[no2id-supporters] NO2ID Newsletter No.48

Thu Jun 22 16:38:07 BST 2006

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    say NO2ID
    NO2ID Supporters' Newsletter No. 48 - 22nd June 2006

      Over 500 NO2ID supporters being registered a month

The office is now registering new supporters and supplying them with 
information packs at a rate of over 500 a month. Requests come from 
people registering their interest on-line or signing a paper petition 
like the one downloadable from the website. But we could be getting many 
more. If everybody getting the newsletter were to introduce just one 
other person every other month, we would have a snowball effect bringing 
the supporter-base into six figures well before 2007. Please continue to 
encourage friends and family to support our campaign.

Currently membership just  about supports our activity, but with a few 
more members we could do more. If one in ten of our current passive 
supporters joined NO2ID we'd be able to afford twice as much media work, 
press briefing and publicity materials. Please consider joining NO2ID 
(for details see the 'What you can do' section at the end of this 
newsletter). Thanks to all of our supporters that have already joined.

      Thanks to all of the Activ8 media project volunteers

Many thanks to all of those who responded to our appeal for film-makers 
in the last newsletter. Activ8 is a community television channel set up 
by the BBC's Action Network. The channel will follow eight social 
activists (one of which is NO2ID national co-ordinator Phil Booth) and 
their campaigns on TV, the web and broadband for the rest of 2006. Phil 
Booth told us: "I've had replies from all over the UK and we're working 
on the first short film, introducing NO2ID, for webcast/broadcast on the 
Community Channel & BBC Action Network later in July."

      What's next?

        "Local" groups go international

A new NO2ID group has been set up for british citizen's living abroad. 
The expats group will give advice on passport renewal and the ID card 
scheme and has produced a factsheet that will be available from the 
renew for freedom website shortly (www.renewforfreedom.org). For more 
details contact expats at no2id.net

We are still keen to set up more groups in the Midlands, particularly 
around Coventry, Wolverhampton, Leicester, and Derby. If you are 
interested in setting up a local group please contact us at 
(local.groups at no2id.net). A list of groups (and a new interactive map) 
can be found at www.no2id.net/localGroups

        Youth Against ID

The nascent NO2ID youth group are looking for volunteers aged between 14 
and 25. They are looking for young people to: write content for their 
website, organise meetings and events, article writers, forum 
moderators, or anything else that you want to do really. The site is 
going to be run for young people by young people so if you want to help 
in anyway, or want to hear more about it once the site is launched 
please email id-youth at no2id.net . The group is also launching a myspace 
site so if any of you out there have experience using this they'd 
appreciate the help. As the adverts say, 'every little helps'.

        22nd June - St Helens NO2ID Meeting

Thursday, 22nd June, 6.30pm at the Grove Social Club, Knowsley Road, St 
Helens, Merseyside. NO2ID St Helens will be holding their second 
meeting. Informal, friendly and informative. For anyone in the area: 
come along if you can, you'll be very welcome! More information from 
(st.helens at no2id.net).

        24th June - Deptford NO2ID stall

On Saturday (June 24th) Deptford NO2ID are organising a stall with a 
view to producing personalised ID cards that have any part of the body 
on the card that the user seeks to put on it. In contrast to the data 
the government will store on the National Identity Register the data on 
the card will remain solely the property of its owner, as does the card 
itself. For more details contact deptford at no2id.net

        27th June - North Staffs NO2ID Meeting

Tuesday, 27th June 7.30pm in the snug at the Swan, St. Edward's Street, 
Leek. This meeting will take the form of planning our stall at the Leek 
Show to be held on Saturday 29th July. For more details contact Laura 
Marcus (leek at no2id.net).

