Following on from all the other ID card bullshit, we have this:

UK to use passports to build national fingerprint database
Mandatory fingerprinting of new UK passport applicants is to begin next year, as a “building block” for a future ID card scheme, according to a Guardian report The Government’s ID Card Bill was spiked after the election was announced, but the Government is said to contend that as passports are issued under royal prerogative, it doesn’t need legislation to demand fingerprints from passport applicants.

Oh shite. Looks like I’ll have to be working with the Irish passport when my current UK one runs out.

Whyfor? Well, because I’ll have my passport from Ireland, which will give me most of the benefits of the UK one, without me having to supply the Home Office with my fingerprints. Which would be nice. (Although, I thought that passports should be dealt with through the FCO, raising the question why the fuck the HO is even consulted…) So, I’ll have the international right to travel, without the problem of sacrificing many of my domestic civil rights.

And if Ireland brings in fingerprinting for passports? No problem, I’ll be happy to do that. Because there is no danger of me having to carry an Irish ID card for the forseeable future. Cross-border cooperation hasn’t quite reached the jackbooted brigades of the UK Home Office and the Irish Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. Which is a nice thing.