|
|
Post by Mitch on Jul 28, 2005 9:46:57 GMT
This was a fascinating article on the history of ID card introduction in Britain, we have been here before it appears. Courtesy of Lucy82 from Libcom, ta for this.  "We've been asked a few times about id cards in the war and why they stopped using them. i think those questions are relevant to todays situation because the government uses the security/terror argument (i know there are other and better arguments specifically on those points but i think this story can be useful to use when people ask about id and war as it also points out that the intention of the law was as a security measure during wartime but in practice it was continued after the war and effectively used to criminalise an ordinary man for a minor driving offence. Most people know the carrying of identity cards was compulsory in the UK from 1939 to 1952 and that they were introduced as a security measure at the start of the Second World War. What people usually don't know is that id cards were continued after the war and the public were told this was to help in the administration of food rationing. The police had powers to see identity cards in certain circumstances. If an individual did not show one when asked, it had to be produced at a police station within two days. The National Registration Act, which made the carrying of ID cards compulsory, was finally repealed in 1951 following the change of government and because of an important court case. In December 1950 Clarence Henry Willcock, the manager of a dry cleaning firm, refused to show his identity card when asked to by the police following a minor motoring offence. Two days later, having failed to produce it at a police station, he was charged. In the magistrates court he argued that it was wrong for the authorities to continue to use a power given during a national emergency when that emergency no longer existed. He was convicted but given an absolute discharge. He appealed against the conviction and in June 1951 the case reached the High Court where the Lord Chief Justice concluded that the Act was passed for security purposes, and not for the purposes for which, apparently, it was now being used. This case hastened the end of the ID card in the UK." |
|
|
|
Post by Mitch on Jul 28, 2005 9:48:02 GMT
Fred, do you remember this event??
|
|
|
|
Post by Mitch on Nov 8, 2005 10:22:54 GMT
www.theyworkforyou.com/search/?s=ID+CardsThis link is an excellent source for keeping up to date with what's going on around ID cards in the House of Commons. Note the arrogrance of Charles Clark in his response to the recent London School of Economics (LSE) report which predicts that the cost of introducting ID cards will sky rocket - he refers to this report as 'rubbish'. Scanning through, you can see strong support rallying around Blair from Labour MPs, and many Conservative MPs to push through the introduction of ID cards. They are building their arguments for ID cards, using particularly the arguments that ID cards will prevent terroism and Identity Fraud. It's good to note this at this early stage, and be clear in our arguments against ID cards, and how it is erroneous to suggest that their introduction will actually prevent both Terroism and fraud - studies have already emerged that this is the usual hype, and that ID cards will not prevent terroism or fraud. I'll bring this up at Thursday's meeting. Best Mitch
|
|
|
|
Post by Mitch on Nov 10, 2005 16:21:59 GMT
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4395726.stmIn Germany social control is creeping in through more information gathering through passports (see above article). In Germany now they have introduced 'new biometric passports'. They cost twice as much, and contain a paper-thin computer chip which stores a scan of the passport holder's face. After 2007 they plan to also include on the chip a fingerprint scan and iris scans. Germany companies like Infineon are growing fat off the back of production of these microchips. Did you know too that after October 2006 only travellers with biometric passports will be able to enter the US without a visa. They've no plans in Germany to link these new passports to a National Database, but my thoughts are that this could be a first step towards it. It is worth keeping a close 'eye' on any changes to passports in the UK, and to make links between things like this and increasing social control, and indeed ID card introduction.
|
|
|
|
Post by Mitch on Nov 21, 2005 17:56:45 GMT
News: www.no2id.netEx-spy chief brands ID cards "absolutely useless", while New Labour peer hails them as "a new kind of freedom" ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Former MI5 chief Dame Stella Rimington has warned that ID cards would be "absolutely useless" unless they were impossible to forge. Home Office minister Andy Burnham hit back, claiming that the cards would of course be impossible to forge well, almost. That's strange, because we could swear that the head of the ID cards programme, Katherine Courtney, was quoted just a couple of months ago as saying that criminals will merely "have to work hard to get two identities, and work very hard to get three". She hardly inspires confidence in this supposedly infallible system. [Note to Home Office: when trying to pull the wool over peoples eyes, it helps if you all at least stick to the same line.] Meanwhile, scrutiny of the ID cards Bill has begun in earnest in the House of Lords, with some truly Orwellian statements from the dwindling number of New Labour loyalists left defending the Bill. On the opening day of Committee, and in a complete reversal of the Governments position that ID cards do not represent a fundamental change in British society, Lord Gould of Brookwood—Tony Blair's former pollster—told peers: "it would help if they respected the fact that the Bill and the identity cards represent the future: a new kind of freedom and a new kind of identity." A freedom where you are numbered, registered and tracked by the State? An identity where the Government tells you who you are, and shares your personal information with whoever else they like? No thanks. |
|
|
|
Post by Mitch on Nov 21, 2005 18:10:11 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by michele cryer on Nov 21, 2005 23:41:57 GMT
Thanks for these interesting articles Mitch!
