"CUTTING EDGE TECHNOLOGY TO MODERNISE UK BORDER CONTROL" shouts the Home Office press release.

"Cutting edge technology is set to revolutionise the UK's immigration controls, with the roll-out of a hi-tech iris recognition system to a number of key UK airports, Immigration Minister, Des Browne announced today.

The state-of-the-art system will store and verify the iris patterns of specially selected groups of travellers, giving watertight confirmation of their identity when they arrive in the UK. This will substantially increase security as well as speed their process through immigration control."

Complete nonsense. I'll say this slowly, Mr Browne, biometrics may be unique but they are not secret and the technology is not very reliable.