NO2ID News No. 66
2 March 2007
4 WEEKS TO ID-DAY - BUILDING THE PRESSURE
In January, NO2ID declared
26th March 2007 as 'ID-Day' to mark the predicted opening of the first ID
interrogation centres.
Since then, our claim that intrusive
"interviews" will begin for some passport applicants this April has been
confirmed, and the launch of our 'Take a hike, Tony' campaign [Newsletter 65]
forced the chief executive of the UK Identity and Passport Service (UKIPS) to
go on national TV and admit that everyone is going to have "to go through a
little bit more inconvenience" to get their passport in future.
All
because the government has decided to use the passport as a way to force you
to get an ID card.
People need to know. More specifically, those who
are liable to be called in for an official grilling (mainly, but not
exclusively, 16-24 year olds) need to know NOW so they can apply for their
passport before the interrogation centre network becomes fully operational.
Please download a copy of our 'Take a hike, Tony' factsheet from the
Renew for Freedom website - http://www.renewforfreedom.org/Take_a_hike_Tony.pdf
- and distribute it as widely as possible. Print it out and stick it in your
window, on noticeboards, hand it out as a flyer at stalls and meetings, send
it by e-mail. Write a letter to your local paper, or - if you're a member of a
club, party or association - their newsletter. Link to it from your blog or
website using the banner ads at http://www.renewforfreedom.org/promote.html
Use
your imagination - but get the word out.
And with just 4 weeks to go,
whenever you speak to people or groups or write anything, don't forget to keep
planting the seed that: "ID-Day is 26th March 2007". We'll have more
information in the next newsletter
What's next?
Local groups
We now have a new local group in Ruthin, Wales (contact
at ruthin@no2id.net). We have groups in 36 of
the 69 locations of ID interrogation centres. If you can help to set up a
local group in one of the remaining towns then please contact us at (office@no2id.net). A full list of local
groups can be found at (www.no2id.net/localGroups) , a
list of the interrogation centres can be found at (www.no2id.net/getInvolved/idCentres.php)
, there is also a detailed discussion of the interrogation centres on our
forum (http://forum.no2id.net/viewtopic.php?t=13329)
NO2ID Cambridge Campaign stall
Cambridge NO2ID will be running
Saturday street stalls outside Cambridge Guildhall from 10am onwards on
Saturday 10th March and Saturday 7th April. Location Map: http://tinyurl.com/eo42r. Volunteers to
help very welcome - contact Andrew Watson via cambridge@no2id.net, or on 07710
469624.
Saturdays 1pm - 3pm - NO2ID Edinburgh Campaign stall
After a short
break during Christmas and Hogmanay NO2ID Edinburgh has resumed its regular
Princes Street campaigning stall on Saturdays. We shall be at our usual
location at the east end of Princes Street, opposite the Balmoral Hotel, from
1pm - 3pm. We use our stall to raise public awareness of the Identity Cards
scheme, collect donations and entries for the NO2ID petition, and also to
increase membership of our group. Please do pop by for a chat if you
happen to be around. We aim to have the stall up and running most Saturdays,
and new volunteers are always very welcome. You can see photos of our stall
and group contact details at: www.no2id-scotland.net/edinburgh/
2nd March - Channel 4 'Insider' programme lets Charles Clarke promote ID
cards
Friday, 2nd March 7.30-8pm on Channel 4. "Clarke is an enthusiastic
exponent of identity cards and travels to Estonia to see how this former
totalitarian regime has embraced an advanced ID card system." We will have to
see whether Channel 4 will balance this programme with thirty minutes against
ID cards.
5th March, Number 10 Webchat with James Hall, chief of the UK Identity and
Passport Service(UKIPS)
Monday, 5th March 4-5pm. The 10 Downing
Street website have set up another webchat with the head of UKIPS. Perhaps
Mr.Hall will explain why UK citizens are set to be interrogated when applying
for a new passport. Pose your question at http://www.webchat.pm.gov.uk/index.asp?webchatID=34
5th March - Highbury NO2ID March meeting(1st Monday of each
month)
Monday, 5th March 6.30 for a 7pm start at the Jorene Celeste pub,
153 Upper Street, Islington. All welcome for an informal meeting to
discuss NO2ID's latest action 'Take a hike, Tony!' and future events.
