why ID cards are a bad idea.. (1 Viewer)

[Latex lizzie]

Orwell's 1984 corporatised. Mmm, what was that Mussolini quote again?
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power."

-- Benito Mussolini

Sweet!

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=649780

Ministers plan to sell your ID card details to raise cash
By Francis Elliott, Andy McSmith and Sophie Goodchild
26 June 2005


Personal details of all 44 million adults living in Britain could be sold to private companies as part of government attempts to arrest spiralling costs for the new national identity card scheme, set to get the go-ahead this week.

The Independent on Sunday can today reveal that ministers have opened talks with private firms to pass on personal details of UK citizens for an initial cost of £750 each.

Amid warnings today that the cost of a card for each adult in Britain is likely to double to £200, union leaders predicted that millions of public-sector workers could refuse to co-operate with the scheme, prompting claims that the ID scheme will become Labour's equivalent of the poll tax.

Unison is the latest and biggest trade union to come out against the controversial government plans. The Transport and General Workers' Union and the GMB have already urged backbenchers to vote against the Identity Cards Bill next week. Unison said that ID cards would be ineffective against terrorism and that its 1.3 million members working in healthcare may have the right to refuse to co-operate in enforcing their use.

Bob Marshall-Andrews, one of the Labour MPs opposing the Bill, has accused the Government of doing a "back of an envelope" calculation to reach its figure.

The opening of commercial talks contradicts a promise made when the Home Office launched a public consultation on ID cards in April last year, when officials pledged that "unlike electoral registers, the National Identity Register will not be open for any general access or inspection."

Public support for the scheme has been falling away in recent months amid gathering fears over costs. A report by the London School of Economics is to show that the card's cost to individuals will be around £200.

In addition, firms could be charged up to £750 for technology that would allow them instantly to verify customers' identity through iris scanning or finger-printing, according to official documents.

Whitehall insiders, who have already been passed a copy of the LSE report, say it also includes a warning by a former Nato security chief that the cards could be a "security disaster", are "too risky" to introduce, and could lead to a national meltdown in the event of a security breach of the central database.

After 2008, a machine similar to credit card readers will be a common sight on the counters of banks and large retail stores. These new machines will potentially be able to read a customer's biometric details, such as fingerprints and facial measurements, to check that they tally with information on the customer's ID card.

The Identity Cards Bill has a rough passage ahead, with Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and some Labour rebels joining forces against it. Although government whips are confident of winning Tuesday's vote, rebels are predicting that they can kill the measure off later in the process, in a slow war of attrition, on the grounds of the costs involved and the risks of computer failure.

 

[Latex lizzie]

and..
Mainly for Britishers or Britisher residents...
TO TAKE ACTION.

Dear Friend

How do you feel about an ID card scheme being foisted on the British people that even George Bush described as too ‘illiberal’ when a similar scheme was proposed in the US?

If you’re not sure where you stand on ID cards please still take a minute to read on because there’s a lot we’re not being told by the Government.

The fact is this is not just about a simple identity card: it is actually more about a national surveillance infrastructure - called the National Identity Register - based on the most comprehensive database of personal information ever devised in any country. It could even include the police DNA database, GCHQ electronic surveillance database and phone & internet surfing records.

This database lies behind the ID card scheme. It is nothing like the ID card this country had in the war and is wider in scope than any other European ID card - it is more like schemes adopted in very authoritarian countries, where the police have access to the personal details of every citizen.

I’m writing to you and all Our World Our Say supporters to ask you to take urgent action now to persuade MPs that the British people will not accept this scheme. Go to http://www.owos.info/idcardfreezone/action.php.

This Tuesday, the 28th May, the ID Cards Bill will receive its’ second reading. You and I and all who care must ensure that MPs and Home Secretary Charles Clarke receive a massive wake up call from voters.

In Australia, in New Zealand and in Canada voters have rejected such a scheme. We must do the same here in Britain.

It will enable all state bodies and even commercial organisations to access a whole raft of information about who we are and what we do. Right through our life every action through officialdom will be recorded. You and I will have little control over the use of this data.

It may be too illiberal for the US but Home Secretary Charles Clarke and Tony Blair clearly think it’s not too illiberal for Britain. You and I must prove them wrong.

In the early stages the scheme will be voluntary - but you won’t be able to work, you won’t be able to access the health service and you won’t be able to get a passport without becoming part of the scheme. And the government has admitted that the scheme will become compulsory.

Imagine having to queue to get your fingerprints and retina scanned - and having to pay a significant amount for the privilege of receiving a card. The fact is the total cost has been estimated by the London School of Economics to be at least £300 per person. The actual cost to you and I may be subsidised by selling the data to private companies but it is still likely to be substantial.

