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Comments made in connection with each news item are personal observations and not necessarily those of NO2ID.

Following the government’s back down on trying to foist ID cards on airport workers all eyes are now focusing on the north west, where Manchester has been targeted as the ‘beacon area’ for the roll out of the first ID cards. Anyone that volunteers to enrol in the ID card scheme should be fully aware of what they are letting themselves in for, that is paying for the privilege of being readily tracked and traced for the rest of your life, being in the highly vulnerable position of laying bare a great deal of highly personal information which could be leaked, lost and abused while being a Whitehall guinea pig. NO2ID is avidly campaigning in Manchester making people aware of the dangers of enrolling in the scheme. With reports that the take up is likely to be low, we must ensure that it turns into a veritable damp squib for the government and that the people won’t be druv!

NO2ID have produced a 24 page booklet outlining the compelling arguments against ID cards for those who either buy into the government propaganda on the subject or those who will do just whatever the government tells them. Details of how to get one of these free booklets is available from office@no2id.net

Following a large increase in the number of errors in Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks the Register website has received, under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) information which reveals that employers could soon be asking potential employees to give fingerprint data in order to get a job. The aim is to improve the quality of data and the FOIA disclosure says "To improve the identification process carried out by employers the CRB will research how biometric identification can be incorporated into the Disclosure process and will also work with the police service to improve the quality of data held and its availability". The CRB is also considering the use of ID card data. The Home Office has previously said ID cards will help speed up the CRB process, which has been regularly criticised by employers as too slow. In 2007 the UK Identity and Passport Service (UKIPS) and the CRB trialled a ‘joint venture’ where CRB processes were linked to ID cards.

David Davis recently raised a very appropriate question in the House "The Home Office is currently prototyping a Europe-wide project called Project Stork. How are we going to prevent a repetition of the disaster of the last few weeks [the disappearance of 25 million child benefit records] when sensitive personal data is held not by one government but by 27?" Apparently when asked, former Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, couldn’t answer the question - she didn’t know what Project Stork was!

Entitled the Independent Safeguarding Authority, this new body could soon be keeping tabs on 11 million workers who, in any way spend time in their professional or voluntary capacities with children and vulnerable adults. This would include nurses, doctors, car park attendants in hospitals, junior tennis coaches, school dinner ladies etc etc. In the light of the Soham murders where a suspected sex offender managed to get employment in a school despite the usual Criminal Records Bureau check, this may seem reasonable - although just how the CRB was so negligent begs the question, are oversights like these being used as a pretext to usher in Big Brother databases which treat us all as potential criminals? Phil Booth of NO2ID said in response to the claim that such a new database may seem warranted “That’s where you’re wrong. The only way the ISA can possibly keep tabs on 11 million people is to have the workers and volunteers fingerprinted and made to obtain a national ID card. This is entirely consistent with the various forms of coercion strategy they [the Home Office] have been working on to create so-called volunteers for ID cards.” Privacy advocates have also reacted angrily to reports that the government plans to link national identity records to criminal records for background checks on people who work with children and vulnerable people.



Postscript

This will be my last newworlddoublethink blog. It is time to move on and over the past three years or so, I feel I have outlined, sufficiently, the plight we find ourselves in vis à vis the so-called New World Order, it’s controlling élite, its puppets and a gullible public, that hitherto have too readily acquiesced to their agenda. If the government and its controlling masters are corrupt, then we only have ourselves to blame for being a complete walkover!

That now has to change and already a sense of awareness is beginning to grip people worldwide as they wake up to the fact that this monster is getting totally out of hand. One has only to look at the number of new books being published which uncover the most heinous of crimes our ‘elected’ masters have been committing for centuries, the vast amount of inside information and truth about who we are historically and how, for millennia, we have been subjugated to a controlling élite. Just this week actor Charlie Sheen is laying bare the 9/11 scam and demanding answers from the US administration. This is all positive.

I attended a seminar in Shrewsbury last weekend in which I met dozens of like-minded people who have already made that awakening transistion, making the firm declaration that we must reclaim our God-given sovereignty as individuals and thwart the global élite and their insidious control matrix.

Great changes are coming to our planet in the next couple of years in an astrological and astrophysical way and in a new blog I intend to start later this year, I will cover this new paradigm and describe how we must all revolutionise our own individual psyche to be ready to meet these changes. And this must be a concerted effort by all of us, for collectively and with a positive frame of mind lodged in higher spirituality having thrown off the vast burden of oppression and mind control that has blighted us all for so long, and we can change ourselves and the planet for the better.

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Comments made in connection with each news item are personal observations and not necessarily those of NO2ID.

Although MP Damian Green has won the legal battle to have his DNA removed from the National Database still hundreds of thousands of other subsequently proven innocent people still have theirs in place. This is only a victory for a relatively high-profile politician, leaving all others still tarred with the DNA brush. Clearly the UK government gives not a damn about the European Court of Human Rights ruling. Because of this, NO2ID has joined forces with Genewatch UK, Open Rights Group, Liberty and others to set up a website at www.ReclaimYourDNA.org to give guidance to those afflicted with this gross assault on human rights and how to take action to try and get it removed. MP Diane Abbott and lawyers from Liberty will be holding a ‘DNA clinic’ in Hackney, London to give advice. For more details visit the website above.

While Britain has the largest DNA database per capita of any other country in the world researchers at the forensic DNA technology company, Nucleix, have demonstrated that a person’s DNA can be faked by modifying a blood sample. Following such a test carried out by Nucleix in which they modified a sample and sent it to a US lab for analysis, it was declared that they failed to identify the ‘forgery’. This flies in the face of government insistence that DNA-profiling is infallible.

A video entitled ‘Politics of Identity’ by Dr Edgar Whitley of the London School of Economics has just been posted online in which he discusses the liklihood of the ID Card scheme backfiring on the government. See it at http://www2.lse.ac.uk/videoAndAudio/research/thePoliticsOfPersonalIdentity.aspx

Some domestic flight carriers are now demanding those who book their flights online to furnish passport details. Refusal to do so could mean that one may not be allowed to fly. When operators British Airways and Easy Jet were questioned why such information is necessary, they said ‘it is a government/EU requirement’. Just how long will it be before long-distance online rail bookings will also require passport details? It beggars belief!

These facts from a recent Daily Mail lead article on our surveillance state.
- More than 1,500 requests are made every day under the Regulatory and Investigatory Powers Act - an act which was orginally was set up for police and intelligence agencies to combat terrorism. It seems we are the terrorists now!

- Now there are 795 bodies, including 500 councils, often using junior staff to using the Regulatory and Investigatory Powers Act to investigate, what could often be described as, relatively petty anti-social matters.

- Britain has a DNA database which exceeds that of the US and is the largest in the world, with over 1 million innocent people included on it.

- There are now 4.2million CCTV cameras in Britain, whose purpose, in many cases, has been described as doubtful.

