Inbox: ID cards U-turn: The end is nigh?

"Great news and hopefully the beginning of the end for this crazy ID project"

The weekly Inbox column collects the best and most thought-provoking of the reader comments silicon.com receives each week.
The government's U-turn on ID cards this week caused readers to reach for their keyboards in force. Readers also weighed in on telcos being rather too well-represented in the list of worst companies for customer service and the question of whether Whitehall IT may be off to pastures new.

Don't forget to post your own response below to any of these stories or comments.

ID cards U-turn: No compulsory cards for pilots
The government has announced it will drop plans to make ID cards compulsory for airside workers.

End this 'crazy' project
Great news and hopefully the beginning of the end for this crazy ID project... and for the government's other pointless, intrusive database and surveillance projects.

However, it's interesting that the government ignored all expert technical advice that they should scrap this project.

But finally gave in to simple union pressure from Balpa etc.

The UK does have an interesting form of "democracy".
Richard, UK

Is the U-turn a bad thing?
Done it again! Non aircrew airport workers, airside or landside, should be thoroughly vetted and be required to have high-tech identity cards. They should also be subject to regular routine checks. Safety is the overriding priority.

Over 75s cards is just a means of justifying keeping civil service jobs.
Chris Goodman, Fareham

Airside already strict enough
Mr Goodman - airside workers already have extremely strict vetting procedures in place and don't need another inferior scheme which is generalised for use with the entire population and not just those in a high security environment
Karen Challinor, UK

Temporary situation
This U-turn is temporary and was introduced to placate the public at a time when Labour is well down in the polls. What happens when the situation changes and they look stronger again?

I'm sure they can and will reactivate their ID plans all over again. Do not celebrate yet, we have only won a battle, the war rages on!
Radical Meldrew, Suburbs

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BT tops terrible customer service poll
Telecoms companies may tell us it's good to talk but they seem to be struck dumb when it comes to communicating with their own customers, according to a new poll.

Sky above the rest
Personally I would have put Sky above BT but both along with Virgin Media are awful when it comes to dealing with customer queries, complaints and fault reports.

Quite how these companies manage to become so big and profitable while at the same time handling their customers in such an unprofessional and amateurish way beggars belief.
Chris Green, Journalist

Faulty lines
Fortunately, my Virgin Media cable broadband has been fairly reliable.

However, during a recent failure, I did phone their tech support to ask whether a network fault had been reported.

After the usual lengthy rigmarole (at my expense) of being told to reboot the modem etc.

Tech support finally agreed to look at their fault reports.

Yes, there was a network fault in my area; yes, their staff were working on it; with luck, the fault would be repaired within 10 hours!
Richard, UK

How do they get away with it?
The reason a lot of these companies get away with this truly awful service is because a) most of us put up with the service and don't switch b) customers don't always have a choice so can't switch and c) Some of the companies spend far more effort in getting new customers than retaining old ones - eg "Free box, free install, pay nothing for the first three months" etc. If an existing customer needs new equipment - even if they've been loyal for many years - they are told to pay up again.
Daz Hughes, London

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Whitehall IT to pack its bags for pastures new?
With predictions that a £50bn cut in public services spending is needed by 2020, senior Whitehall figures have indicated that they're open to an increased offshoring of government IT.

"Joined up government?"
Joined up government again here. Tech jobs are apparently our future, so we'll offshore more tech jobs. Hmm. I have no problem with private companies doing this, they live and die by how well they can serve their customers and manage their money and the end customer is free to pick and choose what they use and don't.

As a consumer of public services I don't have that choice, and I reckon the impact of offshoring these jobs could easily turn out to be false economy when the complete picture is assessed.
Drew Stephenson, York

Stunned
We are going to offshore government IT?

Possibly put the development of systems that could handle top secret or sensitive or even just mission critical information into the hands of a foreign power?

Please don't tell me it can't happen, ministers are going to assess each case and make a decision and ministers don't have very good track records on these things. Then we get to the issue of pouring billions of pounds of public money out of the national coffers and directly into the national coffers of a foreign power while the country is in the midst of a recession.

The self same recession that is being used as an excuse for the cost cutting that brought about the offshoring suggestion?

This is supposed to make things better? How?

I'm just a little stunned.
Karen Challinor, UK

"Scandalous waste"
Karen, I totally agree.

Every penny offshored is lost to our economy and in a recession is a scandalous waste.

Every penny spent here recycles numerous times through the local economy eventually ending up taken as taxes to be re-spent by the government of the day.

Given the double whammy of throwing money overseas and paying unemployment benefit, surely it must make economic sense to fund local jobs.

Being cynical I don't expect politicians to take the whole picture into account.

I think politicians, if they were turkeys, would vote for Christmas! That is how it looks to me.
Mark Young, Winchester

"Laughable"
Gordon Brown's UK Jobs for UK workers is laughable. Especially if UK government plc is now going to be one of the chief offenders.

I thought these sorts of technology-driven jobs were what was supposed to be the saviour of this country?
Anonymous, Birmingham

Offshore the government
Here is a cost saving idea... let's offshore the government!

It will be cheaper and less corrupt... the offshore centre will have to meet SLAs or face fines.
Annoyed, Reading

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