Apology

In recompense for my recent appalling behaviour on Our Hero's blog, as chronicled on TerryWatch, may I direct you to a beautifully civilised rant in today's Torygraph, by Andrew Roberts on the egregious Vera Baird:

It is also worth contemplating Mrs Baird's typical New Labour arrogance in dismissing the Royal Family for not already being part of "the human race".

She obviously considers herself to be a functioning member of it, despite having been a lawyer for 33 years and a Labour MP for seven, two professions that the public regards as about as cut off from reality as it is possible to be in modern Britain.

I would be prepared to wager that every single member of the Royal Family in receipt of the Civil List - even those in their eighties - has in the past year visited more hospitals, met more ordinary people, travelled the country more and generally proved their membership of the human race far better than Mrs Vera Baird QC, MP.

The point about the Kaiser, as well as many others, is also beautifully made. My day would have seemed less damp if I had got to page 21 at breakfast rather than before bed.

For the Want of a Nail

It seems that the downfall of Lee Jasper, the world guru of PC and yet another example of the encouraging truism that the only qualification for seeking political office (even his pre-fall un-elected status) in London is excessive and extra-marital shagging, was brought about by one of the axiomatic failures of personal information security - the password on the post-it note.

If you had wondered how the Evening Standard got hold of the emails, the answer is in today's Indefensible.

Bigwigs at City Hall, paranoid about the leak that led to Jasper's messages reaching the journalist Andrew Gilligan, held an inquiry to find the culprit. The police would have been called had illegal hacking activity been unearthed. The inquiry was short. It soon established that Jasper kept his email log-in password on a Post-it note near his computer, so a temp could check his mail.

More fool him.

What Aren't They Saying?

Have a look at this very interesting response, from the less than universally popular Government of the People's Republic of China, to this Businessweek article:

After saying that, I should say that the Chinese government has on various occasions expounded its position on this global issue of cyber intrusion or hacking. The Chinese Government always opposes and forbids any cyber crimes including "hacking" that undermine the security of computer networks. Chinese laws and regulations are explicit in this regard.

As it is, China's cyber space and internet systems are frequently intruded and attacked by hackers from certain countries. As a victim of hacking attacks, China attaches great importance to cracking down on various cyber crimes including hacking activities.

China follows a path of peaceful development, and unswervingly adopts a national defense policy which is defensive in nature. China would never do anything to harm sovereignty or security of other countries. In conformity with such national policies, the Chinese government has never employed, nor will it employ so-called civilian hackers in collecting information or intelligence of other countries. Allegations against China in this respect are totally unwarranted, which only reflect the dark mentality of certain people who always regard China as a threat. Of course, there are some other people who are misled into believing that China is engaged in hacking activities, which is more than wrong.

(My italics.)

Now, I have worked in the past with the good people at CN-CERT/CC, the official computer incident co-ordinating centre for the PRC and they are keen and helpful when you are trying to knock out fraudulent web-sites and I am sure they are just as helpful in other similar circumstances.  But ...

Although it is not unknown for Intelligence Agencies to outsource the gathering of sensitive information to 'so-called civilian hackers', it is much more common for them to employ the appropriate resource directly - either via the military or as government employees.  Which may be, as well as having some of their billion-plus population being up to no good entirely on their own cognisance, how some of all these APNIC IP addresses are appearing in people's security logs.

Or, there are another couple of alternatives.  The "Press Counselor & Spokesperson Of the Chinese Embassy to the United States" may not have a complete picture of his government's intelligence activities or, and I know this may come as a complete shock, may be knowingly telling a slight fib.

