A classic piece at The Register on biometrics and stupidity: read David Moss and you’ll be more competent than anyone in government on this issue. It’s the false positives, of course; but the truly shocking thing is that despite everything, the ID scheme still depends on the n=10,000 trial from 2004 that they deny is a trial.
Go, read.
I have to say that the question of a biometrics ID system workability is besides the point: to be forced by law to carry ID automatically criminalises those who dont, and the biometric chip component carries a freight of dread uncertainty as to what it will be used for. Faced with an ID card system we should ask the same question which any security policy/legislation demands – will it make it easier for this or a future government to subvert democracy, control the public and suppress dissent? And I think that an ID card would, for an unscrupulous government, offer a golden opportunity to undermine progressive dissent.