The surest sign that things are going tits up big time is when the usual bootfilling suspects run for the hills and frantically distance themselves from the imminent wreck.

Here’s a story that somehow (hmm…) didn’t make it into The Guardian or The Independent or The Times or The Daily Telegraph or onto the BBC:

Two prominent companies have pulled out of the procurement process for the controversial multi-billion pound identity card programme amid growing concerns that the government is planning to delay the roll-out of the project.

The Financial Times has learnt that the IT services company Accenture and the defence company BAE Systems have decided not to pursue contracts linked to the biometric identity card system, with IT experts warning that some suppliers are growing increasingly frustrated with the government’s indecision.

The Home Office said last night that the move by the two companies was the result of a “competitive dialogue process” with potential suppliers ahead of the announcement of a short-list of companies who later this spring will be invited to tender for contracts.

“We believe we are still on track for a framework agreement, a contract which creates a list of pre-qualified suppliers, along with a set of agreed contractual terms,” the Home Office said.

Accenture said a “mixture of political and commercial reasons” had led to its decision not to bid. BAE Systems was unavailable for comment last night.

According to the Home Office, Fujitsu Services, CSC, EDS, IBM, Steria and Thales are still interested in the identity card project.

The companies said that while the government may delay some parts of it, such as the issue of biometric cards to UK citizens, there would still be scope for other work in the near term, such as constructing the database to house the identity data.

The Home Office’s Identity and Passport Service, which is running the scheme, aims to have a list of five prime suppliers in place by May. However, the Home Office confirmed on Tuesday that the government was considering a delay in the main roll-out of ID cards to British citizens.

Leaked Home Office documents show a revised strategy in which the issuing of significant volumes of ID cards alongside a new generation of passports will begin in 2012, two years later than previously planned.

Last night the Home Office confirmed a further leak suggesting that smaller volumes of ID cards should first be issued from 2010 onwards to young people to “assist” them in opening up their first bank accounts as well as to individuals employed in “positions of trust”, such as teachers and social workers.

The British Bankers’ Association said that it had not been involved in any discussion on the use of ID cards by young people.

“This has come like a bolt from the blue,” it said.

Meanwhile, Damian Green, shadow immigration minister, said last night that the leaked documents showed that the government was engaged in an “outrageous plan” which was “staggering from shambles to shambles”.

Mr Green said: “They are trying to introduce ID cards by stealth by making them necessary if you want to work for the government, take out a student loan or open a student bank account.

“This is blackmail and a desperate attempt to bolster a failing policy.”

Now why Harry Potter,  Simon Kelner, James Harding and Will Lewis couldn’t find space in their organs for this story – not even in their late editions – remains a mystery (I gave up on BBC News some time ago) but Ministerial hats off to Lionel Barber at the FT – the only British newspaper to run the story – and the Minister’s favourite IT website The Register for picking it up.

Accenture, interestingly, have form in this regard.  Despite making a mint out of this Labour government left, right and centre, it ran screaming from the NHS’s half-baked Connecting For Health computer system just over a year ago when it became clear that neither the Department of Health nor the NHS had the first clue what it was trying to do (bar spunk billions of taxpayers’ money up a rope).

El Reg suggests something similar is happening with the ID cards scheme:

Overheard from supplier which recently withdrew from the National Identity Scheme procurement:
“Our biggest bugbear was that they [the Identity and Passport Service] still haven’t decided what it is they really want. They don’t know whether they want something that is all about security, or whether they want something that is all about customers/citizens. The two require different solutions. There’s just too much confusion still in play.”

If it looks like a turd and smells like a turd, it’s probably a turd.

Only New Labour would spend billions of pounds trying to polish it.

Fuck me senseless, I sound like Littlejohn.

I would, though, point out that the real right-wing cunts (like Michael Howard) – ie those who, unlike Posh Boy Dave, don’t change position when it’s politically expedient to do so – are and always have been in favour of ID cards.

PBD today claims that he opposes ID cards and will scrap them if elected.

However, PBD was curiously absent from the division lobbies when the first, abandoned Identity Cards Bill had its main votes in the Commons before the 2005 General Election, when he was a member of the Shadow Cabinet that officially supported ID cards.

PBD only voted substantively against ID cards for the first time in the House of Commons at 9.59pm on 18 October 2005, at third reading stage.  Coincidentally, that was the day of the first round of votes by Tory MPs to elect a new leader.

Having assumed the mantle of Tory leader, PBD’s Tories only officially came out against ID cards on 18 January 2006.