Security Shitstorm

While I am perfectly happy that it appears unlikely that Poole Council passed the necessary tests in S.28(3) of RIPA for the authorisation of directed surveillance (see al-Beeb, the Torygraph and the Gruniad):

(3) An authorisation is necessary on grounds falling within this subsection if it is necessary—

(a) in the interests of national security;

(b) for the purpose of preventing or detecting crime or of preventing disorder;

(c) in the interests of the economic well-being of the United Kingdom;

(d) in the interests of public safety;

(e) for the purpose of protecting public health;

(f) for the purpose of assessing or collecting any tax, duty, levy or other imposition, contribution or charge payable to a government department; or

(g) for any purpose (not falling within paragraphs (a) to (f)) which is specified for the purposes of this subsection by an order made by the Secretary of State.

unless the evil shits that run this country have made an Order defining school entrance as so enabling, I must object to the tenor of the BBC coverage this morning and the other journalistic nonsense.  RIPA is not just for terrorists (as the mother apparently alleges) and serious crime - it covers many, many things.  For example, there has been directed surveillance for years by the DWP and its predecessors checking that invalidity benefit (and its predecessors) claimants are not working on the side, running marathons, entering martial arts competitions, etc.

Note that this is not interception (S3, 4 & 5) or 'intrusive surveillance' in S32, which aside from the limited exceptions for interception (consent, the owner of a private system etc), the requirements for justifying both of which are more severe.

While I agree with Liberty that this may be disproportionate (I am not sure using your current address on a school application and then later moving a mile counts as criminal, whatever Tim Martin thinks) but the challenge has to be on that basis, not that 'it isn't terrorism'.

Phorm, for example, mendacious charlatans that they may be, are not 'terrorists', and we certainly want RIPA to apply to them.

Sacreligious Publishing

Okay, I guess that unlike the 25,000¹ ravening bigots whipped into a fury of "peace and tolerance for their fellow man"^(TM), I have watched 'Fitna' and read 'Infidel'. There is some utter crap² around concerning these.

Now, it has to be said that all religions have their utter wackos. Ask any family planning clinic in the US 'Bible Belt'. Or somebody after a drink (or a game of golf) on the Western Isles on a Sunday. However, modern Islam does have its nutters more than a wee bit closer both to the mainstream and to the hairy edge than, for example, Tibetan Buddhists. (Ed notes: And a happy non-violent continuing anti-Olympic protest beating to you in the gulag near Lhasa! And best of British for your protest in SanFran - you ought to have a more favourable policing atmosphere than you did in the Euro-statist capitals of Paris or London.)

Well, Infidel was not a nice story. Ayaan Hirsi Ali has not had a quiet and easy life. An impoverished upbringing of tribal brutality in exile. A violent mother out of place in modern³ society. Endless misogyny and female circumcision⁴. Much of this seemed to be post hoc justified in Islam - but like just the burka, these are tribal customs enforced through female acquiescence to patriarchal stupidity. I was cured of this by reading Germaine at a suitably impressionable age. Islam didn't come out of her childhood too badly - her adults came out appallingly - mother, grandmother (especially) father, brother - a fairly uniform bunch of oxygen thieves. Now, once she was a free adult in the Netherlands, then the 'Religion of Peace' showed its real (ugly) form. It is a good, albeit fundamentally disturbing (especially, I suspect, if you are a sexually active female) book - buy it or borrow it, but read it. If it doesn't make you think then you are probably a nu-Lab PPS.

'Fitna' was a damp squib. Nothing new, nothing particularly interesting. A simple documentary on fundamentalist extremism in Europe would have done the trick, without the political kudos. No mention of Saudi (although I did spot at least one Saudi sheik amongst the rabid), Salafism or Wahabbi. 15 minutes of the best of the Quran, the successful amongst Islamist terrorists and crowds incited to foaming-at-the-mouth anti-Semitism. We get that on the news - even al-Beeb carries that sort of hysteria. Watch it - just because people want to ban it and that is, of itself, a bad thing⁵. Many thanks to Liveleak for carrying it - I appreciate the sheer aggro you went through with all the mindless nut-jobs and the intimidation.

The last word.



