[no2id-supporters] NO2ID Newsletter No.44
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Thu Apr 27 16:18:31 BST 2006
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NO2ID Supporters' Newsletter No. 44 - 27th April 2006
Last push before local elections
With the local elections just a week away it's not too late to contact
your local candidates and ask them their position on the National
Identity Register and ID cards. Make it clear to them that you will
never vote for a supporter of compulsory registration or ID cards.
May's Passports renewal campaign launches - 'renew for freedom'
At our London volunteers meeting last week (18th April), NO2ID announced
our new "renew for freedom" campaign. A factsheet and renew for freedom
website were also launched. The aim is to encourage supporters to renew
their passports in May, ahead of the linkage between the passport and
the National Identity Register. Last month the Home Secretary, Charles
Clarke, said that "anyone who feels strongly enough about the linkage
[...] will be free to surrender their existing passport and apply for a
new passport before the designation order takes effect." As detailed in
our factsheet it is possible to renew your passport at any time without
having to pretend the dog ate it.
The price of a standard 10-year adult passport is set to rise to £93
when the ID card scheme kicks in. If you renew now you get 10 years of
freedom for just £51 rather than waiting to pay £93 for lifelong
surveillance.
The UK Passport and Identity Service(UKIPS) is currently phasing in new
biometric passports(digital facial image only at present) which contain
an RFID(Radio Frequency Identification) chip. May 31st is the last date
on which it will be possible to guarantee not getting an RFID chipped
passport. To get an old-style 'digital' passport you have to use the
Premier (one day) renewal service, costing £96.50, in a provincial
Passport Office that isn't issuing passports from the main production
area (this will not work in London). Check the NO2ID discussion forum
for news of which passport centres people have used.
UKIPS is also building a network of 69 new interrogation offices for
face-to-face interviews for all first-time passport applicants. When the
ID card scheme begins to roll out they will extend interviews to all
passport applications, including renewals, for the purpose of
fingerprinting applicants and enrolling them onto the National Identity
Register. As Baroness Seccombe put it during and ID card debate in the
House of Lords last year: "How many people know that when their passport
runs out they will be summoned to an interrogation centre before being
allowed to buy a few cans of beer in Calais?"
A passport that lasts until May 2016 will take you through not only the
next general election, but the one after that! £51 spent in May could
prove to be one of the wisest investments you and your family ever make
in their privacy and freedom. It's that simple.
For more details and to download the Factsheet go to
http://www.renewforfreedom.org/
N.B. At peak capacity the Passport Service issues over 300,000 passports
per month. It is not our goal to crash the system or inconvenience
families wanting to go on holiday in the summer.
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What's next?
New local groups
New groups are being set up around the country every week. Recently set
up local groups include Leek, Morden and Doncaster . A list of groups
can be found at www.no2id.net/localGroups
27th April - North Staffs NO2ID Meeting
Thursday, 27th April 8pm at the Swan pub, St Edward Street, Leek, the
first meeting of the North Staffs NO2ID group. As it's a largely rural
area, it is planned that meetings will be moved around to also take in
Cheadle, Biddulph, Stoke, Hanley and Newcastle. Contact leek at no2id.net
for more details.
2nd May - Glasgow NO2ID Meeting
Tuesday, 2nd May 7.30pm at Mono. We have to start arranging a NO2ID
Scotland public meeting to take place later in the year. We also need to
decide if we are going to plan any stunts to go with the new Renew for
Freedom campaign. Everyone is very welcome to attend. Hope to see you
there! (Alternative arrangements: If for any reason Mono is not suitable
on that evening then we will instead go to Laurie's across the road).
See http://www.no2id-scotland.net/glasgow/meeting.html
3rd May - Science and Technology Committee Evidence Session
Wednesday, 3 May 9.30am in Committee Room 8, Houses of Parliament,
Westminster. Evidence regarding the technologies supporting identity
cards will be heard. from a range of experts. See
http://www.parliament.uk/what_s_on/hoc_news3.cfm#May
5th May - The ID card debate - seminar
Friday, 5th May from 7pm to 9pm at 89 Bickersteth Road, Tooting, London
SW17. Organised by the Mauritian Lawyers Society. Free admission.
Contact Salina Somanah on 020 8516 7730 or 07870 773 792 for more details.
11th May - Swindon NO2ID Meeting
Thursday, 11th May 7.30pm at the Clifton Inn , Clifton street (off Kings
Hill), all welcome. Contact Lynda at swindon at no2id.net for more details.
