10 May 2007
TIME TO GET PETITIONING
Our local elections ID questionnaire was a great success.
Supporters up and down the country made sure that the ID scheme was a local issue for candidates. Thanks to everybody that took part in the fantastic
lobbying efforts. (For example, campaigners in Swindon sent out questionnaires to over 90 prospective candidates!) Now it is time to get our message out to the wider public again.
The best way to help us get more supporters is by getting people to sign our petition forms. Petition forms can be downloaded from the NO2ID website
(http://www.no2id.net/downloads/forms/NO2IDpetition.pdf).
Please spare some time to collect as many names as you can and send the completed forms to NO2ID, Box 412, 19-21 Crawford Street, London W1H
1PJ as soon as possible.
Everyone who gives their name and address will get a pack with information about the identity card scheme and the campaign. If people give their email address then they will receive this newsletter. One supporter in Bristol recently sent in 55 petition signatures that she had collected on her own.
Engaging with people on the street is also a great way to tell people about the National Identity Register and the Database State.
If every supporter collected just five signatures we would be able to make a huge increase our supporter base. NO2ID would be by far the biggest civil liberties organisation in Britain. Our campaign needs to grow so please help (and don't forget to return the completed petition forms to the office).
What's next?
Local groups
A new local group has been formed in the London borough of Waltham Forest, the group can be contacted via (waltham.forest@no2id.net). A
full list of local groups can be found at (www.no2id.net/localGroups)
Constitution Committee to investigate "surveillance society"
The House of Lords Constitution Committee is calling for evidence on the surveillance society. It is particularly interested in the "constitutional implications of the collection and use of surveillance and other personal data by the State and (insofar as they can be used by the State) private companies, particularly with regard to the impact on the relationship between citizen and state".
Submissions of up to 1500 words are requested by 8th June.
More details can be found at
www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/CFE%20Final.doc
Saturdays 1pm - 3pm - NO2ID Edinburgh Campaign stall
NO2ID Edinburgh's regular Princes Street campaigning stall on Saturdays is at the east end of Princes Street, opposite the Balmoral
Hotel, from 1pm - 3pm. We use our stall to raise public awareness of the Identity Cards scheme, collect donations and entries for the NO2ID
petition, and also to increase membership of our group. Please do pop by for a chat if you happen to be around. We aim to have the stall up and running most
Saturdays, and new volunteers are always very welcome. Photos and group contact details at:
www.no2id-scotland.net/edinburgh/
12th May - Cambridge NO2ID Campaign stall
Cambridge NO2ID will be running a street stall outside Cambridge Guildhall from 10am onwards on Saturday 12th May, Saturday 19th May &
Saturday 26th May. Location Map: http://tinyurl.com/eo42r. Volunteers to help very welcome - contact Andrew Watson via cambridge@no2id.net, or on 07710 469624.
14th May - Highbury NO2ID Meeting (**NEW VENUE**)
Monday, 14th May, 7pm at The Alwyne - What better place to meet on a sunny evening than in the lovely beer garden. We'll be having an informal meeting about forthcoming events and ways to highlight the campaign in the local area. All welcome. Address: 83 St.Pauls Rd, London, N1 2LY
(http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/13/1350/Alwyne_Castle/Islington)
17th May - Manchester NO2ID Meeting
Thursday 17th May, 7pm - 9pm. Manchester NO2ID will be holding our monthly meeting in the upstairs function room of the Town Hall Tavern, Tib Lane, Manchester. Sadly, this venue is not wheelchair-accessible, please contact us if you have accessibility needs. We will be looking at the results of the Manchester local elections, discussing a forthcoming film / social night at the FAB café and other activities.
19th May - NO2ID stall at Levellers' Day, Burford, Oxfordshire
Saturday, 19th May - Kensington NO2ID is organising a stall at this event, which has been a festival of radical politics since 1975.