Highbury's meetings will now be held on the first Mondays of each month.
5th March - Wimbledon NO2ID First Meeting
Monday, 5th March 8pm at
the South Wimbledon Community Centre, Haydons Road. Having just formed we are
slowly getting things together and a meeting for supporters has been arranged,
tt will be an informal affair to have an opportunity to meet up and discuss
moving things forward, running a stall in the town centre,and raising our
profile in the area,etc. For more info contact wimbledon@no2id.net
1st Tuesday of the month - Hackney NO2ID monthly meetings (Next
Meeting: Tuesday 6th March)
The Hackney local group covering
London E8, E5, E9 & N16 areas meet on the first Tuesday of each month at
7:30 in Cafe Bohemia by Hackney Central Station. New support very welcome to
help raise awareness over the coming months
8th March - NO2ID Edinburgh meeting
Thursday, 8 March 7.00-9.00 pm at
The Library, Quaker Meeting House, 7 Victoria Terrace, Edinburgh EH1 2JL.
Street map: (http://tinyurl.com/lubac). Light
refreshments available. The Edinburgh NO2ID group will continue planning to
intensify its campaigning. With the forthcoming elections for the Scottish
Parliament, where all the parties apart from Labour have declared themselves
against ID cards, with the imminent opening of the local ID Interrogation
Centre and with the continuing farce of the Scottish National Entitlement
Card, there is plenty for members to get their teeth into. All are
welcome.
10th March - King's Lynn Street Stall
Saturday, 10th March -
Street stall to advertise forthcoming public meeting, from 10am. Volunteers
needed! Contact kings.lynn@no2id.net or text/call James
on 07778 966395.
16th March - NO2ID King's Lynn Public Meeting
Friday, 16th March 7.00
- 9.30 pm at The Globe Hotel, King's Lynn (conference room). Platform
Speakers: Henry Bellingham MP, Andrew Duff MEP, David Shayler, Andrew Watson.
Light refreshments available, all welcome!!
17th March - Norwich Street Stall
Saturday, 17th March - Street
stall to advertise forthcoming public meeting, from 10am. Volunteers needed!
Contact norwich@no2id.net or call Rose on 01603
612355.
17th March - Tunbridge Wells Street Stall
Saturday, 17th March.
Following on from our recent successes - a live interview opposite pro-ID
Dover MP Gwynne Prosser on Radio Kent and our 2nd stall in the Pedestrian
Precinct we are now planing a 3rd stall. For more details contact tunbridge.wells@no2id.net
23rd March - NO2ID Norwich: Public Meeting
Friday, 23rd March 2007
7pm-9pm at Hellesdon Community Centre, Middleton Lane, Hellesdon NR6 5SR.
Norwich NO2ID will be holding a public meeting, speakers: Simon Wright
(Lib-Dem Parliamentary Spokesman for Norwich South), Adrian Holmes (Green
Councillor: Norwich City Council), Vandra Ahlstrom (UKIP Norfolk Chairman and
Spokesman). All are welcome. Map: http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?pc=NR65SR
24th March - Glasgow NO2ID Comedy Gala Benefit
Saturday, 24th March
8pm until late at the Old Fruitmarket. In what is sure to be one of the
highlights of the Glasgow International Comedy Festival, some of Britain's top
comedians and comediennes will be performing in a NO2ID benefit gala. Tickets
are on sale now! Phone 0870 013 5464 or buy your tickets on-line at http://www.secxtra.com/Action/WhatsOnSearch?EventId=BENEF07
More details at http://www.glasgowcomedyfestival.com/acts/no2id.htm
What just happened?
NO2ID gives evidence to UK Borders Bill Committee
On Thursday (1st
March) NO2ID's Phil Booth and Guy Herbert gave evidence to the UK Borders Bill
Committee. Alongside Ross Anderson of the Cambridge Computer Laboratory NO2ID
spoke about the implications of the introduction of biometric visas under the
Borders Bill and how it represents a stepping stone to the ID card
scheme.
