The Minister responsible for ID cards has resigned from Government after he was caught out for having used databases and other means to dig up dirt on journalists.
His defence was that he was innocent enough not to be fired because he didn’t understand the consequences of his actions. That may be true, or it may be obfuscation. Either way, his position was untenable and on a good day to bury bad news, he inevitably resigned.
As was becoming abundantly clear, the former Minister didn’t understand the consequences of his ID card decisions either.
Government continues, and a new ID Minister has been appointed.
That new Minister won’t have had the training at Facebook and won’t have written a book explaining to readers why ID cards should be implemented as Facebook would do it. And new Ministers mean past assumptions and decisions may be revisited – which can be a good and bad thing…
The mandate can come back – though it never really went away because if you want to get a job, register a birth, send your kid to school, or interact with the State in any way, you’ll still need a (One?) Login to a Government Account that always requires the same one name.
NO2ID’s questions for the consultation are still valid, and still unanswered.
Despite asking multiple times in meetings and in written communications, we’ve not had a clear answer on whether the delivery plan for One Login and associated services will force people who have both married and maiden names to pick one, which will be all they can use in their interactions with the public sector.
Will the new Minister’s first decision be to force people to change their name so his database can work?