Why does the government continue to insist that a driving license, a passport and an ID card all continue to be needed? Surely just one is sufficient and right now that one should be the passport.

Of course, not having an ID card would mean that a lot of the usual suspects would lose out on a multi-billion pound contract and we couldn't have that could we?

Seriously what a total mess this will be. Everyone's ID and details on a single database, and some twat will have it on his laptop, DVD, memory stick, iphone, blackberry and lose it.

It will mean £300+ for every family every few years.

Just as we are going into recession. And along comes road pricing (the camers are recently on all major roads) etc.

Still there must be a way for a few individuals to get rich on the back of this. Stand forward MPs looking for directorships and cash from IT companies bidding for the contracts.

In the meantime they had the opportunity to 'tweak' the report for review and publication I bet.
Give shady characters enough time and you won't find any smoking guns, you're left with just the bodies.
And any witnesses that talk too much.. well they might just get 'depressed' and 'stab themselves' on the moors. The report on that not being suspicious is already written in advance for convenience and swift justice to save the taxpayer money and such.

What is the point of ID cards when the data that links the ID card to the owner needs to be checked against a central database to verify authenticity anyway? 

If this is not done they can be forged and would be a waste of money.

Why not just check biometrics against the database directly via biometrics readers eg fingerprint, retina, face, body shape, weight; and ditch the pricey pointless eminently loseable card?

Sound investment in automatic fingerprint reader valet service might be desirable however.