ID cards scrapped in favour of RFID implants for infants

The government is to scrap its controversial £30 voluntary ID card system in favour of having every child born in the UK implanted at birth with a free radio frequency-based (RFID) identity marker.

The plan is part of a £100bn 10-year project to put the UK at the forefront of post-internet information technology. It will lead to new grid-based network technology, new information processing and storage systems for "pervasive computing", and new massively parallel programming techniques, the government said.

Children born to cabinet members from next year would be the first to receive the implants. These will guarantee their access to privileged government facilities and services.

Announcing the scheme a government spokeswoman said it would return Britain to its rightful place as the world's IT technology leader, as it was during the Second World War. It had swapped many of the information theory and technology secrets developed by the code breakers at Bletchley Park for butter and guns from America, and this had let the US gain the lead, she said.

"The future is about pervasive, personal computing, and the national identity scheme is the perfect platform on which to build it," she said.

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