1. It's nice to see there are some commonalities in modern policing - 100,000 according to the organisers.

2. Exodus, Samuel, Psalms. And this is an angry response about Christians. Well educated in the 'good book', then. New covenant, anybody? 'Sermon on the Mount', going cheap?

3. Geek moment. Mine is /was an AS400 Sysadmin. Zero cool points for the Tux generation!

4. This is the wrong word. Male 'circumcision' involves removing a small bit of skin on the end of your knob that, frankly (and I speak as one with one) doesn't seem to serve that much of a purpose. And I get the hygiene point. As opposed to removing the clitoris, the labia (various) and whatever else gets in the way of the knife. 'Castration' isn't the right word either. But it's closer.

5. I've read 'Mein Kampf'. It's a terrible book - huge, turgid and vile. The 'John Prescott' of literature. But it is an important book - it shaped a large part of the last century and is still significant now. Which is why it should be available to be read. Along with "Animal Farm', 'One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich'. Both of which are (much) shorter and (vastly) better written.

Random News

The good, the bad and the ugly.

Oh, and the 'no surprises there, then' and the downright wierd.

New Coins

I am, in my (very limited) richer moments a non-obsessive collector of UK coins. And I like these new ones:



I think the idea is good, I think the use of the traditional heraldry is good (although there clearly should be a Scottish version with the proper arrangement of the Royal Arms for use in Scotland - this being different from the Royal Arms of Scotland). And I will buy a set, when they come out in silver Piedfort.

And for those bemoaning the loss of Britannia, can I please direct you to the 2008 design:



Update: Got the Royal Mint catalogue through this morning. £11k for the two (old & new) sets in platinum. A mere £6k for the new lot. :) My dearly beloved thinks not.

An Early Christmas

Remember "Santa's Little Helper"? The tangerine hero of Protestantism?

Well, we now know his real name. Not Charles Clarke, not even John Parker. It is (why is the blink tag depreciated the one time you really need it?):

Diamond Dan the Orangeman

After rejecting "Sash Gordon" and "the Boyne Wonder", you really have to worry about these bigots. Especially at 7 years old. I suppose we should congratulate Mr and Mrs Mitchell for bringing up young Steven in the best traditions of warped Christianity, religious intolerance and mindless stupidity your island is so famous for. Possibly a year-out scholarship at a Taliban madrassa beckons once he can grow enough bum fluff for an acceptable beard?

Stat Pin Ups

While the big boys of the (UK political) blogosphere whip each other senseless in a Mosely-esque frenzy (but without the dungeon, call girls or Nazi uniforms): here, here (and here, here & here, Ed notes: but let's not call Tim 'obsessive', instead we'll just point out that he might need a cause or two to take his mind off of the fags), here, here and here (with a very good analogy between website stats and the wholly fallacious 'JustForeignPolicy' extrapolation of the decidedly dodgy Lancet "Iraq Casualties guesstimate), I thought I would trivialise the situation and update you on my minnow's experience of 'Hello Kitty Hell'.

Month	Hello Kitty	Archive (HK)	Front Page	Articles > 1%
Jan	37%	5%	39%	1
Feb	43%	14%	18%	2
Mar	50%	22%	14%	1
Apr (to date)	36%	41%	10%	1 (old!)

Oh when will it end!

Did you have 'Phorm'?

Well, more than 18,000 of you (i.e. 18,000 accounts with an unknown number of subscribers behind those) did, BT customers to a man, woman and Bassett Hound. But you'll never know. BT didn't keep the records of who they subjected to this dubious privilege. (Ed notes: Well, unless you check your browser for Webwise¹ cookies.)

So the great Phorm saga continues with a significant presence on this morning's BBC Breakfast show, with quite a concentration of attention on the BT trial - was it legal? Was it moral? Did it work?