Event details from the Levellers Day web page (www.levellers.org.uk/levellers-day.htm). Volunteers to help, please contact Jill Mannasseh of Kensington NO2ID (kensington@no2id.net)
24th May - Manchester NO2ID Piccadilly Station Flyering
Thursday 24th May, 5:30pm - 6:30pm at Piccadilly Station. Manchester NO2ID will be taking their fortnightly flyering campaign back to
Piccadilly Station, to raise awareness of the National Identity Register among Manchester commuters. This is a great way to spend an hour meeting other No2ID supporters, as well as doing something positive for the campaign and still being home in time for tea. Meet at the bottom of Piccadilly Station Approach and look for the NO2ID T-shirts or badges. You won't need to bring anything other than your hands and a smile!
27th May - Redbridge NO2ID campaign stall at Redbridge Green Fair
Sunday 27th May at Valentines Park, Ilford. Redbridge NO2ID campaign will have a stall at this major community event which is held every two years.
Entry is free. There will be 3 music stages, over 100 stalls, great food, a beer tent, children's entertainment. Free shuttlebus service. Supported by
London Borough or Redbridge (an affiliate of the No2ID campaign!) All support welcome. See www.rgf.org.uk For more details phone Paul on 07801 429782.
5th June *note confirmed date* - Classical Recital, Covent Garden for benefit of NO2ID
Tuesday, 5th June 7.30pm. A concert: Violin and Piano Duo- Mozart, Schumann, De Falla, Gershwin. Seats for roughly 270 people - £10 on the door. At St. Paul's Church, Bedford Street, London WC2E 9ED ("The Actor's Church")
30th May - World Premiere of Edinburgh NO2ID film
Wednesday, 30th May, 7pm in the Library at the Quaker Meeting House, 7 Victoria Terrace, Edinburgh EH1 2JL. The film of the local
NO2ID Group's demonstration outside the Edinburgh Interrogation Centre will be shown at the next Group meeting on 30 May. The main business of the
meeting will be to consider how the recent political changes, in City Chambers, Holyrood and (maybe by then) Downing Street, will affect our campaign against compulsory ID cards.
2nd June - NO2ID Stall at Cambridge Strawberry Fair
Volunteers needed to man the stall for 2 hour shifts from 10am until 10pm: please contact cambridge@no2id.net, or text/call Andrew Watson on 07710
469624. We signed up 750 supporters last year - we'd like to double that number this year. (Strawberry Fair info: http://www.strawberry-fair.org.uk)
8th June - Cambridge NO2ID Public Meeting: "Whose identity is it anyway?"
Friday, 8th June 7.30pm at Parkside Community College, Cambridge CB1 1EH
(Map: http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?pc=CB11EH).
Platform speakers: David Howarth (MP for Cambridge, Lib Dem Energy Spokesperson), Ian Gibson (MP for Norwich North, Labour), James Paice (MP for SE Cambs, Conservative Agriculture spokesman), Phil Booth (NO2ID National Coordinator). All welcome. Free (but donations appreciated).
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What just happened?
ID cards cost report published at last - shows £1 billion increase
The government finally released the latest ID cards six-monthly cost report earlier today as the nation's media was focused on the retirement of Tony
Blair. Initial analysis of the figures reveal that the costs of the scheme have risen by nearly a billion pounds. The report was due on April 9th but
the Home Office it seems chose to wait for a good day to bury bad news
See www.identitycards.gov.uk/downloads/2007-05-10CostReport.pdf
Chelmsford NO2ID protest at interrogation centre
Members of the newly formed Chelmsford NO2ID group held a
protest outside the Chelmsford interrogation centre this week. It was well
attended by supporters from all over Essex and a number of journalists and
photographers. Group co-ordinator Felicity Mawson was also invited to
address the local TUC May Day rally that night.
Tribunal rules information on ID scheme must be made public
Last week an Information Tribunal ruled that the Office of Government
Commerce (OGC) Gateway Reviews on the identity cards programme must be
published. The reviews were requested under the Freedom of Information Act
by SpyBlog (www.spyblog.org.uk) back in January 2005. The request was an
attempt to get some of the background information on the Home Office's
Identity Cards Programme, which should have been made public before the
Identity Cards Act 2006 was debated in Parliament. In March Peter Gershon,
the former civil servant, claimed that publication would seriously undermine the confidentiality essential to the success of the Gateway review scheme. The OGC has been given 28 days to publish the reviews.