|
|
|
|
Post by Mitch on Jan 31, 2006 15:54:34 GMT
Stalling of ID Card bill - but still no room for comfort (taken from: www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/01/332642.html)The House of Lords has dealt a blow to Labour's ID Card Bill, criticising the enormous cost, the obvious insecurity of personal information in a centralised database, the way the government wants cards to be used for accessing public services, and attacking compulsion partly as a result of it not being in the Labour manifesto. But before we get too excited, government ministers say they are going ahead anyway, and that certainly looks likely at some point, with or without this bill. Cost hasn't stopped other government database projects that have lined the pockets of IT companies at public expense, nor has cost prevented the multi-billion pound war in Iraq. And an updated London School of Economics ‘Identity Report’ complains more than anything that the Home Office hasn’t budged an inch in response to ‘expert’ criticisms. In February we are expected to see the start of biometric passports - starting with a chip that stores your digital photo and, we assume, with future capacity for finger-prints or eye-scans - and driving licences are also due to be enhanced with biometrics. These are seen as a back-door to a wider spread of compulsory ID, and could still be, even though the Lords appear to have voted down this kind of coupling last week. The government is also creating a separate database for all children in the UK, to be up and running by 2008. It will contain name, address, gender, date of birth and ID number, information about the child’s parent or carer, and contact details for their school, doctor and other services. It will also allow 'practitioners' (social workers etc.) to "indicate to others that they have information to share, are taking action, or have undertaken an assessment in relation to a child". This is being promoted for child protection, but in reality means another vast identity database that could easily feed into the adult National Identity Register (NIR), which is the major component of Labour's ID Card Bill. Privacy of medical records is also in question as these become computerised and available to just about anyone working anywhere across the entire NHS (not just your local GP or hospital) and used for all sorts of other purposes like setting prescription prices. At the moment the only way to stop this happening, it seems, is to write an individual opt-out letter to the NHS, otherwise you are considered to have consented! The government would like to link NHS records into the national ID scheme so they can control entitlement to healthcare. A similar trick is going on with the Electoral Register which is currently a local list, but the government intends this to become a national resource to help them set up the NIR. Finally, we have just found out that the US-led professional body Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) have picked the UK's ID scheme as one of its 5 technology "Losers of 2006". Whilst Labour's biggest IT scheme might just help itself into a coffin on technical grounds it will surely take a concerted effort by activists to drive in the nails. New Defy-ID groups are forming, including one in Nottingham and another one in London, to do just that. More info: Corporate Identity: a new 16 page report which digs up more dirt on the companies who are developing and cashing in on ID card and database technology for the UK scheme. Available from Corporate Watch, 16B Cherwell St. Oxford, Oxfordshire OX4 1BG or visit www.corporatewatch.org Document link: www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=2298 Defending Anonymity: thoughts for struggle against identity cards. Get this free pamphlet from the Anarchist Federation - send an SAE for a printed copy to BM ANARFED, London WC1N 3XX, or visit www.afed.org.uk Document link: www.libcom.org/hosted/ace/af/anon.html Defy-ID: Find out about groups in your area (or set one up!). Visit www.defy-id.org.uk Foundation for Information Policy Research: FIPR are an Internet policy think-tank who advise the government. They have produced a standard opt-out letter to demand privacy of medical records. Individual rather than collective action is limited, but still worth a look. Visit www.fipr.org Document link: www.fipr.org/nhs-optout.pdf or www.fipr.org/nhs-optout.doc London School of Economics, Identity Report, Jan 2006 update. See LSE moan about the Home Office ignoring them: is.lse.ac.uk/idcard/ Document link: is.lse.ac.uk/idcard/statusreport.pdf Children Act (2004). Check out Section 12 on 'Information databases' to read about the powers given to the state by this new legislation, so it can set up ID databases for children : www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2004/20040031.htm No2ID newsblog: www.no2id.net/news/newsblog/index.php |
|
|
|
Post by michele cryer on Feb 1, 2006 18:15:01 GMT
Hi Mitch,
Thanks for all that info...It's scary that the Govt. is still intending to go ahead even tho the House of Lords have tried to stop them.
|
|
|
|
Post by Mitch on Feb 2, 2006 15:08:00 GMT
Hi Mitch, Thanks for all that info...It's scary that the Govt. is still intending to go ahead even tho the House of Lords have tried to stop them. It's symtomatic of every single local issue we face - people don't matter no more, just profit, control and surveillance. |
|
|
|
Post by michele cryer on Feb 2, 2006 15:45:48 GMT
Very true Mitch....  |
|
