What's wrong with iris / retinal scans and fingerprints?

First off I'm sceptical they'll have the infrastructure to collate this vast amount of info, then digitise on the card.

Second: utility. Who can read these things? Precious few. Those that can (i.e. the police) can get them anyway. In London they don't even just cause to detain thanks to the ongoing terrorism alert.

So, an example.

I get stopped. The police for some reason need to thoroughly check who I am. So I get detained at a police station whilst they try to get the information. I carry almost no ID of any use and as I'm not a criminal I've got no details on any system. It could take hours. On a weekday that means I've not got to work in time for my patients who will be extremely pissed off.

Or they pull me over, cross reference the card with my finger prints and most likely that is the end of it.

A police state doesn't need ID cards, nor is a free society utterly destroyed by their existence.