Audio of the committee can be found at http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Player/index.aspx?Encoding=6355
Scarborough Borough Council votes against ID cards
On Monday(26th
February) Scarborough Borough Council passed a motion against the government's
ID cards scheme. The motion cites the "estimated cost of £22 billion and
rising" which could be better spent within local communities. Councillor Rob
Broadley said: "A letter is to be sent to the Home Office registering our
opposition." For more information about other councils that have voted against
ID cards and how to encourage your local council to do the same see www.no2id.net/resources/motions/index.php
Blair tears up guarantees made to Parliament about fishing
expeditions
Announcements last week that UK Police will be able to trawl
the National Identity Register for fingerprints found at the scene of crimes
is in direct contradiction to assurance they made during the passage of the ID
cards bill through parliament. Home Office minister Tony McNulty stated in
Standing Committee D on 6 July 2005: "There are safeguards not only against
state agencies, for want of a better phrase, *going fishing in the database*
but against misbehaviour and abuse of the database by those who manage the
system." Strange then that on BBC's 'The World at One' last week Joan Ryan was
so keen to point out that powers allowing Police to search the National
Identity Register are clearly spelt out in the act. Caught in a lie, ministers
cannot deny this (though they'll no doubt try) - even the wording of the Act
makes it clear that police should only be allowed to check *an individual's*
record.
NO2ID Expats spreading across the globe
NO2ID's expats group now has
members or supporters in at least 19 countries/territories: Austria, Belgium,
Bulgaria, Canada, China, Czech Republic, France, Ghana, Hong Kong, Indonesia,
Japan, Malta, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Spain,
Switzerland and the USA. In the run-up to ID Day (26th March) expats are
collecting NO2ID petition signatures from expats around the world. UK citizens
living abroad who have not yet joined the expats group can find out more from
expats@no2id.net
Plans for EU wide superdatabase emerge (Prum Treaty)
At the EU Council
of Ministers in Brussels on 15th February details emerged of plans that could
mean that the UK police forces will not be the only ones with access to
British fingerprint and DNA databases. They will be required to share them
with police forces, security services and perhaps others throughout the EU.
The proposals are part of the Prum treaty which Germany and others now want to
bring into EU law. A press release by EU parliamentarian Alexander Alvaro
said: "the Pruem Treaty is just a foretaste of a superdatabase that is
beginning to take shape and which will make it possible to track European
citizens from the cradle to the grave. The fact that all this is happening
without any parliamentary control and effective protection of basic rights
makes totalitarian surveillance fantasies more real - and not only for
paranoiacs."
Details of the EU meeting can be found at www.consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/en/jha/92800.pdf
No health database for Switzerland
Switzerland has no intention of
building up electronic dossiers on patients, the federal government promised
on 14 February. Health eCards will be phased in next year, and from 2009 they
will have to be shown when using doctors', hospitals' or pharmacists' services
covered by the compulsory health insurance schemes. But the only information
required to be stored on the cards and the corresponding database will be
basic administrative details - the holder's name and insurance number, and the
name of the insurer. On a purely voluntary basis, doctors will be able to add
some medical details to the cards if the patient asks them to do so - for
instance, ongoing illnesses, accident sequels and allergies. But these will
have to be deleted whenever the cardholder wishes. Similarly, practitioners
will not be under any obligation to add information to the cards. The
cardholder will be able to protect the data by adding a PIN, and they will not
be accessible by insurers. The cards will not replace patient referral
documents.