- Of 8 million criminal record checks conducted, 2,700 people have been wrongly classified as having a criminal conviction.

- In 5,000 schools across the country, children are now routinely required to give fingerprints to use the library, while the national ID database scheme will require that each and every one of us give our fingerprints - identity features which can be easily mis-interpreted.

The government denies that scrapping the ID card scheme will save it the estimated £3 billion to implement. Apparently, we are going to foot the bill when we compulsorily apply for one!

The Identity and Passport Service have published their latest paper on the National Identity Scheme (NIS). In it they categorically state that in able to safeguard identity “the vision for the NIS is that it will become an essential part of everyday life, uderpinning interactions and transactions between individuals, public services and government and supporting people to protect their identity". I might add that it will make an ideal instrument for gross fraud and identity theft!

A small business enterprise has been ruined by a false entry in a court database. Efforts by the owner to get compensation for the error have been turned down by Mr Justice Bill Blair QC, brother of the former PM, on the basis that the civil service cannot be found liable for any book-keeping mistakes. This could set a worrying precedent in our emerging database state, with the authorities shedding any responsibility for data errors, leaving us in the lurch. They don’t know the meaning of the word ‘justice’!

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Comments made in connection with each news item are personal observations and not necessarily those of NO2ID.

The biometric residence visa card that foreigners in Britain are to eventually carry and which are due to be trialled in Manchester can be hacked into in 12 minutes, according to an article in this week’s Daily Mail. Not only could they be easily hacked into, but the data could be cloned and changed, leaving the original card unaltered. Of course, the Home Office dismissed fears that this could be done so easily in future because the encryption to be used on the next generation of cards - which won’t be introduced for another couple of years - can’t be hacked into. Oh yes! Where have we heard that before! As always it’s all about the authorities gaining easy access to every aspect of our lives and nothing to do with the protection of our identities.

On the back of the recently unveiled ID card is a space entitled ‘Observations’. This can be used to indicate whether the holder is a bona fide British citizen and allowed to travel freely within the European Economic Area (EEA) and therefore also act as an authority to travel within that area, or whether the holder is either Irish or of another EEA country or non-EEA resident but who has a family member who is, and is therefore not valid for travel in other EEA countries. The mere fact that this information is to be handwritten for all to see, eg. by bank staff when opening an account, has raised fears that it may also be used to openly advertise the fact that the holder may have an ASBO or some other restriction placed upon him/her, therefore acting as a ‘gatekeeper’.

The London Borough of Hillingdon has introduced smart cards for those who are local residents and therefore identifying them as eligible for certain services not available to those who are not. The council claims that the cards will only carry the holder’s name and a unique ID number, but, of course, it’s the ID number which will act as the all-important link to a back-end database that collates other information about the holder that will be stored. As a carrot, it will also act as a privilege card offering holders discounts at participating stores, working like a loyalty card. This will enable shopping profiles to be added to the back-end database, creating a cosy relationship between the council and local shop chains while prying on residents’ shopping patterns for commercial database use. What a stitch-up!

The tracking and tracing of every aspect of our lives including financial matters and where we travel is being greatly enhanced by a little-advertised and debated initiative released under the title of ‘G8 Declaration on Counter-Terrorism’. It is reported to have organised a ‘ground-breaking’ operation on bulk cash smuggling (under the title of Operation Mantis), practical guidance on cyber crime which charges it with measures to ‘identify and promote best practices for expanding biometric identity management practices for travellers and impoving security in all modes of transportation’.

Saturday 12 September will hopefully see the second International Action Day against the retention of telecommunications data and other instruments of surveillance. It is hoped, once again, that public demonstrations will take place in capital cities across the world.

The Tories, in their pre-election rhetoric, are stating that by scrapping the ID card scheme, some £3bn could be saved. In addition they are making overtures that they would scrap the adding of fingerprints to passports. Obama promised all sorts of things prior to his election that he has ‘U’-turned on. Isn’t that what politicians do all the time these days as instructed by their masters?

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Comments made in connection with each news item are personal observations and not necessarily those of NO2ID.

In what appears to be the fourth launch of ID cards this year, Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, described ID Cards as a ‘no-brainer’ in the fight against fraud. I think Mr Johnson is the ‘no-brainer’ believing that a card which carries all of our vital statistics won’t also be open to fraud and will carry with it far, far greater consequences than that of a stolen or hacked bank card. And that’s before you consider the state's abilities to pore over every facet of our entire lives and track our every move. But, of course, Johnson won’t divulge that part of the story or the fact that you will have to provide 49 vital pieces of personal information and that if any one of those is incorrect you will face a stiff fine!

It seems that the ever increasing cost of implementing the ID Card scheme (215m to date) is impounding on the cost of a new passport. In October the cost of a British passport will rise to £72, the third price rise in less than two years. We are having to pay through the nose for the privilege of allowing the state and all its offshoots be aware of every aspect of our lives. It beggars belief!

The Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS) is the next piece of totalitarian state obscenity to grace our lives. Yet another database will provide a list of those who are regarded as being a risk to vulnerable groups and thus barred from working with them. The scheme will be administered by the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) and those who work with children, prisoners etc will be encouraged to register (in reality have to, if they wish to keep their jobs fully intact). This not only includes full-time workers like teachers, but anyone who may routinely come in contact with them. Leading authors who often visit schools including Michael Morpurgo, Quentin Blake, Philip Pullman, former children’s laureate Anne Fine and Anthony Horowitz have all hit out at the scheme saying that they wouldn’t be attending school visits any more. "All of us are constantly invited to do tours of schools abroad. If we can no longer enthuse British children about reading then I'm happy to go to more sensible places like Australia, New Zealand, America, France and Italy," said Fine last month.

A good illustration of just how vulnerable our personal data could be once held on the National Identity Register (NIR) is portrayed in a short film released by Liberty. Liberty rightly points out that over the last few years the Government has mislaid an enormous amount of our personal data one way or another and the NIR will house even more of it. This adds even greater relevance to this film. See it at http://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/issues/3-privacy/film-where-do-they-go-.shtml

The growing scepticism and opposition to ID Cards has manifested itself again in a YouGov/Sunday People poll of 1765 adults. 79% of respondents think that they are a waste of money. This comes as the truth about them is being made more evident through the likes of information awareness groups like NO2ID who paint the full picture of a life with them, not the rose-tinted dis-information put out by Government.

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Comments made in connection with each news item are personal observations and not necessarily those of NO2ID.

While the government presses ahead, relentlessly with the ID card scheme with the passing of more statutory instruments relating to the ID Card Act, opposition from the general public continues to grow as more and more people become aware of the true enormity of what is planned. But beware of Conservative party front bench opposition. While some of it may well be genuinely held, such sentiments are highly convenient vote-winners. You can be sure that once elected, the Tories will only end up continuing the same current agenda, using spin to explain their about-turn. Remember all of the promises that came from the lips of Obama before he stepped up to the plate. Those have virtually all proved to be false, and this is what politics is about these days, winning people’s confidence by telling them what they want to hear, then picking up the baton from their out-voted predecessors only to continue the same agenda on behalf of their controlling masters. Politicians don’t run the show, the corporate oligarchs do. Politicians are merely their servants and salesmen. I fear that NO2ID will find few true allies in the political spectrum until there is a wholesale revolt en-masse against this new world order and it’s with we the people where the responsibility really lies.

