Saying “No” to ID cards, and all that they entail

NO2ID is a non-partisan (i.e. non-party) campaign group which is fighting to keep Britain free. The biggest threat to our democracy, curiously enough, is our own government’s ID scheme, which if implemented will have the whole population numbered, tagged and tracked for life. I didn’t think it could happen in this country, but as soon as I heard the words “identity cards” I knew something was wrong.

It is true that in many countries identity cards are a fact of life, and no one blinks an eyelid over their existence. It is also true that identity cards are first and foremost a means of social control. In no way are they a convenience—so let’s get that straight right from the start. Also, very few countries have centralised database-linked identity cards, and those that do are highly authoritarian states.

The ID scheme system being pushed through by this government, against all advice, is an expensive monstrosity, but it is also—and here is the nub of the matter—demonstrably politically dangerous, so dangerous that it is just unconscionable that a British government could be responsible for its implementation. Let’s be very clear about this: information is power and the ID scheme is a grab for power.

What am I talking about? Well, when you troop off to apply for a British Identity card you will be asked to surrender a large amount of information about yourself, and have your biometrics (fingerprints, iris scans) taken. This, really, is the whole trick—you are told that ID cards are going to improve your security, that they are a wonderful idea, and in exchange you give up your information. Is this a fair exchange? Not really: you just gave up your privacy for life; your inconvenience has just begun, and you are not the slightest bit more secure, far from it.

The information you surrender will be held on a centralised government database—the National Identity Register. So what? So now thousands of government officials will potentially be able to access your information. (The reverse is not true—you cannot see their information). Every time your Identity card is used to verify your identity, a record will be kept on the computer. This means that an “audit trail” of all your public transactions will be available to government officials, for life: you have been tagged. (And you will be paying for the verification checks—your ID is now something you will have to pay for constantly!)

Although I personally don’t think they are necessary or desirable, there is a case for introducing a universal identity card, and there are ways of doing this that are reasonably safe and democratic. What makes the government’s scheme so unacceptable is the database element, and the fact that so many people will have a right of access to information about you, at will and with no warrant required. This shifts the balance of power between citizen and state massively in favour of the state. One Guardian reader recently (Letters Monday 2 March 2009) commented:

“I have no objection to personal data being collected and stored on government or other databases provided that:
a) I have the absolute and inalienable right to access such information at any time in a free, complete and comprehensive form, including the right to know who else has access to or has accessed any such information.
b) I have the same right to be informed immediately when the data is collected or used.
c) I have the same right to access the same data held on anyone who accesses my information in whatever form.”

What the Reverend Geoff Percival is trying to highlight here is that under the “Identity Cards Act”, 2006, you don’t have these rights; you are just expected to accept the massive imbalance of power between you and the government. If they tried to set up this system in America, or any other democratic country, there would be an uproar the likes of which we saw in Australia back in the 1990s (The Aussie public showed itself to be less gullible and more combative than its British counterpart—up to now anyway).

To summarize: By applying for a British Identity card you will effectively be giving permission to the government to keep your personal details and DNA on file for the rest of your life and for the lifetimes of all your descendants. Your details will be stored in one easily accessed place, all together (a massive security risk). You will pay for the ID card to be linked to a file, and pay to renew it every year or as often as required by the government. An official could alter your records without your permission and without telling you. You will not be able to know who made such alterations. You have no legal right or authority to get mistakes on your file corrected. You will be legally responsible for the accuracy of your record, and pay hefty fines if there are inaccuracies. You will effectively be agreeing that every single official in any Council in the land, plus all government employees, plus any members of quangos, charities etc should have full, unrestricted access to your records, both information about your personal life, finances, and health history.

If all this is not a totalitarian nightmare, I don’t know what is. Wake up people. Join NO2ID today.

NO2ID Spring Offensive

As recent announcements from the Home Secretary testify, the government seem intent on pushing the ID scheme forward, against all advice and in the face of growing resistance. Manchester is the latest target where unwitting citizens are being encouraged to apply for the card, and in one stroke sign away their privacy for life.

Our adivce is simple: DON'T APPLY FOR A BRITISH IDENTITY CARD. If you do, your private information will be on tap, via the associated database, to almost any public official for life.

Meanwhile, NO2ID remains active in East Kent, and a number of upcoming activities may interest concerned--and you should all be concerned--readers:

On Saturday, 16th May Canterbury NO2ID will hold a street stall, 10am - 1pm in Canterbury High St. There will be a meeting afterwards to gather materials for a protest in Dover later in the month.

A Canterbury NO2ID meeting will take place at the Bell and Crown on Thursday, 21st May, 7.30pm. New faces welcome.

On 30th May there will be a joint East Kent NO2ID action protest at the Dover Interrogation Centre. More details to follow.

For more information about the above events please contact the relevant co-ordinators, email contact addresses are listed in the side bar.

Please do get involved with NO2ID. The national ID card scheme is a real scandal, and we will be re-visiting all the reasons why its such a dangerous and unprincipled scheme in our next post.

The Database State – hell on earth

You might think that NO2ID is against ID cards—and we are—but there is a lot more to it than that. I am of course talking about databases. One thing I have noticed in the UK is that people are starting to act and talk like machines, i.e. they are behaving unintelligently. Databases are concentrations of identifiable data, and they are useful in lots of ways, but our increasing over reliance on them for making real world decisions is very troubling to put it mildly.

I’m grateful to Ross, a NO2ID colleague, for sharing the following personal story which I think is a very good illustrative example of the database state at work.

