[no2id-supporters] NO2ID Newsletter No.23

Thu Jun 30 19:41:18 BST 2005

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NO2ID NEWSLETTER - Supporter's Newsletter No.23 - 30th June 2005

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The ID Bill has been read a second time, but it still has a long way to go.
Over the past few weeks opposition to ID cards has grown and the dangers and
costs of the scheme have begun to get some media attention. We must continue
to keep the pressure up. The fight is a long way from over yet.

What can you do to help?

+ 1. SIGN OUR PLEDGE, OVERS 7000 NAMES SO FAR
Over 7000 people have now signed our pledge which means that we now have
raised a £70,000+ legal defence fund. Please, if you can, make your pledge at
http://www.pledgebank.com/refuse or by texting 'pledge refuse' to 60022
[standard text rate].

Pass on or promote this message/link to as many sympathetic people and groups,
mailing lists, bulletin boards and publications as you can *without spamming*.

+ 2. CONTINUE TO LOBBY/WRITE TO YOUR MP
The Identity Cards Bill will return to the commons for a 3rd Reading, we call
on  all supporters to write to or lobby/speak to your MP (in constituency
surgeries) and encourage them to (a) vote against the Bill, (b) if they won't
vote against to absent themselves from the vote, and (c) if they oppose the
scheme to sign EDM 263 against Identity Cards now.
Fax Westminster MPs - http://www.faxyourmp.com/
Early Day Motion(EDM) 263
http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=28464

+ 3. HELP US BY JOINING NO2ID / DONATING
All of our campaigners are volunteers but the materials and equipment we use
cost money.  So please:

Join NO2ID, if you are not already a paid-up member. Hundreds already have.
(There's a membership form at http://www.no2id.net/downloads/membForm.pdf)

Paying anything over £15 p.a. means you qualify as a member - though most
members give a monthly amount.  Regular giving is the best way to help the
campaign.  For obvious reasons, we do need to know each member's name, postal
address (including postcode) and e-mail address, but we will not voluntarily
give personal details to any outside organisation.
OR
Donate some money towards campaign expenses, we need your help.

Thank you (in advance) for your contribution. Together we can beat this.
NO2ID, Box 412, 78 Marylebone High Street, LONDON W1U 5AP

+ 4. GET INVOLVED WITH LOCAL GROUPS
We now have 70 local groups up and down the country. Please get in touch with
your local group if you can help out locally.  If you'd like to set up a new
local group for your town, you should be a member and be prepared to be
contacted by supporters and local journalists.
For a list of local groups and contacts see http://www.no2id.net/localGroups

* We also maintain a list of things you can do on our website at
http://www.no2id.net/getInvolved/other.php

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++ What Just Happened?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

+ IDENTITY CARDS BILL 2ND READING
-----------------------------------------------

The ID cards bill got it's 2nd Reading in the House of Commons on Tuesday. MPs
voted in favour of the bill proceeding by 314 votes to 283, a majority of 31.
There were 20 Labour MPs that voted against, as well as 19 Labour and 16
Conservative abstentions.

The bill will next go to a standing committee, then return to the commons for
a 3rd Reading before going on to the House of Lords. Our hope is that the bill
will be stopped either at 3rd Reading or in the Lords.

Once again the government is using a guillotine to rush the bill through
parliament. The committee stage must be completed by 19 July.

NO2ID and Liberty staged a protest in Parliament Square before the debate.

+ THE DEBATE

Most of the speeches(24 out of 33) were against the bill with many dubbing the
cards a plastic poll tax and highlighting the shift of the relationship
between the citizen and the state.

Following on from the Prime Minister's press conference on Monday the
government once again used the requirement to introduce biometric passports as
justification for their proposed ID card scheme, claiming that ID cards only
amount to a tiny additional cost. No international obligation exists to
introduce a centralised database or an ID card (see newsletters 18 & 19 & LSE
Identity Project Report).