16th May - NO2ID Volunteers Meting, Central London
Tuesday, 16th May 7.00pm central London venue to be confirmed. All are
welcome to NO2ID's next volunteers' meeting. The meeting will have a
theme of 'Work and ID cards', looking at issues such as Criminal Records
Bureau checks and the National Identity Register. The meeting is free to
attend but we will be asking for donations to help cover the cost of the
room hire.
4th July - Homeland and Border Security Conference (£695+vat)
Tuesday, 4 July at QEII Conference Centre, London, UK. a one-day event
that will look at the next steps for the security community. Featuring
"key figures from the IT sector, government, the police, justice, and
the international community". Cost - £695+vat for private sector,
£175+VAT for public sector.
See http://govnet.co.uk/security/index.php
------------------------------------------------------------------------
What just happened?
Swindon NO2ID makes ID cards a local election issue
The Swindon NO2ID group has been working hard making ID cards and the
National Identity Register(NIR) an issue at the May 4th elections. Each
of the 70 council candidates have been surveyed. Group co-ordinator
Lynda Warren said: "We have asked candidates to return their responses
in good time for us to notify the electorate of their position. All
replies will be posted on the public forum(www.talkswindon.org). Let the
debate begin! Indeed, it already has!" Swindon Borough Council passed a
motion opposing the use of national ID cards for access to local
services in January of this year.
Pennine Way sponsored walk ends
Congratulations to NO2ID supporter Bob who has completed his sponsored
walk of the Penine Way. Its not too late to make a donation to at
http://www.no2id.net/walkfree.php
National Union of Journalists(NUJ) Supports resistance to ID cards
At its Annual Delegates Meeting last month the NUJ passed a number of
motions against ID cards. The motions declared total opposition to the
ID card scheme, affiliated the NUJ to NO2ID and called on the NUJ to
campaign against the National Identity Register.
UK Identity and Passport Service (UKIPS) publishes plans
UKIPS have published their 10 year corporate and business plans and
their "Framework Agreement". The agency proclaims that their mission is:
"Safeguarding your identity", whilst their vision is: "Leadership in
identity authentication and verification". The business plan states
that: "From late 2007, we expect to pilot the recording of additional
biometrics for passports (fingerprints), which will enable us to create
second-generation biometric passports designed to keep us in line with
developing European Union (EU) standards." Yet another reason to take
part in our renew for freedom campaign.
See http://www.passport.gov.uk/news_publications_publications.asp
International Civil Aviation Organisation(ICAO) admits that
e-Passport may serve as a beacon
In a supplement to the ICAO e-passport specifications, upon which new UK
biometric passports are based, they have admitted the risk of
skimming(unauthorised reading by eavesdroppers). The report says: "The
e-passport may serve as a 'beacon' in which the chip emits when
initially activated data (the UID number) that might allow
identification of the issuing authority." The report goes on to
recommend that states do not transmit a unique identifier(such as the
National Identity Register Number) from their passport chips but
acknowledge that some may states may choose to for security reasons. The
UK Passport and Identity Service(UKIPS) say that UK passports will be
protected against skimming by an "advanced digital encryption
technique". In January it was reported that the Dutch biometric passport
had already been cracked.
See http://www.icao.int/mrtd/download/technical.cfm
Correction to last newsletter: Transformational Government -
Implementation Plan published
In our last newsletter we reported on the publication of the
government's Transformational Government Implementation Plan. In our
piece it may have seemed that we suggested that Andersen
Consulting(which has been re-branded as Accenture) was involved in the
Enron scandal. It was of course another part of the Andersen group, the
accountants Arthur Andersen, who were linked to the Enron scandal.
Andersen Consulting was a separate unit of Andersen Worldwide and in
2000 broke its ties with Arthur Andersen, changing its name to Accenture
in 2001. In the 1990s Andersen Consulting oversaw the NISR2 project to
modernise the national insurance computer system which ran three years
behind schedule and cost more that twice the original projected cost.
Charles Clarke: 'Ordinary people have the right to be protected'
The Independent this week published an edited version of a speech given
by Charles Clarke this evening at the London School of Economics.
http://www.no2id.net/news/newsblog/?p=393
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"ID" in the news
Schneier: ID cards will worsen ID theft
Security expert Bruce Schneier has slated the UK's ID card scheme,
saying that not only will it not solve e-crime, it will also make ID
theft worse.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/0,39020369,39265743,00.htm
Head of visitor tracking program wants global ID system
The head of the Homeland Security Department's visitor tracking program
on Tuesday called for the creation of a "global ID management system" to
make travel easier while enhancing security.