Retrospective adding of DNA records to the current DNA database is being considered for those who were convicted of serious violent or sexual abuse crimes prior to the 2004 change in the law which made such DNA collection mandatory.

The Annual Report of the National Police Improvement Agency reveals the extent to which the Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system has grown. According to the report the ANPR reads around 8 million registration plates per day and that plans are afoot to allow that information to be accessed by the Scottish police forces, British Transport Police, Serious Organised Crime Agency, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and the Security Service.

A government report has stated that the plan to have high street shops engage in ID Card enrolment would be unworkable and open to fraud. I should say so!

For more see http://www.no2id.net/

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Comments made in connection with each news item are personal observations and not necessarily those of NO2ID.

News reports have recently implied that the new home secretary, Alan Johnson, has watered down the compliancy stakes over the ID Card scheme. Not true, unless you want to become a self-sufficient hermit and live in a cave. Wednesday’s edition of the Times carried an article stating that “Alan Johnson signalled a significant reversal over the Government’s identity card policy yesterday when he ruled out making them compulsory for British citizens”. But further on it does admit that “However, the Government is to press ahead with creating a national identity register that, from 2011-12, will include the details of everyone who applies for a passport”. Passports happen to be vital things to the vast majority of people and sometimes are asked for domestically as ID if you don’t - like me - possess a driving licence. In fact the Home Office line has not changed one iota. As the latest NO2ID bulletin states "The Home Office line remains the same. No compulsion (as the Home Office defines it) was going to be applied until almost everyone had 'volunteered' and then it was only a matter of rounding up a minority of resisters and marginalised people.

The Home Office's idea of "voluntary" is not the same as yours and mine. Since 2004 the scheme was (and it still is) to proceed by "designating" one-by-one under the Identity Cards Act 2006 other documents issued by official bodies -- in the first place passports. Once a document has been designated, you won't be able to apply for one without also applying to be entered, for life, on the national identity register. If you don't agree to be registered it won't be that you are refused (say) a passport; you'd have voluntarily decided not to apply. There's no compulsion to have a passport. It is useful for travelling. But you aren't compelled to travel. Or (say) to drive. Or to work as a security guard. Or with children. Or in healthcare. To get parole from prison. To practice as a lawyer. ... Any official licence, registration certificate or permit can be designated, and -- in the home office's skewed logic -- handing control of your identity to the Home Office's Identity and Passport Service will still be entirely voluntary".

Until recently, airside workers at Britain’s airports were to ‘voluntarily’ enrol for ID passes, without which they wouldn’t get very far in their careers, that is until the unions made a stink about it and that is what we all must do, all the way down the line on this crucial issue.

The BBC (the British Bullshit Corporation as I prefer to call it), has engaged in yet more dis-information with the announcement that “Some 3,500 UK citizens have already applied for the cards”, implying that it must be OK, with eager participants lining up. Not true. The regulations that specify the content and manner of application have not yet even been approved by parliament! This spins the probable reality of the story that the UK Identity and Passport Service’s website has invited visitors to “register your interest in identity cards and the National Identity Service” - simply that - and that’s not ‘applying’ as the BBC would have you believe. This is all psy-ops by stealth. Even if 3,500 genuine invitations were received and there weren’t any facetious ones, (and there probably were) this completely dwarfs the number of people that have signed up to NO2ID registering their opposition to the scheme.

Following the government’s partial stand down on airside workers’ requirement to register on the ID scheme as a condition of work it has now turned its attention to youngsters saying that possession of an ID card will act as proof of age, an increasingly necessary requirement for those wanting to buy alcohol etc. Manchester’s pilot scheme is to be expanded with residents able to apply for an ID card before the end of this year. This will then be rolled out across the north west with applications available early next year.

The government faces more embarassment as it has been revealed by one of the unsuccessful bidders for the new hi-tech passports that a director of the winning company is one of Gordon Brown’s senior mandarins!

A London-wide NO2ID activist network has been established that will heighten awareness of the ID card scheme across the capital. The network hopes to raise the profile of ID cards in people’s minds and will make a presence at public events, street fairs, pop concerts etc. The first event is to take place on Saturday 11th July, where members will hold a training session on how to engage the public’s awareness. Later this month on Thursday 30th, Ladbroke Grove will host a Magicians against ID cards event in support of NO2ID.

Visit http://www.no2id.net/

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Comments made in connection with each news item are personal observations and not necessarily those of NO2ID.

Rumours that the new Home Secretary, Alan Johnson is to ‘review the ID scheme’ have been siezed upon as an opportunity to halt the monster, although Johnson himself denies such rumours. The Identity Cards Act 2006 was never comprehensive and left out a lot of the mechanics of how the scheme would work in its entirety. Now those details are to be furnished in a list of regulations which are longer than the original bill itself. Debate on the first batch of regulations are due to take place next month. It is an opportunity in which MPs could and should object in order to stall the juggernaut and this is the time to get in touch with your MP and point this out to them. It is these regulations that put flesh and bones on the scheme and give a close insight into the real horrors which lurk within: the sheer amount of private data that you will have to disclose to the Home Office about yourself; the detail showing how many people will find themselves forced into the ID Card scheme in order to ‘apply’ for some other government document or service; draconian penalties for those who do not wish to comply; the numbers of government departments, law enforcement and other agencies that will have access to your information, with no record kept after 12 months of to whom that information was disseminated.

Sheffield City Council has reaffirmed its existing motion against ID cards. It criticises the Manchester pilot scheme, saying that Sheffield would not participate in any similar one. It also slams the trend of fingerprinting people visiting nightclubs and certain pubs, fingerprinting in schools and Automatic Number Plate Recognition systems. Let’s hope they don’t cop out of continued opposition, or get bought off by government!

The House of Lords Constitution Committee has criticised government in their failure to adopt important recommendations embodied in their 'Surveillance: Citizens and the State' report that would have put in place safeguards to ensure proper use of data processing and surveillance.

According to Statewatch the body that monitors civil liberties in Europe, the Stockholm Programme, which will establish the creation of a unified EU-wide information grid, will be adopted this autumn. It says that this will unleash a digital tsunami with in-depth data on every EU citizen that can be shared across member-country borders.

The Information Commissioner’s Office has warned that data collection and storage should be kept to a minimum. The more information held the greater the chances of losing it and the greater chance of contravening the Data Protection Act. The ICO pointed out that in a survey, 85% of people in the UK avoid giving out personal information whenever possible, that number having grown in recent years.