Doctors sick of Austria's eCards
New electronic healthcare entitlement
cards are going wrong 2,300 times a day in Austria, the country's GPs
complain. The main reason, according to national broadcaster the ORF, is that
it takes up to six weeks to update the cards when somebody loses or changes a
job. In the meantime, the unlucky cardholders are "locked out". The GPs'
association says they are tired of dealing with irate patients who have
suddenly become unpersons. The doctors' General Secretary has come up with a
low-tech solution for the electronically excluded: go round to your nearest
health office and ask for a piece of paper saying that you are insured. He
diagnoses "systemic shortcomings" in the eCard scheme. But as so often with
technological mayhem, there is also a human factor. Use of surgical alcohol
has risen sharply in Austria's general practices of late. Not for disinfecting
the patients' wounds, nor for drowning the doctors' sorrows, but for cleaning
the eCards. Some of them are so dirty that the card readers don't recognise
them. Rather less funny is the Austrian government's determination to launch
"electronic health files" in 2008. Doctors' and patients' associations
are warning of massive intrusions into privacy and the doctor-patient
relationship. But the Austrian health minister has at least pledged that there
will be no central database …
US biometrics chaos - and the millions needed to put it right
The
American fingerprint database for foreign visitors contains fundamental design
flaws, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has admitted. Fingerprint
readers in American airports and at US embassies worldwide will have to be
replaced. According to one report, just the first stage of the programme to
put things right will cost 50 million dollars. Meanwhile, the official
American public spending watchdog, the GAO, has brought out a damning
assessment of the US-VISIT programme set up to collect the biometrics of
foreign arrivals. The auditors' report reveals massive bureaucracy: "the
fiscal year 2006 expenditure plan proposed spending about $1.35 on programme
management-related activities for each dollar spent on developing new US-VISIT
capability". Published on 16 February, the full GAO report is online at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d07499t.pdf
"ID" in the news
Leaked memo reveals end of youth ID card - Public Servant Daily -
28/2/07
The children's minister, Beverley Hughes, has decided to cancel
the youth opportunity card, a multi-million pound scheme designed to tackle
teenage anti-social behaviour, because of concerns over value for money and IT
problems.
http://www.publicservant.co.uk/news_story.asp?id=2465
ID card scheme "at risk" and facing cost hike - ComputerWorld UK
27/2/07
The government’s ID cards scheme is at risk because of huge
business process demands that will hit the system – at a level comparable to
the NHS’s National Programme for IT (NPfIT), analysts have warned. A Capacitas
white paper estimates that demand on the system will reach 1.2bn business
processes a year – a level that is comparable with the NPfIT system.
http://www.computerworlduk.com/management/government-law/public-sector/news/index.cfm?newsid=2031
No more secrets - The Guardian 27/2/06
Tony Blair insists his
government is not building a Big Brother-style super-database. But all the
talk of 'perfectly sensible' reforms and 'transformational government' masks a
chilling assault on our privacy.
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,,2022115,00.html
The pitfalls of a national database - PC Pro 26/2/07
Following an
outcry from privacy activists, the Cabinet Office has distanced itself from a
centralised national database including biometric, health and personal
details, claiming 'wrong information fed into some weekend papers' had
prompted the outcry.
http://tinyurl.com/2uaukc
Collar the lot of us! Blair adds whole UK to police suspect list - The
Register 20/2/07
The National Identity Register will allow police to add
the entire adult population of the UK to their suspect list, giving them the
opportunity to check fingerprints left at scenes of crime against those
collected from ID card and passport applicants, says Tony Blair. Nor are
fingerprints in other EU countries necessarily safe - the introduction of
biometric technology, he adds, will "improve the flow of information between
countries on the identity of offenders.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/20/blair_fingerprint_suspects/
European e-ID card conference announced - tuvps.com 20/2/07
The
independent European e-Identity & Security Association (eema) has
announced its conference for this year [8-9 March in Leuven Belgium], which
will investigate the existing proposals in Europe regarding e-ID cards in
government and industry.
http://tinyurl.com/27w5us
Labour will force everyone to give fingerprints at ID card interview
centres - The Telegraph 19/2/07
Ministers plan to force all adults to
travel miles at their own expense to fingerprint scanning units so their
details can go onto an identity card database. From 2009, everyone will have
to attend one of 69 "interview centres", whose locations are revealed today
for the first time.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/18/nid18.xml
NHS patient bar codes slammed - Out-Law.com 16/2/07
The NHS has
proposed making patients wear bar code bracelets or RFID tags as a way of
saving hospital time and money, but identity card opponents have said that the
measure means treating patients "like boxes of bandages".
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/19/nhs_rfid_scheme/
(Please
send me any items of interest you encounter - Editor(newsletter@no2id.net) )
Publication details: © NO2ID 2010 - This document may be freely redistributed
in one-to-one communications or physical copies as long as it is reproduced
in its entirety including this notice. It may not be mass-mailed without
the prior permission of NO2ID.
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