Government v LSE continues

The UK government have released an 11 page response to the LSE's critical report on their ID card scheme. It says the LSE report

uses inaccurate assumptions producing inflated cost estimates

and that the LSE's proposed alternative scheme is

insecure
puts personal information at risk
is not costed
is likely to be expensive
would not gain public trust
facilitates identity theft and fraud
has a high risk of failure
is based on insufficient stakeholder consultation
and misrepresents the government's prosed scheme

No pulling of punches there then. They've decided the best form of defence is attack.

Professor Ian Angell of the LSE says:

"We are encouraged that the government has responded to the LSE report. This is an important step forward in nurturing a meaningful debate.

We have not been given an opportunity to scrutinise the government's document. We will comment substantively when we have had time to digest the points made.

We are concerned, however, that the Home Office document contains material errors and appears to contain false assumptions about the alternative blueprint proposed. We will clarify and correct these aspects in our response."

Expect this one to run and run.