Kudos to the female presenter for giving the latest mendacious Phorm apologist, Emma Sanderson from BT, a hard time.  Fewer brownie points, however, to the reporter, Julia Caesar, for an unconvincing and inaccurate description of Phorm.  It doesn't record your search terms, I am afraid, it processes, analyses and records summaries of everything it can get its dirty mitts on (which is pretty much everything, folks.)

Okay, so we don't know quite a lot about how this works, yet, and I am really looking forward to Richard Clayton's report following the Open Rights Group's meeting with Phorm last week.

What do we know?

• Phorm redirects your HTTP requests (apparently via some horrid proxy redirects² or some DNS chicanery³), and looks for a Webwise cookie.   If you don't have one, you get one (possibly not if you are a Talk-Talk customer).


• It intercepts the returning webstream and processes it, unless you have opted out, to see into which of their advertising categories the page falls.  It then records this data against your cookie value.
• If the target website is an OIX customer, you will get an add inserted.  If you have not opted-out, this will be based on your previous surfing history, if you are opted-out, it will be randomly selected.

What are the concerns?

• Phorm, themselves, have form - they used to be 121 Media Inc.  121 Media produced a product that placed ads on your system and used rootkit technology, apparently this, to stop it being easily removed.  They say 'adware', many say 'spyware'.  They say 'potatoe', many say 'potato'.


• Phorm is potentially (i.e. it cannot stop itself from) processing personal data under the meaning of the First Principle of the Data Protection Act 1998 and therefore must justify the conditions in Schedule 2 of the Act.


• Phorm cannot prevent itself from capturing, analysing and, therefore, processing, sensitive personal data under Section 2 and Schedule 3 of the Act.


• The interception of the HTTP stream is, itself, clearly in breach of Section 1(1)(b) of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, 2000 (see also s2(2)(b) for a definition of interception).  Unless BT (not Phorm - the ISP are doing the interception, I suspect) have 'lawful authority'.  This is hard - especially as they are a public telecommunications provider, therefore don't have access to the exclusions in 1(6).  So how can this be legal?  There are two options, 


• s3(1) - consent - which requires both parties (browser and server).  There are also concerns that even if the subscriber consented in a contract, that they cannot provide the appropriate explicit consent for anybody who uses that service (we, for example, have an old laptop in our guest room for visitors to use.)


• s3(3) "it takes place for purposes connected with the provision or operation of that service". I'll let the lawyers argue about that one but it certainly isn't clear that it is legal - it would be difficult to argue that provision of adverts was a vital part of the service but they may argue that the limited anti-phishing capability counts.

We'll see how this one pans out in public and, but hopefully not, in the courts.


• Phorm claim that their stored data is not personally identifiable and have gone to significant trouble to get 80/20 Thinking (not Privacy International although the staff lists are fairly congruent) to do a Privacy Impact Assessment.  The determiner is whether anybody holds a list that associates the Phorm cookie identifier with an individual.  As Ben Laurie points out, this would be trivial for the ISP to do, especially with the Phorm monitoring kit already installed.

This is I have to say, enough for me to consider changing ISP - if Virgin Media do implement Phorm, I will shift from cable to broadband, probably for my phone service too. As well as LightBlueTouchPaper, for the forthcoming technical analysis, can I also recommend BadPhorm, for more background (and a list of ISPs who have pledged not to go near this mendacious spyware with the proverbial bargepole) and Dephormation for a Firefox plugin that will help you avoid damage iff (Ed notes: yes, that is not a spulling mistook) you end up subjected to Phorming.

Update: And this in from el-Reg.


1. As a (NTL / Blueyonder / Virgin Media / whoever it is today) customer, it is nice to see that their logo is no longer on the home page of this site.

