Another aspect of the UK identity card scheme, this time the plan to store retina scans has been abandoned. That just leaves fingerprints, the cards and the database itself to go.
The article I linked to talks of the UK’s ‘international obligations’. The ones that Britain took the lead in pressing for, mostly one suspects to provide the UK government with political cover for the cards themselves, which are almost certainly being introduced for a quite different reason:
Blunkett’s ID card initiative came a week after French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said Britain’s lack of such a document was a main reason why so many illegal aliens where targeting it. Sarkozy hinted strongly that France would not close the Sangatte camp until London took appropriate action. [From 2002]
It should be noted that the regulations themselves are drawn very loosely: fingerprints are nowhere near US passports for the moment, and the current ‘biometric’ passports (with a digital photo on a microchip) meet all current obligations, as far as I am aware.
Not that I am opposed to fingerprints on passports, especially if it would save some time. The US, of course, now collects fingerprints from its visitors.