While civil libertarians and the tinfoil hat brigade object to ID cards on legal grounds, plenty of people are concerned about how much it will costs for the biometric identity project that government has been banging on about for years.
Now, perhaps, we are inching towards a proper idea.
As the Register reports:
The Home Office reckongs it will cost £290m to set-up passport and ID cards for British and Irish citizens resident in the UK for October 2006 to October 2016 and operational costs will be £5.1bn.
That figure, you'll be glad to hear, includes: "provision for optimism bias". "Optimism bias is a percentage uplift added to key cost parameters. It is based on the tendency for appraisers to be over-optimistic in the forecast of capital costs, works duration, operating costs and benefits delivery."
What a great line!
BARTENDER: Why the long face? HORSE: I've got a 0% provision for optimism bias.