2. See this /. comment.

3. But as an ex-BT customer, I run my own DNS servers? Would they still manage to capture my (and my family's) browsing?

Somewhat Surprising

H/t to the Fat Nurse, via Dr Crippen, for this mildly entertaining waste of a few minutes:



A brief look around the block gave me some surprising results:

Devil's Kitchen hardly lives up to his hard won reputation for profane vitriol with a mere:



TerryWatch is really quite polite, despite the endless provocation:



al-Beeb maintains the Reithian tradition in at least one (tiny) aspect of its modern incarnation:



Mr E is surprisingly mild mannered:



Shotgun, on the other hand, appears to have confused the widget:

Reality Check for Sgt McHenry.

Crime? ✓

Dangerous? ✓

Reasonably punished by a jail sentence? Probably.

Terrorism, cyber or otherwise? No, please, no!

"It didn't take a lot of technical hacking skills," said McHenry. "All
it required was knowledge of certain services that he used for the wrong purpose. I hope this deters other people emulating Mr. Ellis. I would hope they think twice before engaging in cyber terrorism."

Ed notes: For those using IE7 - those blocks you can see on the first two lines are rendered as 'ticks' in real browsers.

Myth & Reality

Heathrow Terminal 5.

In my email, from BA:

Dear Mr S-E,

Five and a half years ago the building of our new home began in our most visionary project to date. Today we opened the doors. There is no more waiting... Terminal 5 welcomes you.

At Terminal 5 everything has been streamlined and designed to make your journey through the terminal calm and relaxed. And this morning we saw all the planning fall into place.

Check-in and Security have been designed to speed you through to Departures in just 10 minutes*. And with a shopping concourse to rival London's West End, our premium flagship lounge complex, Galleries, and the state-of-the-art baggage system, you'll discover nothing has been overlooked to ensure your time at Terminal 5 is spent in a most relaxing and enjoyable way.

In reality, once both BA and BAA have got their hands in up to the elbows:

Further disruption is expected at Heathrow's new Terminal 5, with more flights cancelled and long passenger queues building by the early hours.

So far on Friday, 10 British Airways flights have been cancelled.

Passengers have missed flights, with some blaming incorrect information and a lack of desks open to cope with the number of people.

British Airways says it plans to operate 80% of flights, on the day after the £4.3bn facility opened.

Oh and,

Plans to fingerprint passengers travelling from Heathrow's new Terminal 5 have been suspended, less than 24 hours before it is due to open.

Airport operator BAA claims the measure is needed to distinguish domestic passengers from international ones.

But the data protection watchdog said the plan may breach British law.

You probably need to be aware of this (note the bit at the bottom that doesn't mention a £100 maximum as per al-Beeb):

2. Compensation

(The airline is not obliged to pay compensation if it can prove that the cancellation was caused by "extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken". Such extraordinary circumstances might occur "in cases of political instability, meteorological conditions incompatible with the operation of the flight concerned, security risks, unexpected flight safety shortcomings and strikes that affect the operation of an operating air carrier".)

Length of journey	Delay to destination	Compensation
Up to 1500km	Up to 2 hours	€125
Up to 1500km	More than 2 hours	€200
1500km to 3500km	Up to 3 hours	€250
1500km to 3500km	More than 3 hours	€300
More than 3500km	Up to 4 hours	€400
More than 3500km	More than 4 hours	€600

3. Assistance at the airport

• Meals and refreshments in reasonable relation to waiting time


• Two free telephone calls, emails, telexes or faxes


• Overnight hotel accommodation and transfers

Far, Far Too Slow

On the face of it, this might be considered to be good news:

Some 2,000 Iraqis may be flown to Britain from next month to start a new life under a £25m government programme.

Interpreters and other staff who have worked for the UK government are being offered a one-off payment or the chance to settle in the UK with their family.

About 50 Iraqis, many of whom fear for their lives in their homeland, are due to arrive on the first flight in April.

The Home Office said they would spend two days in Slough, Berkshire, before being resettled outside the south-east.

However, this shows the real state of affairs:

A Home Office spokesman said it was still at the very early stages of assessing eligibility but suggested the number of Iraqis given indefinite leave to stay in the UK could be up to 2,000.