The decision of the tribunal can be read at http://tinyurl.com/2deaot
Biometric membership scheme for Leeds nightclub
A nightclub in Leeds is to introduce a thumbprint membership scheme. Rio's Leeds promotional blurb says: "The best bit is you will carry your membership round with you on your thumb, as we're using an amazing biometrics system that scans your thumbprint so you never have to worry about forgetting your card." NO2ID has been campaigning against the trend of fingerprinting in pubs for some time (see newsletter 58). Fingerprinting in pubs and clubs is part of the normalisation of such technologies and raises serious privacy concerns. Supporters in Leeds should
write to local papers to highlight the issues surrounding the scheme. If you know of any similar schemes being set up then please send details to newsletter@no2id.net
Information Commissioner evidence to Home Affairs Committee
Last week the Information Commissioner gave evidence to the Home Affairs
Committee inquiry into 'A surveillance society?'. The session mostly focused on store cards and what they perceive as the
"public's insatiable demand" for CCTV. There was some discussion of data sharing and the Child Index.
Watch the session at http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Player/?Meeting=7218
Read the transcript at http://tinyurl.com/2g6vqb
Read the evidence submitted by the information commissioner at
http://tinyurl.com/2owudn (pdf)
LSE Identity Project - new reports
The London School of Economics (LSE) Identity Project group has released a couple of new reports. The first is their evidence to the
Home Affairs Committee into "A Surveillance society?". The second is an academic paper on 'How the UK is confusing identity fraud with other policy
agendas'. Both reports can be found at http://is2.lse.ac.uk/idcard/
German eDabs won't be archived
The two fingerprints due to be included in German ePassports from this November will not be permanently archived. The Christian
Democrat federal government wanted the prints to be stored and made accessible to the police, but it had to withdraw that clause on 10 May after the Social
Democrats threatened to block the legislation. Police will have direct online access to passport photos - but only in an emergency and only if the passport office is closed at the time.
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"ID" in the news
Cost of ID cards rockets by £840m - The Guardian 10/5/07
The official estimated cost of the controversial national identity card scheme has soared in the last six months by an extra £840m
to a total of £5.75bn, according to new Home Office figures published today
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,,2076594,00.html
Home Office accused of burying bad news as ID cards cost soars - Daily Mail 10/5/07
The projected 10-year cost of the controversial ID card scheme has risen by £400 million in the last six months, it was revealed today.
http://tinyurl.com/2kg9ol
DVLA set to lead ID cards scheme - South Wales Evening Post 9/5/07
Swansea's DVLA could be at the forefront of the Government's controversial ID cards scheme.The Morriston-based Government agency is looking for
someone to help create a new system which can deal with up to 50 million picture images. The pilot system would be able to search for and match images.
http://tinyurl.com/3dywet
Greens demand boycott of Lockheed Martin census trial - The Register 9/5/07
The Green Party has called for a boycott of the UK's 2007 census pilot because it is being run by US weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin. The Office for National Statistics is running the test in Liverpool, Camden, Bath and North East Somerset, Carmarthenshire and Stoke-on-Trent on the 13th May 2007.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/09/census_boycott/
NHS upgrade creates false patient records - Computer Weekly 8/5/07
A software upgrade under the NHS's National Programme for IT (NPfIT) has
led to hundreds of incorrect duplicate patient records being created every
day at NHS sites in Greater Manchester.
http://tinyurl.com/2kxa7l
ID card will be needed to vote, says UK election watchdog - The Register 30/4/07
Unexpected support for ID cards has come from Electoral Commission chairman Sam Younger, who has told the Times that photo ID should be required at polling stations, and that if (or, in the view of the current Government, when) ID cards become compulsory they would "undoubtedly" be applied in elections.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/30/younger_id_card_voting/
(Please send me any items of interest you encounter -
Editor(newsletter@no2id.net) )
Publication details: © NO2ID 2010 - This document may be freely redistributed
in one-to-one communications or physical copies as long as it is reproduced
in its entirety including this notice. It may not be mass-mailed without
the prior permission of NO2ID.
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