Lord Steyn, a former law lord has lashed out at the ID card scheme saying it should be abandoned as it creates a gross invasion of personal privacy and will do nothing to combat crime, terrorism, illegal immigration and the whole plethora of other problems that the government insists it will. In fact it will lessen our security.

Ian Watmore, former government CIO has said that Government Gateway reports should be published. These currently confidential reports lay out the progress, or otherwise, of highly sensitive government IT projects. Their publication should allow MPs and others to keep track and accountability of these projects.

An Oxford father has refused, point blank, to give permission to have his daughter fingerprinted at school. He rightly fears that this is just one more step towards a Big Brother state!

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Comments made in connection with each news item are personal observations and not necessarily those of NO2ID.

Some may regard the departure of Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, with an air of relief, taking some of the pressure off the ID scheme. No way. This has been government dictat for many a year, each year seeing a stepping up of the process which will culminate in every UK citizen having to possess an ID card - or so they hope. Home Office sectretaries come and go but the aim remains. As far back as the Thatcher years, Peter Lilley MP recalls it as being regarded “as the remedy for all our ills from crime to shortage of kidney donors”. Under the direction of executives of the Identity and Passport Service and the Transformational Government team in the Cabinet Office, Home Secretaries receive their cues in no uncertain terms. Real policy change from the top of government is required but that, I’m afraid, is already being steered from even higher up. It’s those above - the real movers and shakers - that need to be exposed to make transparent the whole modus operandi of our perceived enslavement.

“There are more than 82 million terrorist hiding in Germany. You are one of them!” To graphically illustrate the potential truth of that statement, German film maker Alexander Lehmann has released a video on YouTube on the whole topic of data retention and how it affects all of us. It can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=570WQqye8_Q and succinctly sums up in one-and-a-half minutes how the state perceives us as 'potential terrorists'.

Southampton University Students’ Union Council have passed an anti-ID card motion with 87% in favour. Like several similar local government council resolutions which also oppose the principle of the National Identity Scheme, they pledge not co-operate in such a scheme unless required to do so by law. Unfortunately, they need to go the whole hog and defy the law or certainly challenge it in my opinion, otherwise the government can sneak through binding legislation willy-nilly and have us all acquiescing to their wishes as they please. Stronger non-compliance and challenge is essential.

The government has included an enabling power in the Policing and Crime Bill which will allow it to regulate the retention or destruction of DNA on the database. This effectively circumvents any parliamentary debate on this highly crucial issue, which, in the words of Baroness Harris of Richmond were “..matters (that) should not be dealt with by secondary legislation, especially as the DNA profiles of people not convicted of any offence could be held up to 12 years. It is imperative that Parliament scrutinises this scheme and ensures that, if amendments need to be made, they will be. That is impossible under this proposal, which should be removed from the Bill”.

Since my last NO2ID update, the introduction of ID cards for airport airside workers has been slowed down. Now only new staff will be required to carry them. As far as the Home Office is concerned, this was always the case. Really? Do you trust a word they say?

And can you trust the custodians of our data? Two Glasgow council workers were apprehended while snooping into the core government database of the Identity Card scheme to see if they could dredge up any interesting celebrity secrets. The database contains the personal details of 85 million UK citizens and will be the foundation of the national ID scheme.

In a few month’s time a national network of cameras and computers will become operational and be automatically logging onto car number plates . All part of the ever-watchful eye of the state peering into our every move, every day.

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Comments made in connection with each news item are personal observations and not necessarily those of NO2ID.

The introduction of ID cards by stealth is about to meet its first hurdle as government intends to make ID cards for airside airport workers compulsory. The scheme is to commence with Manchester Airport followed by London City Airport. Failure to comply would result in workers losing their jobs. By way of foisting cards on airside workers, four new instruments under the Identity Cards Act 2006 have recently been published, one of which will carry the requirement that when a worker applies for a certain designated document in connection with his or her work, they must also, at the same time, make an application to be entered onto the National Identity Register and apply for an ID card. Non-compliance would likely mean the loss of their job. The British Airline Pilots’ Association (BALPA) is in fierce opposition to the mandatory imposition of ID cards, which, initially were to be rolled out on a voluntary basis, with six to one against. BALPA intends to fight the introduction of this legislation with every lawful means at its disposal.

Let this be a warning to all of us and let us all be united in opposing, what will become, the blanket imposition of ID cards.

UK security manufacturer TSSI has even expressed doubts as to the value of airside ID cards and what the real benefits are to the general public. Precisely. They are not designed to protect the public but as an instrument of state control, pure and simple.

NorthLink Ferries who operate services between mainland Scotland and Orkney now require photo ID for all those above the age of 16 before they can board one of their ferries. Reasons given to a member of NO2ID who questioned the need for such ID was that they were sailing into international waters which is clearly absurd. He was then told that it was for security and safety purposes, then later informed it was because of the size of the vessel - again clearly nonsense as vessels of greater size than those of NorthLink Ferries’ fleet have presently no such requirement.

I carry photo ID for my senior citizen’s free bus pass, but that is different, for you are proving your visual identity in order to gain a concession. To have to show photo ID to merely to travel across a short stretch of domestic water, when having bought a ticket, is plainly preposterous. What precedent is there for such legislation. When was an Orkney ferry last subject to a terrorist attack? And in any case how does photo ID mitigate against such possibilities. It doesn’t. And again it’s not meant to. The Orkney experience is a prelude to what, I fear, will become standard operating procedure in this country if this government has its way, and it’s not part of EU legislation, this is something purely hatched by the movers and shakers that ultimately form political direction in this country and it can only be described as Big Brother oppression. If this thought train is allowed to continue, I’ll have show photographic evidence every time I board an Isle of Wight ferry, then photo ID will be built into every train ticket you buy, photo ID required at the supermarket checkout etc etc etc. It musn’t be allowed to start as this ends up being the slippery slope into state incarceration!

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Although the news has been making much of the Home Office’s plans to have high street retailers issue biometric data for those wishing to renew their passports starting with Manchester, the reality is somewhat different. Neither a scheme nor a specification has been arrived at and talks are still in progress between the prospective participants and the government. Retailers would be mad to invest in the equipment while the scheme is still undefined. Yet again, lots of media and Home Office hype over something that few people want. Let’s hope retailers shy away from the whole idea.

Yet the government is determined to press ahead with its plans for a total database state and the interception and retaining of telephone calls, emails and texts is still to go ahead. The Home Office has recently launched proposals for the Intercept Modernisation Programme in which the government wants ISPs and telecommunications companies to store details on all UK phone calls, emails and web activity to allow public authorities to have access to records on demand. Some newspaper reports have suggested that DNA records of the innocent may be destroyed en-masse. Far from it. The innocent will still have their DNA records retained for six years. Dr Helen Wallace, Director of GeneWatch said: "This is a long time for innocent people to wait to have their records wiped, DNA profiles can be used to track an individual or their relatives. Where are the weighty reasons that the European Court demanded to justify retention of this data?" GeneWatch has also noticed that even the doubling of the DNA database in recent years has not created an equivalent increase in the number of crimes detected.

