Thats 1000 arrests, how many convictions? Each of those people are innocent unless a court determines otherwise...

But how many successful prosecutions, which are surely the real judge of whether this system is finding genuine crims.

the e-passports got cracked and trashed just a couple of days ago?

Thought this article was up on Reg, but...

http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2007/08/epassport

If it can be done with the passports, surely visas too? Then what's the point of all this investment?

So the Government is going to spend £6bn of the public's money on this (multiply any Government cost estimate by at least 5 to get the likely real cost) no doubt to "protect" us from terrorists.

Of course first they have to actually know *who* the terrorists are, aren't they?

And of course they'll also want to wrap this into the National Identity Database scheme as well so you can look forward to being fingerprinted and probably DNA tested as well whenever you want to go on holiday to make sure you're signed up and Big Brother has you on file.

I'm glad I like to go on surfing holidays in Devon...! (Although I'm going to be riding down on my motorcycle, so Automatic Number Plate Recognition will probably be tracking me...)

Someone tell me if I'm wrong, but I'm sure I read somewhere that we can't even manage to prevent foreign vehicles LEAVING the UK when there are outstanding offences recorded against them.

I know this is a different matter, but surely the most simple from a technical point-of-view.