If you don’t turn up to your appointment to have your fingerprints, face and retina scanned then you face a fine of £2,500. You could go to prison for up to two years if you don’t sign up for a card. To back the bill up a whole range of new offences are being created - which threaten to make criminals out of thousands of ordinary people.

Why is this card being introduced? None of the Governments arguments stack up. They won’t prevent terrorism. All the terrorists who committed the Madrid bombing had legitimate ID cards. Elsewhere in the world ID cards have done nothing to stop terrorism.

They won’t stop benefit fraud. 90% of benefit fraud is by people using their real identity. They won’t stop illegal immigration. All of the evidence of ID card schemes is that as soon as they are established a trade starts in forged cards. And minority ethnic groups are also concerned because the scheme may be used by bigoted officials to harass them.

The cost will be horrendous. The London School of Economics study estimates that the total cost of this scheme could be as much as £18 billion pounds. That could buy a lot of schools and hospitals. The government denies this but if a recent leak to Private Eye is true then the Passport Office is already working on the basis that the cards will cost £300 each to implement.

On top of this the technology is completely unproven. The planned ID card scheme in Australia was driven out by the failure of the technology and massive public opposition.

Help build a bandwagon against the ID Cards Bill. Take action now by:

contacting your MP and telling him or her why they must vote against this bill. You will be redirected from the Our World Our Say to writetothem.com
emailing the Home Secretary
declaring your home an ID cards free zone.
Together we must show the Government that the British people have caught on to exactly what this bill means. Go to http://www.owos.info/idcardfreezone/action.php. and take these actions now.

It’s vital that we do all we can to wake up the British people to a development that is the most draconian enforcement of a national identity card scheme and database in peace time. We have little time to prevent this becoming law.

Yours

Rob Whitehead Development Manager, Our World Our Say

PS: It has been revealed that the government has been asked to consider making the national database underlying the ID card scheme accessible to the American authorities. Please take action today to prevent this scheme becoming law.

You can download an ID card free zone poster from http://www.owos.info/idcardfreezone/OWOS-IDCARDS.pdf to put up in your window.

We planning to place adverts in the national press next week about ID cards. To make a donation to OWOS please go to http://www.owos.info/make_a_donation/donate.php

To see if there is a local no2id group to get involved with go to: www.no2id.net

 

[Bag'o'cans]

Saw a bit of oireachtas report lastnight, mcdowell was claiming he didn't want to bring them in but he could foresee difficulties such as people working cross border when they bring them in for UK, ooh ooh, we might need them then, fucker, all he needs is an excuse.

 

[Cormcolash]

Thank fuck I can claim dual citizenship and thereby avoid this crap. I don't think they'll be brought into NI, at least half the people here are basically guaranteed to oppose them, thank fuck.

 

[Bag'o'cans]

Thank fuck I can claim dual citizenship and thereby avoid this crap. I don't think they'll be brought into NI, at least half the people here are basically guaranteed to oppose them, thank fuck.

Thats what dooley was on about, if they're brought in in the north, nationalists might demand cards that say they're Irish and then we'll need them here too, convenient.

 

[Cormcolash]

Thats what dooley was on about, if they're brought in in the north, nationalists might demand cards that say they're Irish and then we'll need them here too, convenient.

It won't happen. Nationalists will just tell the Brits to fuck off rather than demand cards saying they are Irish, guaranteed.

 

[Unicron]

if they're brought in in the north, nationalists might demand cards that say they're Irish.

You mean like their passports?

 

[Bag'o'cans]

You mean like their passports?

I don't know the ins and outs of it, but yes, if they then had ID cards that said they were Irish like there passports, then maybe he suggested an Irish ID card would be better to supply, backdoor to ID cards for mcDowell.

 

[wild_cat]

My geography teacher thinks they are a great idea.

 

[oh shit]

You mean like their passports?

by that logic the only reason people in the south have passports is because northern nationalists didn't want british ones.

 

[krystal]

don't worry, logic never confounded McDowell. He's happy to operate outside of what's logical - or whats right and fair.

by that logic the only reason people in the south have passports is because northern nationalists didn't want british ones.

 

[jane]

All 'foreign nationals' are required by law to carry an identity card at all times. It has a little bar code, and a hologram, and a terrible photo. The best part about it, though, is its nod to Rene Magritte. Despite its best efforts to resemble -- and, in all respects, be -- an identity card, when you turn it over, it says, in big. bold, letters, THIS IS NOT AN IDENTITY CARD.

What it is, if not an identity card, is anyone's guess, really.

 

[Unicron]

by that logic the only reason people in the south have passports is because northern nationalists didn't want british ones.

I meant that there is no need for northern nationalists to demand an ID card saying that they are Irish becasue they already can get a passport which is an identity document (unless you're flying with AA and they ask you if you have another form of ID when you hand them your passport) saying that they are Irish.