Another false sense of achievement has been thwarted following the mis-reporting of a statement by David Blunkett. Although the mainstream media seemed to report his change of heart while addressing and InfoSec (don’t you just love the Orwellian sound) security conference, what he was actually alluding to was the physical nature of the ID. He was actually rejecting the idea of a separate piece of plastic and suggesting the use of the passport instead, but that wouldn’t take the form of the conventional passport, it would me more along the lines of - yes - a plastic one. Hardly a change of heart!

The Home Office continually tries to obscure the real cost of the whole ID scheme. A recent report shows increased costs of £160 million in just six months on top of the £250 million already spent. But what it conveniently ignores is the cost to businesses and us - the former for the outlay in investing in the biometric recording equipment required in high street shops and the latter in the £30 or so we have to stump up for the privilege of giving away all of our personal details! They also fudge their real identity by re-branding the ‘National Identity Scheme’ the ‘National Identity Service’ as if the government is really trying to help us, not incarcerate us as is the true nature of the game.

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A recent survey has found that 37% of the British population feel more frightened than they used to. ‘Institutionally-driven fear’ is believed to be responsible for 1 in 7 people’s anxiety disorders. Everything from the global, artificially-produced, banking collapse to global warming scares, swine fever, fears of unemployment and terrorism to being visibly reminded that you are being watched by CCTV cameras while surveillance monitors are now being introduced on buses (a whole new fleet of them on the Isle of Wight, repeatedly flashing up your face among the passengers) are all creating anxiety. Of course, this is what the globalists want - fearful cowering masses that will acquiesce to their wishes through that fear. It’s also good for their drug companies who make mountains out of sedatives. But to those in the know, it’s water off a ducks back as an increasingly large number of people can see the gameplay. It’s far more reassuring to see the enemy in full face than be left in the dark, confused and ignorant.

The retention of communication data such as emails that was to be introduced into the Data Retention (EC Directive) Regulations 2009 as a primary piece of legislation, has now been sneaked into the bill as secondary legislation. This leaves things in rather a grey state of affairs and hasn’t eradicated this totally unecessary intrusion into our personal affairs.

A NO2ID lawyer, Paul Kauffman has published a letter in the Law Society’s weekly journal, the Law Gazette in response to an article which claimed that lawyers are going to be first in adopting the ID infrastructure. Kauffman says in his letter that because of the concerns and unpopularity of ID card legislation, lawyers should also be in the front line in resisting it and are ideally placed to do so. A plea is going out to those in the legal profession to join forces with NO2ID to do just that.

Schoolchildren travelling by bus to school will now be tracked by GPS technology. Denbighshire County Council, authors of the scheme say “the system is actually secure. There’s no information on the cards that the pupils will be given themselves”, but then goes on to say “that it is all held on a database and it’s governed by data protection”. Little assurance there then having only narrowly staved off an attempt to circumnavigate the Data Protection Act by proposed measures in the Coroner’s and Justice Bill recently. It just means that the state can track and trace your child at will.

Lord West, the Security Minister has confirmed to officials that they are considering installing technology enabling on-demand wiretapping of all communications for the benefit of security services.

The Audit Commission has criticised the poor level of data quality in the NHS. Their recently-published report ‘Figures You Can Trust: Data Quality in the NHS’ states that there has been little improvement since their last report in 2004.

The UK Border Agency is to start sharing fingerprint data with the US, Canada and Australia. In addition the UKBA also expects to be able to track 95% of all airline passengers movements by the end of next year. Their e-borders system has already produced 920 arrests, but that’s out of a total of 10,000 innocent people who must have been harassed by the process.

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Although clause 152 of the Coroner’s & Justice Bill has been put behind bars for the time being, continual vigilance is paramount in trying to head off any legislation that further erodes our privacy and rights to freedom of speech from becoming established on the statute books. NO2ID highlight the current campaigns we must concentrate on:

Taking the NO2ID pledge not to comply in disclosing any personal information in relation to the National Identity Register and ID Cards.

Informing our GPs that we do not wish them to participate in ‘the spine’ or Summary Care Record (SCR) scheme which could breach patient confidentiality and allow personal data to be leaked to other organisations outside the NHS or the National Database.

Urging parents to ensure that their children’s personal details are ‘shielded’ on the ContactPoint database.

Ensuring those who have been charged but not convicted of a crime to contact their chief constable to ensure that their DNA, fingerprints and police records be destroyed citing the European Court of Human Rights recent ruling in the Marper case that retention was unlawful.

Constant resistance to these measures is absolutely essential, otherwise they will form a permanent part of the architecture of our incarceration within a police state.

Another piece of semi-transparent legislation has been defeated in the House of Lords. Clause 48 of the Border Citizenship and Immigration Bill would have removed our passport-free zone. If the legislation were to be passed it would require citizens of England, Scotland and Wales to carry passports with them when visiting the Republic of Ireland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man.

In Germany opposition has come to the fore over ‘disproportionate’ proposals to record the country’s entire, telephone, mobile, email and Internet usage. The ruling stated that “The court is of the opinion that data retention violates the fundamental right to privacy. It is not necessary in a democratic society. The individual does not provoke the interference but can be intimidated by the risks of abuse and the feeling of being under surveillance [...] The directive [on data retention] does not respect the principle of proportionality guaranteed in Article 8 ECHR, which is why it is invalid."

But knowing the ardent desire for a total database world that our collective governments are being engaged to set up by their ‘élite’ handlers, continual opposition to their plans to implement such legislation might always bring with it the spectre of another false flag event on such a devasting scale (al Qaeda being the excuse again) that they could then use it as a means of forcing these initiatives through on the usual basis of ‘keeping us safe in future’. Don't fall for that one!

PS. My prediction of a possible false flag episode taking place in the cloak of the partial surveillance blackout in the City of Westminster didn’t happen, although the intent of that mysterious armoured vehicle containing police uniforms has never been declared. Yet to identify and broadcast on the web such possible scenarios in which such an inside ‘terror attack’ could take place helps to keep people alert to the kinds of things our masters stage and our very declaration may, in some ‘butterfly effect’ way, help to exorcise such plans.

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First some encouraging news. After a great deal of outcry, the controversial clause 152 has been removed from the Coroner’s and Justice Bill. As reported in my last NO2ID blog, its retention would have allowed the unmitigated sharing of all of our personal data, not only among government departments and agencies, but also by the private sector and across national boundaries. Many MPs were overwhelmed with letters and emails from their constituents and it became the most briefed-against clause in the whole bill.

