More prosaic than new robots, less dramatic than Galileo funding (eppur’ si muove), the DfES may compel an answer to the eternal schoolchild’s plaint, ‘Please sir, I want some more.’ Children who don’t want their fingerprints scanned may yet find a school dinner waiting for them.

What alternatives to full compliance are available to citizens who don’t want to be included in databases? The government compels private companies to offer opt-out mechanisms for commercial databases, and strongly prefers that such databases be opt-in only. Does this not suggest that the government understands that participation should not be compelled?

Just asking.