        28th June - NO2ID Edinburgh Meeting

Wednesday 28th June in the Meeting Room, Quaker Meeting House, 7  
Victoria Terrace, EH1 2JL.  Speaker: Colin Fox MSP, Scottish Socialist 
Party.  All are very welcome to attend!  More details available from 
http://forum.no2id.net/viewtopic.php?t=9178

        1st July - Cambridge NO2ID stall

Saturday, 1st July 10am onwards, outside the Guildhall, Cambridge, NO2ID 
Cambridge have a stall. Drop round to collect a badge and car sticker, 
or just to say "Hello". Volunteers to help run the stall also welcome. 
Contact Andrew Watson via cambridge at no2id.net, or on 07710 469624.

        1st July - Manchester NO2ID Flyering

Saturday 1st July at Market Street in Manchester's city centre, 
Manchester NO2ID, Manchester Defy-ID and other groups from across the 
North West will be flyering. We're co-ordinating on the Manchester local 
group mailing list, and would be happy for people to join us.

        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

        8th July - Rise Festival - Higbury NO2ID stall

Saturday July 8th at Finsbury Park. Entrance is free, and the line up 
can be found at (http://www.risefestival.org/). Last year one campaigner 
handed out over 100 NO2ID leaflets in about 20 minutes. Come along to 
one of the biggest free events in London this summer and help to spread 
the word. Please note: a stall has been booked but no written 
confirmation has been received yet. For more information contact 
highbury at no2id.net

        13th July NO2ID Volunteers Meeting Central London - 'ID cards:
        bad for your health'

Thursday, 13th July at 7.00pm in the Brockway Hall at Conway Hall, 25 
Red Lion Square, London WC1 (nearest tube: Holborn). All are welcome to 
NO2ID's next regular volunteers' meeting. The meeting will be on the 
theme of ID cards and health. The meeting is free to attend but we will 
be asking for donations to help cover the cost of the room hire.
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      What just happened?

        Unison Members vote against ID cards

Delegates at Unison's National Delegate Conference 2006 in Bournemouth 
this week re-affirmed their opposition to the government's ID card 
scheme and resolved to campaign for both ID cards and the National 
Identity Register to be scrapped. Ray Walker, who moved the motion 
opposing the costly scheme, said: "This is money better spent on public 
transport, improving patient care, protecting pensions, and public 
services". The issue of the security of personal data collected by the 
scheme was also raised as the work is to be contracted out to private 
companies. Delegates agreed to work with NO2ID and other groups to 
oppose ID cards.

        New NO2ID group formed in Helensburgh, Scotland

Following a NO2ID public meeting held in Helensburgh last week there is 
now a group of concerned citizens who have decided to work against the 
Database state locally. Later this week there will be an open letter in 
the local newspapers asking the MPs, MSPs and other elected 
representatives for their views on the issue. This will hopefully spark 
an exchange of views on the letters pages that will give Helensburgh 
NO2ID a chance to argue the case against ID cards. The group is also 
planning to leaflet people in the street, lobby local politicians and 
hopefully get Argyll and Bute Council to affiliate to NO2ID.

        Are Global ID cards the next step?

Delegates attending the recent 'ePassport Interoperability Test Event' 
in Berlin discussed more than just chipped passports. Also on the agenda 
was the next step in the International Civil Aviation 
Organisations(ICAO) plans - interoperability of ID cards aka global ID 
cards. You may recall that the UK government has used "international 
obligations" as an excuse for introducing biometric passports. These so 
called obligations refer to the guidelines set down by the unelected 
ICAO (the United Nations body charged with developing international 
standards for aviation safety). Governments around the world are using 
groups such as the ICAO to facilitate 'policy laundering' - the process 
of introducing authoritarian legislation to meet manufactured 
guidelines. At the heart of the biometric passport policy laundering 
scam is the ICAO Document 9303 (available from the ICAO for just £130 
plus postage and packing). Part 3 of 9303 refers to ID cards and some 
details of its content can be gleaned from a presentation given by 
Claudia Hager at the Berlin Event (see 
http://www.interoptest-berlin.de/reading_material.htm). The document 
addresses the need to standardise ID cards in the way that ePassports 
have standardised passports. So watch out for global ID cards, just to 
meet our international obligations of course.
For more information on policy laundering see 
http://www.policylaundering.org