My wife is American. She came to England in the mid-80s, and was issued a temporary NI number, but never told it was 'temporary'. After about 14 years of living and working in the UK, a new employer pointed out that she was still on a temporary number, and needed (and now long since married to a Brit, was entitled to) a permanent one.

Applications ensued, with me STRESSING that we needed to make sure her contributions up to that point would be transferred to the new number. Were assured they would be.

Soon after, I applied for a projected pension estimate for each of us, to double check. Sure enough, she was deemed to have only just started working in the UK. Phone calls, letters followed. Final result, and here's the punch line, they say 'We have no record of you working in the UK prior to receiving your permanent NI number. IT'S UP TO YOU TO CONTACT YOUR PREVIOUS EMPLOYERS AND PROVIDE US WITH PROOF'.
And that's how the bureaucrat/ database state operates - THEY lose your date, YOU take the blame and suffer the consequences.

BTW, After much effort, we've managed to get some evidence together - not easy as firms previously worked for merge, go bust, lose your records etc, but there are still about 6 years missing - 6 years of NI contributions she'll get no credit or pension for. They even had the nerve to say that she should have kept all her payslips for the previous 14 + years.

What a nightmare! You see if you’re not on the database for some reason you have to start proving that what you say is true: no one will take you at face value. In Thanet last year I produced a birth certificate and passport as proof of identity and was then told by a prospective employer: “but we don’t know who you are.”

Databases: information, information, information, but no ability to judge and assess according to a human set of values—which is fine if you don’t rely on them to make your decisions for you, or rely on them to keep you secure etc. But the ID database that the government is in the process of setting up is a monstrosity, and you are going to be held to account for the accuracy of the information on it, not the government! We say NO to the Database State, which means NO to the ludicrous ID card scheme, NO to more unnecessary databases and NO to the linking up of personal information.

TUC to the fore in fight against the ID card scheme

“Congress pledges to resist this [ID] scheme with all means at its disposal”

Thus resolved the TUC recently in Brighton—hurray! NO2ID salutes this landmark resolution which marks a significant step-up in worker resistance to the government’s database-backed ID card scheme, resistance we predicted would emerge back in December last year when Thanet NO2ID was founded.

The motion against the ID scheme, which stated "Congress sees absolutely no value in the scheme or in improvements to security that might flow from this exercise..." was proposed by the pilots' union, BALPA, whose members are among those targeted by the Home Office for compulsory registration on the National Identity Register, the sinister database behind the British ID card. Pilots are intelligent people who can see right through this lamentable scheme, and naturally they are angry about being selected as guinea pigs for its roll out.

Is Stephen Ladyman listening? Considering he was one of the 304 Labour MPs who voted for the undemocratic ID scheme in the first place—something we are not going to forget—one would certainly hope so.

Commenting on the TUC’s resolution Guy Herbert, General Secretary of NO2ID, said
"The Home Office has almost given up pretending that its ID scheme is necessary for national security. Those involved in aviation security day-to-day don't believe it. Now the plan is that ID will confront us in the workplace - as a form of official permission to earn a living. We are delighted that the unions and their members will be ready to fight it."

Meanwhile, I was interested to learn from this BBC report that PA Consulting, the clowns who lost all the criminal records in the land, have had their contract cancelled. But that is too late isn't it, and how come no one ever gets held to account for these outrageous breaches of security? Ultimately the government is responsible and they cannot be trusted to build a secure ID database.

Thanet NO2ID in Dover

Dover NO2ID and Thanet NO2ID joined forces today by, fittingly, the Dover War Memorial. In beautiful sunny weather, and in a good location, the campaigning was effective. We once again got our excellent leaflet into the hands of the public, many of whom may be thinking about this issue seriously for the first time. A few people argued with us, but all discussion was even-tempered and mutual respect was established—we are open to dialogue with anybody. Not a few people signed our petition.
There will be a NO2ID benefit gig tonight at The Whole World Café, The Old High Street, Folkestone.

Smile and speak/write nicely

Because, according to this interesting article in The Telegraph, you are on average being recorded 3000 times a week!

Westwood Cross: bring your money, but not your ideas

Thanet NO2ID recently attempted to campaign at the Westwood Cross shopping centre in Broadstairs. Though some people dislike Westwood Cross there is no denying its popularity and we were keen to see if we could make a dent in this privatised zone of unlimited consumption.

Our attempt was always a long shot and sure enough it was not to be. Within about one minute of setting up (in a discreet spot, in nobody’s way and not interfering with any advertising) a black-suited security man toting a walkie-talkie came over and indicated by his body language that we were not welcome. I went over and engaged with this man, in my usual diplomatic manner, and he confirmed that without permission from the management we had to pack up and move on. Before leaving I tried to secure permission from the said management to campaign and they told me to contact a company called “Space and People”, based in Glasgow of all places, to seek permission, but the management man (always a man) added that anything “political” was basically not going to be allowed.

Of course, we are not going to contact that company—why should we? Here is Thanet, not Glasgow. After leaving Westwood Cross we took our campaign to Ramsgate where we got a good response from the good Thanet/Ramsgate public. But it bothers me that an important site of struggle has been closed off to us.

Some people might say that at least Westwood Cross is being consistent in not allowing any political campaigning. But actually there is no such thing as a neutral political position and by not allowing political campaigning Westwood Cross effectively serves the interests of the ruling class who increasingly seek to keep us all in line with CCTV and yet more rules about what we can and cannot do. Is this really a free country?