David Davis, the Conservative Shadow Home Secretary said of the bill: "Such a
vision was originally set out by a man called Blair who changed his name to
Orwell and wrote a book called '1984'. It was supposed to be a warning, not a
textbook."

+ DIVINE INTERVENTION ?

A thunder crack filled the chamber as Labour MP Diane Abbot dubbed the
legislation a "doomed bill". She went on to predict that "there will come a
time when not one Labour MP will want to be reminded that they voted for the
Bill."

Labour MP David Winnick observed: "if we had a free vote on the Bill tonight,
it would certainly be thrown out".

Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone said: "I am free. I want to be able to
walk out of my front door as an innocent person if I am doing no one any harm.
No one has the right to hold any information about me and I should not need a
licence to walk out of my house."

Conservative MP John Penrose reminded MPs that as well as worrying about IT
failure and cost overruns of such a project they "should also be concerned
about the dangers of what happens if the IT database is successful" as it
would allow "Governments and other people in this country to see a unified
picture of the information that is collected on each citizen".

Conservative MP Edward Garnier reminded the commons that "we need to worry not
about the card, but about the database that underlies it"

SNP Stewart Hosie said: "There is passionate opposition to the proposals in
all parties. I say to the Government: withdraw them and think again. It is a
bad Bill, which will be bad law."

Read transcript of the debate:
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2005-06-28.1151.0
Watch Debate (online until 12/7/05) starts 01.01.43 into file
http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Console.aspx?Encoding=3126
See how the MPs voted:
http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.php?date=2005-06-28&number=20&display=al
lvotes

+ LSE FULL REPORT PUBLISHED
---------------------------------------
On Monday the London School of Economics(LSE) published the full version of
their Identity Project report.

The LSE's costings for the scheme came under fire from both the Prime Minister
and the Home Secretary who described the £300 card cost as "simply mad".
However Private Eye on the 24th June reported that word from within the UK
Passport agency "is that their own projections show the cost of ID cards to
be, er, £300 per card."

LSE report goes on to look at areas such as identity fraud, policing and ID
and International environment and obligations. The report is far more than
just a series of costings and is a must read.

Download the report at:
http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/pressAndInformationOffice/newsAndEvents/archi
ves/2005/IDCard_FinalReport.htm

+ EVEN BIGGER BROTHER EVENT
----------------------------------------

On Wednesday evening NO2ID's 'Even Bigger Brother' event was staged in London.
Attendees heard powerful speeches from a number of speakers followed by an
informative question and answer session.

Liberty Director Shami Chakrabarti said that "the risk free society is a
politician's lie" and warned that "any assurances put on the face of the
statute book or not today, about today's purposes and today's ambit for this
register will be gone with the wind the next time something happens that
requires a knee jerk, sound-bite political response".

George Galloway MP, commenting on the organisations that already have
information about us, said that the Prime Minister has failed to grasp that
"the people of this country trust Top Shop more than they trust the top men
running the country", because "nobody really believes that Top Shop is
tracking our every move".

Lynne Featherstone(Lib Dem) MP criticised the spurious arguments surrounding
upgrading passports along the lines of "you might as well have an ID card
because they're going cheap" a sort of "buy one get one free" deal.

Dominic Grieve(Conservative) MP said: "We delude ourselves if we believe that
if you give the state power to exercise control over the citizen it won't
start to use it."

Tony Benn said: "You cannot hand these powers that belong to us to somebody
else and use fear to justify it, because fear is a bad judge". He summed up by
saying that he was "very very confident that this thing is going to be
beaten".