So far, of the 46 cases that have been fully processed, nine expressed an interest in applying for indefinite leave to remain, while 37 opted for the financial package, he added.

Forty-six cases processed. While people are dying. No wonder 80% of them don't trust our government enough to come to stay here.

Crisis? What crisis?

I thought Belgium seemed to be operating perfectly ably without their masters intervention but, according to the BBC, the crisis is over:

Yves Leterme has been appointed Belgium's new prime minister, ending nine months of political deadlock which threatened the unity of the country.

Ah, buried at the bottom of the nu-Beeb verbiage:

In December, thousands of trade unionists took to the streets in Brussels, complaining about the political stalemate and rising food and fuel prices.

The European Commission had warned that the political paralysis was beginning to affect Belgium's economy.

There we have it. If the trade unions say it is a crisis (and, of course, high oil and food prices are something a Belgian government is ideally situated to fix - and the country seems not to have descended into Chaos in the last three months) and the eurocrats agree, then it must be true.

Economic Ignoramus

Well, Scotland's senior MEP (apparently^*) is a moron. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Mr David Martin in today's Scotsman:

Market forces are the best way to stop cruelty of seal clubbing.

Heh? How is that ignorant or moronic? Sounds perfectly reasonable does it - liberal even? Nobody wants to buy the goods and there is no reason to prepare or sell seal-based products. (Ed notes: of course, it doesn't mean there is no reason to cull the seals - maintaining fish stocks pops up as just one reason - the best part of 1/4 million additional seals each year would eat quite a lot over their lifetimes.)

Ah, no. You see it's this bit - "Market forces". His idea of a 'market force' is an EU-wide ban.

Indeed, if Europe was to no longer permit producers of seal products to trade within our borders

Statist cunt.

Just for the record, my dress sporran is chinchilla, not the more common seal-skin, my day sporran is plain leather (probably cow-hide).


* - Is "senior MEP in the European Parliament" a simple tautology, or is he making a subtle point about the commitment of our elected reprehensibles in Brussels? The former, you say? I thought stupidity was the most likely answer.

Two snippets

Ashley Dupré - cute but not that^* cute:


Actually, I think Mrs Spitzer is hardly a moose:




German Army training doesn't quite get the point:

The hoods were briefly removed and the recruits had to lie down with a sergeant on their backs while a waterpipe was stuffed into their noses.

During a second exercise the recruits were sprayed with water as they stood with electrical cables from a field telephone attached to their necks, thighs and calves.

Now, we all know that going to war on the same side as the Americans may lead to 'friendly fire' but, really, it is unlikely to lead to 'friendly waterboarding'.

* $5k per hour, or whatever is being reported now.

Populist Fool or Statist Cunt?

The question is being asked of Kenny MacAskill today, who has demanded that the UK government, in the form of Ruth Kelly, never a body corporate nor a person slow to shit all over the liberties of us mere peons, reduce the legal blood alcohol level for drivers from 80mg/100ml^* to 50.

It has to be said that this is not a new SNP policy - so they are, at least, consistent in their shit-headery.

"What's your problem?" you may be asking. Do I really want more deaths on the road? After all:

Drink driving remains a constant thorn in the side of efforts to make our roads and communities safer. The fact that 1 in 9 road deaths in Scotland were alcohol-related shows we need to do more.

Aaaargh. You utter fucking imbecile. If you want to educate people that drink driving is bad, then educate them - you're in charge of the entire Scottish education system for fuck's sake. You have an enormous PR and media budget. Prioritise the spend. But no, you are trying to change the law. You need (well, okay, you don't, you should have) a reason. A simple change of question for you.

It is not "How many road deaths are alcohol-related?", it is "How many deaths were attributable to the legal alcohol limit being 0.8g/l not 0.5g/l?"

Just one hint. Don't believe the BMA's figure of 65 UK-wide. They, just like our politicians, are another bunch of "Do as we say, not as we do", hypocrites.