But there is no room for complacency. The next few weeks will see the presentation of the Borders, Citizenship & Immigration Bill with its measures for further data sharing; The Policing & Crime Bill involving the garnering of DNA and biometric data and Phase II of NHS Summary Care Records - the sharing of medical records without our consent. And then there's the initial roll-out of ContactPoint, the gathering and sharing on a whole range of personal details about your children. This is an ongoing battle requiring constant vigilance and challenges. But trying to be vigilant is being made difficult by a government intent on avoiding disclosure of what is actually in commissioned reports on their datasharing initiatives.

Just to demonstrate the arrogant way in which the government views public consultation on ID cards a public ‘debate’ was held at Westminster Hall on 11th March, attended by Meg Hillier, the ID Cards minister and MP Mark Todd who, at the outset of the ‘debate’ made it clear that there would be none on the principles of ID Cards or their effect on civil liberties. Hillier then went on to disingenuously say that 70% of the cost “will be the cost of implementing secure passports with fingerprints, something that we are doing to meet international requirements.” The truth of the matter is that there are no international requirements!

The database frenzy continues with bee-keepers being asked to enrol onto a national database. If the take up is not adequate, then it will become compulsory. This accompanies the National Equine Database and a forthcoming database for sheep and I don't just mean us!

In addition to the above, today’s Guardian newspaper published the findings of the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust sponsored review, ‘Database State’ prepared by the Foundation for Information Policy Research, into the plethora of databases that our government is rolling out. In the report's estimation, only 6 out of 46 data-gathering systems that the government is currently engaged in should be given a ‘green light’, on the grounds of being effective, proportionate, necessary and established - with a legal basis to guarantee against privacy intrusions. A further 29 were given an amber light, meaning that they pose problems and could be illegal, while 11 schemes should be scrapped altogether or significantly re-designed, these including the DNA database and ContactPoint.

The report estimates that £19bn a year is being spent on database IT with a further £105bn earmarked for the next five years. This is a colossal sum and money, which it appears, is being wasted on intrusive systems that, more often than not, don’t work. Even Whitehall admits that only 30% of public-sector IT projects are successful, a shocking admission.

Crime prevention and improved public sector services are usually cited as the main advantages of this personal information matrix, which judging by their intrusiveness, unreliability and sheer cost, completely destroys that argument. What is evident, in my view, is that the pressure to roll out these schemes is supra-governmental - that it is the controlling élite that are calling the shots - while our niaive, gullible and bought-and-paid-for politicians - under orders - are stumbling about, blindly rolling out this electronic surveillance control grid, without any oversight, accountability or consultation with the general public. No-one in power has the guts to question or oppose these wholly outrageous public surveillance, big brother initiatives. There needs to be an all-party concensus in government to put a halt to any further measures and assess the whole paraphenalia for the useful bits and cast aside the rest of it, while in the process making real steps to ensure individuals' rights to privacy and confidentiality.

Ross Anderson, a Cambridge University professor said that Britain is now the most invasive surveillance state and the worst at protecting privacy in the whole western democracy. Anderson went on the say "Britain's database state has become a financial, ethical and administrative disaster, which is penalising some of the most vulnerable [in] society. It also wastes billions of pounds a year and often damages service delivery rather than improving it." He went on to say that "There must be urgent and radical change in the public-sector database culture so that the state remains our servant, not our master ... we have to develop systems that put people first."

I fear that in the scheme of things, Britain has been earmarked as the beta test ground for the 'model' police state that will eventually become the blue print for other countries worldwide, which will be made to follow this Orwellian example.

Below is my response from local Conservative MP Andrew Turner to my email regarding my concern over Clause 152 of the Coroner's and Justice Bill.

His comments concur with mine over the clause and the way in which it was surreptitiously hidden away in the bill, hoping that it would get overlooked by prying eyes. But, of course, once wearing the cloak of power, the Tories will be put up to similar tricks by their controlling masters, so his missive cuts little ice with me, unless his sentiments are from the heart and not just Tory rhetoric.

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Commentary on each of these news items is my own and not that of the NO2ID group’s latest newsletter.

With the Coroners and Justice Bill currently being debated in Parliament, one of the greatest threats to our personal privacy is at stake and is embodied in Clause 152 which, if passed, would allow the unmitigated sharing of all of our personal data, not only among government departments and agencies, but also by the private sector and across national boundaries. This proposed legislation will completely destroy the Data Protection Act and must be stopped. The prospect is appalling and I urge everyone reading this to contact their MP and/or write to their newspaper alerting others to this nightmarish prospect. Such proposed legislation, rarely, if ever, gets reported on mainstream TV news channels and by the time you eventually hear of it yet another loss to your personal rights and freedoms has been enacted and it’s too late!

Privacy International have communicated their concerns over Clause 152 to Jack Straw saying that “This new power is wothout precedent and carries significant implications for data protection and for the rights of individuals”.

The Convention on Modern Liberty held a conference in London at the end of last month which brought together civil liberties groups and others concerned over the abuse to our personal rights in the UK. Among the speakers were author Philip Pullman who said "A nation whose laws express fear and suspicion cannot sustain delight for very long; joy does not flourish in the garden of anxiety". Also present was the eminent lawyer Lord Bingham summed up the conference proceedings by saying "A candle may today be lit or re-lit in Britain, which we may fervently hope shall never be put out."

We stand at a very dangerous crossroads. To allow any further inroads into our liberties will herald our incarceration into a dark Orwellian police state. I would urge readers to watch Michael Radford’s film ‘Nineteen Eighty Four’ and try to imagine a future like the one portrayed in the movie, adjusting the setting to that of the first decade of the 21st century. That prospect is a lot nearer that you think and will become reality if we don’t try to stop it!

More local councils pass anti-ID motions. Worcester County Council and Wyre Forest Council have joined the ranks of local government opposed to co-operating with the national identity card scheme - but only if such opposition wasn't unlawful. The sentiments are good, but non-compliance will be regarded unlawful if the government has its way, I suspect. That leaves it to us to become non-compliant which would no doubt face us with a jail sentence. But, if like the opposition to Thatcher’s council tax, we all made a sufficiently large enough stink, government would have a problem.

In another privacy-busting ploy, suggestion is being made to parents of independent schools to have their child ‘shielded’. ‘Sheilding’, which is part of government’s new ContactPoint database is viewed by many to be more of an endangerment to children than a protecting measure which is its officially stated aim. Containing a whole range of a child’s personal details, the system could easily be abused and allow those details to be accessed by the wrong type of people. Again, security is being touted as the driving reason for parents to engage their children into the scheme, whereas the complete opposite is more likely. It’s all about having us all fully accounted for in every aspect of our lives by state and corporate interests from cradle to grave.