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++ What's Next?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

+ 13 July NO2ID Hammersmith Public Meeting

Wednesday, 13 July 2005, 7.00pm at the Irish Centre, Blacks Road.
A Range of speakers will address the meeting.
More details at: www.no2id-handf.org.uk/meeting.htm

+ 19 July Brighton & Hove NO2ID meeting - "Make Brunswick & Regency an ID card
free Zone"

Tuesday, 19 July 2005, 7.00pm at Mad Hatter cafe, near Waitrose on the corner
of Montpelier Road and Western Road, Brighton.
The meeting will be addressed by speaker from the NO2ID campaign and then be
opened up for local residents, councillors and trade unionists with the aim to
organise a network of resistance to ID cards and the National Identity
Register in the Brunswick and Regency areas of Brighton & Hove.
More details: brighton at no2id.net

+ 2 July Edinburgh Benefit Gig

Saturday, 2nd July 2005, 7.00pm - 10.00pm at the Bongo Club, 37 Holyrood Road,
Edinburgh.
The NO2ID Edinburgh local group is holding a fundraising benefit gig.
Admission is £5 (£4 concessions) on the door (cash only).
One week before hitting the T-Break stage at T in the Park, Edinburgh
newcomers Thee Comrades and electro merchants Staccato Set will join the
Xvectors for what's set to be a rocking night. Upstairs, you'll find some
experimental electronica with some comedy band names; namely Final Brass
Rabbi, Pre, Wounded Knee.

Please come along and enjoy some of the best new Edinburgh sounds whilst
supporting the fight against Identity Cards and the database state.

More details at http://www.no2id-scotland.net/local/edinburgh02072005.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

++ "ID" In the News
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

+ Forgers will crack e-passports within a decade
The head of the UK Passport Service (UKPS) claims the biometric technology
behind new passports will have to be updated more than once every 10 years in
order to keep one step ahead of the criminal gangs who mass produce forgeries.
http://management.silicon.com/government/0,39024677,39131512,00.htm

+ Ministers facing ID cards battle
Ministers face a bruising battle ahead to get their flagship ID Cards Bill
through its parliamentary stages after their majority was cut from 67 to 31.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4632835.stm

+ ID: the £15bn charge - Kable's Costings
The ID card scheme could cost up to £15bn, almost three times more than the
government's estimates, according to the most detailed analysis issued so far.
http://www.kablenet.com/kd.nsf/Frontpage/762DD24EA5F58E1F8025702C00622D7D?Open
Document

+ No Rethink On ID Cards
Tony Blair hinted he would force ID cards on the public even if they were
opposed by the House of Lords.
http://tinyurl.co.uk/u1i3

+ Fears over microchips developed for remote scans
Microchips carrying sensitive personal information that can be scanned by
sensors from a distance could be included in the proposed national identity
cards, it emerged yesterday.
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=714402005

+ ID cards 'will reveal details of daily life'
The information commissioner, Richard Thomas, yesterday issued his most
detailed and hard-hitting attack so far on the government's plans for identity
cards.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,3605,1516069,00.html

+ ID cards 'may each cost £400 every 10 years'
Identity cards may have to be replaced at least twice every 10 years at a cost
of about £200 a time, a report from academics said yesterday.
http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/06/28/nid28.xml&s
Sheet=/news/2005/06/28/ixnewstop.html

+ Security fears over medical database
Government plans to put the medical records of 50 million patients in England
on a national electronic database pose even more of a threat to civil
liberties than the ID card scheme, doctors' leaders warned.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1517541,00.html

+ Biometric technology under fire
Studies from across Europe are casting doubt on the efficacy, validity and
cost implications of biometric passport and identity card policies.
http://www.euractiv.com/Article?tcmuri=tcm:29-141111-16&type=News&_lang=EN&ema
il=10251

+ Evening Standard: Andrew Gilligan demolishes the £1.3 billion identity fraud
hype
Thanks to a Government campaign and an over-the-top TV advert, we are being
led to believe that we are all at the mercy of identity-theft fraudsters. But
the £1.3 billion figures for Britain's 'fastest-growing crime' just don't add
up.
http://www.spy.org.uk/spyblog/archives/2005/06/evning_standard.html

(Please send me any items of interest you encounter - Editor)
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NO2ID, Box No.412, 78 Marylebone High Street, LONDON W1U 5AP