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=33925&dcn=e_gvet
Andy Burnham has another snipe at the LSE Identity Project Report
Junior Home Office Minister Andy Burnham is, yet again, hiding behind
Parliamentary privilege to repeat his false accusations about the
alleged authorship of the widely quoted London School of Economics
Identity Project Report.
http://www.spy.org.uk/spyblog/2006/04/andy_burnham_has_another_snipe.html
ID cards 'taking focus away from e-crime'
The government is ploughing too many resources into the ID cards scheme
while failing to fight e-crime, a member of the House of Lords has
claimed. Lord Erroll today said plans to roll out ID cards in the UK
have been promoted by the government as a way of fighting crime, but he
questioned their validity.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39265316,00.htm
ID card spending doubles to £56m
The new Identity and Passport Service will spend £56m on setting up the
controversial ID cards project this year.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/legal/0,39020651,39265296,00.htm
Tony Blair's authoritarian populism is indefensible and
dangerous - The Guardian 24/4/06
The rules of parliamentary procedure are arcane and the vast majority of
electors assume that ID cards are little more than a driving licence
with chip.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1759692,00.html
Providers identify glitches in the state ID card plan - Sunday
Telegraph 23/4/06
In the next few weeks the Home Office will invite tenders for work on
the flagship national identity card programme. It is set to cost
billions of pounds, create the most comprehensive population database
the world has seen, and is already being called Labour's "plastic poll tax".
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2006/04/23/ccid23.xml&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2006/04/23/ixcity.html
Labour U-turn over ID card medical details - The Sunday Times
23/4/06
Identity cards are to carry medical details, despite repeated government
assurances that concerns about privacy meant it would not happen.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2147744,00.html
Britain's liberties: The great debate - The Observer 23/4/06
I have nothing to hide, but I fear this scheme beyond any of your
measures, for it is the dream of every authoritarian government to be
able to monitor its citizens around the clock.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,,1759344,00.html
'Big Brother' scheme axed - The Guardian 19/4/06
A £400m scheme to create a new national population database dubbed a
building block of the "surveillance society" was finally killed off
yesterday. Des Browne said this should be done through the national
identity card scheme instead. The decision is expected to add £200m to
the cost of the ID card scheme.
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour/story/0,,1756464,00.html
Move to store 'ID card' details for children - The Scotsman 19/4/06
A register of children's details similar to that to be kept under the
government's controversial ID card scheme has been recommended by officials.
http://news.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=589352006
Minister in race to push through ID cards
The government will push ahead with the introduction of identity cards
so the Tories cannot make the policy an election issue, according to a
Home Office minister.
http://www.epolitix.com/EN/News/200604/95ab17fe-13b2-4704-8612-1ffc6688feb7.htm
Aussies to get pseudo-ID Card
It looks like an ID Card. It smells like an ID Card. Heck, it even
spooks you like an ID Card. But, as Australia's carbon copy Commonwealth
Prime Minister says, "it ain't no ID card".
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/26/aussie_pseudo_id/
City card planned for Westminster - Card Technology Today March 2006
Westminster is to become the first council in London, UK, to launch a
chip-based city card for its residents. The card, based on the Oyster
card platform will be used for leisure services, library services, youth
passport payments and public transport.
http://tinyurl.co.uk/qyqp
(Please send me any items of interest you encounter -
Editor(newsletter at no2id.net) )
------------------------------------------------------------------------
What you can do
In the run up to the May local elections you can help us by:
1. Promoting our 'renew for freedom' campaign throughout May
The ID card Act turns your passport into a one-way ticket to control of
your identity by the government. If you renew your passport now you can
buy ten years of freedom for £51. Encourage others to do the same and
promote our renew for freedom website: http://www.renewforfreedom.org
2. Writing to local election candidates and your local paper
Now that the ID bill has passed into law it is essential that we keep
compulsory registration of citizens on the National Identity Register in
people's minds. The media debate is likely to mis-report the plastic
card opt-out. Write to your local paper telling them about the renewal
for freedom campaign.
* 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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NO2ID, Box No.412, 78 Marylebone High Street, LONDON W1U 5AP
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