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In its second reading in the House of Commons on 26th January Henry Bellingham (Conservative) made a very apt statement about the proposed Coroners and Justice Bill "The Bill contains some good ladders, but it has one appalling snake - it is a 50-ft python - in the form of the data protection proposals ... the proposals are very worrying, because they would undermine the whole essence of the data protection legislation." Precisely! As I pointed out in the last NO2ID update, this legislation wholly undermines any protection we may have under the Data Protection Act. See www.no2id.net/datasharing

Response following NO2ID’s request to ensure as many constituents urged their MPs to challenge the dreadful proposals embodied in the Coroners and Justice Bill has been very effective in bringing to the fore the iniquities of what this bill proposes. David Howarth (Lib Dem) wishes to have the bill struck off because of its enabling power to have any government department obtain personal information however it wishes. Dominic Grieve (Con), the new Shadow Secretary for Justice decried the unbridled data sharing that would result from the bill’s passing and demanded removal of the damning clause 152. The Chair of the Joint Committe on Human Rights, Andrew Dismore (Lab) also viewed the contentious clauses 151-154 with serious concern.

But even if the contentious parts of bill are defeated, this is only one of many others that seek to introduce such sweeping powers. The upcoming Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill and the Communications Data and the Interception Modernisation Programme, which are all set to violate our rights of privacy, have to be challenged. This battle will be ongoing and will require endless vigilance and challenge if we are to have the slightest hope of retaining respect and due privacy as citizens.

Privacy concerns have also been highlighted in a document recently published by Privacy International. In their report they illustrate the ways in which these powers could be used "Data on students' course attendance and library borrowing passed to immigration and security services in bulk; Information from party conference registrations passed on from police to government departments and electoral commission; Census data passed to government departments".

With the government’s plans for the ID Scheme proving problematic the Home Office is still intent on rolling out ID cards in several ‘beacon’ areas this year. Manchester is one of those locations and is being set up to ensure things run smoothly. Wishful thinking on the government’s part. As yet there is still no card reading equipment and all the while the general public are becoming increasingly hostile to the scheme. We must keep up the fight and kill this enormity before it kills us!

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The Data Protection Act - could be anything but. The UK Ministry of Justice has performed a coup. It is to allow the Data Protection Act to lose its ‘protection’ by allowing any government department to obtain and use information in any way it likes.

The New Coroners and Justice Bill has hidden within it a clause (cl.152) which amends the current Data Protection Act and will allow ministers to make ‘Information Sharing Orders’. NO2ID say that "This can alter any Act of Parliament and cancel all confidentiality in order to use information obtained for one purpose to be used for another".

I have written to my MP on this most crucial of matters and I urge everyone reading this who believes in personal privacy and abhors the rampant intrusion of authorities to pry into our private lives, to do the same. In your own words please ask your MP to familiarise him or herself with Part 8 (clauses 151-154) of the Coroners and Justice Act and challenge the seemingly covert introduction of these enabling powers which will effect all of us tremendously. The Bill is due its second reading this coming Monday (26th). Time is of the essence!

The latest YouGov poll in the 18th January edtion of the Sunday Times shows that there is enormous opposition to these new powers with 65% believing that they give the government too much power, with only a mere 19% thinking not. This is clearly a circumvention of democracy and a sneaky way of bringing into force a Big Brother state where every bureaucrat can pry willy nilly into our lives without our knowledge.

From cradle to grave we are conditioned into reacting in the way the state and those élite above the state wish us to. Now children can experience the joys and get conditioned to security checkpoints with the new Playmobil TSA (Transportation Security Adminstration) Security Checkpoint toy. Ironically, according to one user who posted a comment on the toy on the Amazon website "I was a little disappointed when I first bought this item, because the functionality is limited. My 5 year old son pointed out that the passenger's shoes cannot be removed. Then, we placed a deadly fingernail file underneath the passenger's scarf, and neither the detector doorway nor the security wand picked it up. My son said 'that's the worst security ever!'"

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In a context of growing unease and opposition to ID Cards and the ongoing escalation in the harvesting of people’s personal information by government and non-government agencies, the hunt is on for an advertising agency to ‘sell’ the idea of ID Cards no doubt using all of the hype, spin and misinformation at their disposal - advertising agencies stock in trade. NO2ID’s latest poll shows that the opposition to government data-trafficking is 2 to 1.

Another County Council has voted against ID Cards. Surrey County Council has voted against them by 44 votes to 20, with just 2 abstentions, pledging that it would not participate in the scheme unless made to do so by law. Of course it will come to that, but the message from council members is quite clear. Stephen Cooksey of the County Council put his feelings on record by saying that "The motion may appear to be a small step of defiance against unacceptable government intrusion into our private lives but many other local authorities throughout the country have already taken action and together send an important message to the central government that local government values the freedom of individuals and their right to privacy; values its relationship with the citizens that it serves and will do everything possible to prevent that relationship being undermined."

Manchester, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Stockton-on-Tees, Leeds, Plymouth, Coventry and London are all to get a taste of a surreal but not too far distant future as the Kali Theatre Company take their latest creation on the road. ‘Another Paradise’ is set in the context of a society in which ID Cards are mandatory and citizens can only be validated by their digital ID in a National Identity Database. I hope that more authors, playwrights and dramatists stage these kinds of scenarios in an accurate and convincing light as they can be powerful tools in illustrating the harsh realities that such legislature will bring and counter the cloud-cuckoo hype that an eventually-appointed advertising agency will no doubt have to devise into promoting ID Cards.

For further information on NO2ID’s activities or to join, go to www.no2id.net

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Hidden away in new legislation proposed within the Queen’s Speech this week is the appalling, but not unforseen, unbridled increase in data sharing.

In the depths of the Coroners and Justice Bill - the way controversial pieces of legislation are always quietly levered in - are measures to exercise sharing of data without Parliamentary debate. These powers follow the Thomas/Walport Data Sharing Review paper which recommended "that where there is a genuine case for removing or modifying an existing legal barrier to data sharing, a new statutory fast-track procedure should be created".

Jack Straw went on to say that this will "simplify the data protection framework and remove any unnecessary obstacles to data sharing".

As NO2ID states this would “allow the government effectively to set aside not just the Data Protection Act and data protection principles when it suits, but the much more fundamental protections of Articles 6 and 8 of the ECHR/HRA, of common law confidentiality and of ultra vires.

This goes far beyond data protection into administrative and constitutional law. Rather than protecting our personal information as it should, the government is cutting away safeguards for its own data-trafficking convenience. This bill as it stands smashes the rule of law and builds the database state in its place. We need to do everything we can to stop these powers being passed otherwise it really could mean the end of privacy as we know it."

These powers will completely strip away our data protection rights for the sake of fast tracking procedures that, until now, have contained checks and balances to protect ordinary, innocent people. At a stroke it will introduce a no-holes-barred database surveillance state.

Following the European Court of Human Rights ruling that the retention of the DNA records of innocents, or those who have been convicted of minor offences be outlawed, last night’s BBC News piece on the subject ended on a unhelpful counter note implicating that the continued retention of all DNA records might be beneficial, without which the conviction of Ipswich mass murderer Steve Wright, might not have been possible had not his DNA been retained on the database following a minor theft many years previously. Staffordshire’s Chief Constable was also expressing concerns that the court’s rulings would take away an important tool available to the police.