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      "ID" in the news

        Successful cross-national testing of electronic passports at
        'Global Summit' - europa.eu 19/6/06

Experts from 38 countries participated in a successful cross-national 
testing of electronic passports at the Global Interoperability Test 
Summit on Electronic Passports. In a major 'interoperability' test, 
organised as part of the event, over 400 electronic passports, from a 
wide range of countries, were tested on 50 reading devices from 
different producers.
http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/5661/194

        eGovernment:Scottish elections to count on electronic vote
        tallies - europa.eu 19/6/06

Next year's parliament and local authority elections in Scotland will 
use an eCounting system to tally the votes, improving the efficiency, 
accuracy and speed of the counting process. Regardless of the political 
outcome, eGovernment has scored a winner for the citizen. Although 
Scottish voters will still be using a paper ballot, it will be counted 
electronically.
http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/5660/194

        ID cards good for tracking immigrants, says Blunkett - The
        Register 15/6/06

The 'tracking' capabilities of the UK ID card system, hotly disputed by 
Home Office ministers whenever the notion is floated, have been 
commended by no less a person than former Home Secretary David Blunkett. 
Speaking on the Today programme yesterday on the subject of amnesties 
for illegal immigrants, Blunkett said "it's impossible to have an 
amnesty without ID cards and a clean database, because you firstly don't 
have any incentives for people to actually come up front and register, 
and make themselves available, and secondly you have no means of 
tracking them."
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06/15/blunkett_on_id_immigrant_tracking/

        IT firms 'clueless' over ID card scheme - Contractor UK 12/6/06

UK IT suppliers eager to start work on the incoming biometric identity 
card scheme face delays of up to three months until they receive 
contracts from the Home Office. The Department is being accused of 
failing to start the procurement process on time, in its latest blunder 
which could force delays to the national roll out of the project.
http://www.contractoruk.com/news/002699.html

        Secret ID report 'must be shown' - BBC News Online 8/6/06

Secret estimates of the benefits and risks of identity cards must be 
published, the freedom of information watchdog has told the government.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5061242.stm

        NHS IT : Enfield PCT back to paper after computer failure -
        e-health insider 8/6/06

A London Primary Care Trust has had to switch off its computer system 
and start recording patients' details with pen and paper while it waits 
for a replacement to be delivered by the NHS IT programme.
http://www.e-health-insider.com/news/item.cfm?ID=1931

        US: No-work list' predicted - Daily Buletin 12/6/06

Remember the Department of Homeland Security's "no-fly'' lists that 
erratically flagged 3-year-old children and dozens of men named David 
Nelson as terrorists seeking to board commercial airplanes? As Congress 
debates immigration reform, experts say a little-discussed aspect of the 
bill, mandatory employee eligibility verification, is likely to have a 
colossal impact on the lives of every person in the U.S. labor market -- 
citizen and foreigner alike.
http://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_3925947

        US: Want a New Pet? Get Ready To Be Data-Mined - rense.com 12/6/06

A recent visit to a local "Humane Society" revealed an interesting fact: 
Data mining for some of your personal information is now common-place. 
Apparently these people have not heard about a precious principle known 
as "privacy" - nor do they practice it.
http://www.rense.com/general71/datamined.htm

(Please send me any items of interest you encounter - 
Editor(newsletter at no2id.net) )

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      What you can do

You can help us by:

        1. Joining NO2ID / donating

Please become a NO2ID member, if you have not already done so. Our 
thanks go to those that have.
(There's a membership form at http://www.no2id.net/downloads/membForm.pdf)
OR
Donate some money towards campaign expenses.
NO2ID, Box 412, 78 Marylebone High Street, LONDON W1U 5AP

        2. Promoting our campaign to renew passports

The ID Cards 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

* 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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Publication details: © NO2ID 2006 - This document may be freely 
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it is reproduced in its entirety including this notice. It may not be 
mass-mailed without the prior permission of NO2ID.

NO2ID, Box No.412, 78 Marylebone High Street, LONDON W1U 5AP
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