* Science pedant here - what, exactly, is wrong with properly labelling this 0.8g/l? Maybe because that seems really small? Cunts.

"Black Swan"

I picked up a copy of Nassim Taleb's 'Black Swan' at the airport on Friday. Interesting book with some basic and difficult to argue with premises:

• The 'normal' or 'Gaussian' probability distribution curve is only ever, at best, an approximation to reality.
• Although there are some aspects of reality for which it is a reasonably good approximation (human height and weight are both examples mentioned), there are many things out there for which it is a terrible approximation.
• Where it is a terrible approximation, it is normally underestimating the probabilities of "tail" events - unlikely disasters or triumphs.
• Where a terrible probability approximation is used to mechanistically calculate for outcomes with high impacts, 'bad things' ™ may happen.

Although the example he regularly uses for a variable which has a long and significant tail is human earnings or wealth, where he considers that some version of a power law distribution is in force, his money has been made from using this understanding to predict high risk events in the financial markets.

How can you make money from this? By taking it from others through insurance or hedging. If you know (or can place a damn good guess of) the real likelihood and impact of one of his 'Black Swan' events, and everybody else grossly underestimates them, you are not going to need to spend as much as you would if their actuaries were up to speed (this doesn't apply to high-ish probability events where the actuaries just look up the number of events and the assessed costs). You can then take the upside of the event happening or not and transfer the risk of the downside to somebody who understands it less well.

Overall - I would recommend this book for anybody interested in the financial markets and how people manage to get paid quite so much for doing quite so badly. I would note, as a mild warning, that it will be a bit too mathematical for many - although he does try to flag this and allow you to skip those bits. Personally, I will try his "Fooled by Randomness" when I see a copy although I would recommend Tim Harford's "Logic of Life" for an even more sideways look at 'homo economicus'.

That 'Crosby Report'

So Sir James Crosby, ex-head of HBOS and now quango-ing it up as Deputy Chairman of the FSA, has finally published the report into "Challenges and opportunities in identity assurance". He had been appointed by the monocular control freak in July 2006 to lead the "Public Private Forum on Identity Management", some four months after the detailed legislation for the National ID Card and National Identity Register was enacted. So, actually, it is pretty pointless.

In law, we already know what is going to be in the Register, we know how, if not exactly what, we are going to be forced to fund this statist atrocity? So why a detailed report now and why did it take 21 months to produce? I'm sure Sir James isn't saying.

But despite all the time it has taken to produce this, there are a number of problems.  Firstly, it doesn't describe the UK ID Card and Register.  Sir James is describing a system that is free (or, at least, cheap) - para 5.38, efficient - para 5.4, and allows for the inevitable failures - paras 4.7 & 5.37.  Most of all, it stores just the data necessary for the validation of ID - summary and paras 5.20 & 5.21.

He also makes a couple of mistakes - an over-reliance on the capabilities of biometrics in para 1.17 (although para 1.19 does show some, albeit insufficient, scepticism) and a general ignoring of the 'birthday attack', particularly in para 1.18.  Although he is technically correct, the approach in para 1.26 and Ch1, footnote 1 is unfortunate for its stress - it skirts the core issue that the assurance system will not have independent failure rates - they will rely on the same ID Card enrolment, issuance and validation system, for a start.

He doesn't mention terrorism - although 'national security' does get a couple of plugs, and 'border control' is mentioned.

Heathrow currently takes about 160,000 passengers per day.  If you have a 1 in a million false-identification rate (which causes you to be arrested) and a 1 in 250,000 system failure rate (which causes a significant delay or being denied boarding) and there are 20 known terrorists per year going through the airport, 68 people will be falsely arrested, system errors in 271 cases will cause significant delays and no terrorists will be caught.  Why?  Because the terrorists will have correctly (if illegally) issued ID cards for completely 'innocent' identities.