And that's the basis of the argument always dangled in front of us when yet more of our rights and privacy is being stripped away - the convenience in apprehending crime and terrorism. So our rights of Habeus Corpus are replaced with those of Napoleonic law - everyone is potentially guilty until innocence is proven. And the reason for all of this? The perceived threat from a world of lawless individuals, terrorists and organised crime. Yes, such threats always lurk somewhere in any society, but the most dangerous elements of it, today, seem to lie within our own governments, the executors of that unseen hand, the New World Order cabal whose sole aim is to incarcerate us all.

Police powers are getting totally out of control, aided and abetted with the affirmative nod and a wink from government. Initiatives such as those contained within the Coroners and Justice Bill must be opposed and curtailed.

Still on the subject, only yesterday came the news that musicians and performers in London will soon be required to complete and hand over an eight page form in which they must detail all of their personal information and ethnicity. Failure to comply could well mean the loss of their licence and therefore livlihood.

Then in Wednesday's Mail Online comes the news that state officials are to be empowered to demand an individual's identity at any time - yet another goody announced in the Queen's speech, the debate of which was conveniently over-shadowed by the furore over Damian Green's warrantless arrest. (Connect the dots together and could the Green debacle have also been used as a shield to deflect debate on the controversial legislation in the speech?)

The compulsory need to show one's ID is usually reserved for times of war and were last used when Britain was fighting Germany. Who is the enemy this time? Us!

Monday 13 October 2008

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Despite the current economic turmoil, the government is still pressing ahead with the Communications Data Bill which will be referred to in next month’s Queen’s speech. Allowing the government to monitor our every phone call, email, text and every bit of surfing we engage in, the data will be stored and analysed, perhaps kept for decades. Short of government sponsored CCTV in our homes, we will be surveilled 24/7. If one links to that RFID plans on tagging all of our purchases including clothing, the gates are open to usher in the total Big Brother state with privacy a thing of the past. We will all be regarded as potential threats to the state built on the back of the ruse that the measures are being introduced to combat crime and terrorism, both of which have been overblown, particularly the latter which is largely fantasy. Any misdemeanor, either intentional or not will allow close scrutiny by officialdom of the finer points of our lives, our activities, persuations and much else. Personal profiles will be assembled based on our web surfing preferences and blogs - such as this one - be taken into account and used as evidence of my disagreement or construed as potential non-compliance with these draconian elements of government policy. As a Guardian article last week pointed out “Would a protester at the Kingsnorth power station feel quite so confident in facing the police if she knew that the minute she was arrested, the police could find out that she'd just spent a week looking at abortion on the web? Would a rebel politician stand up against the prime minister if he knew security services had access to the 100 text messages a week he exchanged with a woman who wasn't his wife? It isn't just the certainty that such data would be used against people that is a deterrent, it's the fear. As the realisation of this power grew, we would gradually start living in the prison of our minds”.

The Tories have announced that once elected they would replace the government's current ContactPoint scheme, a system that holds data on all children in England, with a cut down version which would only concentrate on children seen as ‘vulnerable’, ie. those in care, on the child protection register or with backgrounds of domestic violence. This less invasive approach may be seen as a potential vote-winner, but once in power I would expect a ‘U’-turn as an empowered Tory party is brought into line with Big Brother policies.

Instructions of how to hack into Oyster cards has been published on the web. This follows news in an earlier ‘Latest from NO2ID’ that Dutch academics had highlighted the weaknesses and vulnerabilies of Oyster cards. Now details of those weaknesses have been published online. This not only involves the Oyster card but also other smart cards based on Mifare Classic technology. The manufacturer of Mifare, NXP and the Dutch government have tried to prevent disclosure of the academics’ findings, but a Dutch judge rejected their opposition and allowed it to be published. At the same time Henryk Plötz, a PhD student at Humboldt University in Berlin published a master thesis of how to employ the algorithm used in the Mifare cards. Armed with this now commonly available knowledge, anyone with time and the will can hack into these cards, making them a risky proposition for their holders, but necessarily highlighting the vulnerability of these hi-tech devices, now widely in use, and their potential for mass fraud.

In a similar vain the techies have been busy informing us how to create a back up copy of our own ID chip or use a modified chip to create a fake passport that will not be detected by some passport reading devices.

Other hi-tech ID technology is also proving inefficient. Facial scanning currently being trialled at Manchester airport, is causing a number of headaches with the technology breaking down on a daily basis and failing to detect incidents of ‘tailgating’, where two people go though on one passport. The technology had also been rejecting 30 per cent of travellers, but after making adjustments to try and eliminate the problem, the false acceptance rate rose!

All of this goes to prove that assurances that ID cards, both national and of local nature, do little, if anything, to add security to our identities, in fact quite the reverse and in pursuing and implementing these technologies, government policy is opening up a whole can of worms and endangering each and everyone of us both to the ravages of being tracked and traced and also in having our identities either misinterpreted or stolen.

Friday 26 September 2008

Yesterday, Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith unveiled the controversial ID Card. In what is being seen as the softly, softly introduction of this grossly invasive piece of legislation, the BBC put a positive light on it interviewing gullible youngsters on the street who generally spoke in favour of them. The only voice of dissent was Phil Booth of NO2ID whose limited time span in the news piece only allowed commentary on the government’s appalling record of data loss, implying how that could impact on this scheme.

Non-EU foreign nationals will be carrying the cards from this November onwards, while staff in highly secure environments - like airports - will be required to carry them from next year, and applicants for new passports will require an ID card from 2011 onwards. Thankfully mine isn’t due for renewal until 2014 but who knows what might happen before then! Phil Booth of NO2ID has cited the mandatory need for an ID card for non-EU foreign nationals as starting at the easy end with a group of people who have most to lose if they don’t comply - either they have one or they’re out!

Airport workers revolt over next year’s proposed introduction of ID cards. Airport workers and the TUC are fiercely opposed to their members carrying ID cards telling government that they are being treated like guinea pigs in a scheme that so many are opposed to and has very doubtful, if not negative, benefits. The British Airline Pilots Association said that it would be prepared to mount a legal challenge on human and employment rights grounds if the government sought to make them compulsory for their members.

Meg Miller, a Labour under-secretary at the Home Office has suggested that people as young as 14 should get ID cards, two years younger than the current age limit. Miller was addressing a meeting of tobacconists and convenience store owners and stated that the government was keen to implement such a move as quickly as possible. “There isn’t a way to unpick this scheme, (once implemented) quite rightly because it is invaluable" she bragged. With the Tories’ current rhetoric of scrapping the ID card scheme (more of an election gimmick than reality, I suspect) Labour would be keen to have this scheme in place before the next general election.

Anger has arisen over the collection and storage of car journey data by civil liberties campaigners. Once collected the information would be held on a database for five years. Some 10 million journeys a day are being currently recorded using automatic number plate recognition (APNR), but plans are already under way to raise that figure to 50 million.