Biometric Passports coming our way!

[Mitch]

Are yes, this explains when I was looking at Cotty's passport renewal form why the cost has suddenly gone up - All part of the tactics to move towards the introduction of ID cards - they are beginning to collect the funds and gain some of the data through UK passports.

If your passport needs renewing - do it before the end of Jan 06 - see below:

Renew Your Passport Now - Biometric Passports from February 2006 !

From February this year all new passports will contain biometric data, facial recognition data on a chip in your passport. This sneaks in one of the infamous elements of ID cards 8 years early. Some people are taking action right now and losing their passports and applying for a new one before February. If your passport has been lost or stolen then you might want to fill in form LS01 (online at http://www.ukpa.gov.uk) and apply for a new one (get form from post office). This effectively gives you a 10 year breathing space.
On 17 November 2005 the UK passport office announced a fee increase for passports- this is to pay for the new improved passport security. Their website says:-

“ The price of passports is to rise in order to pay for major improvements to boost security and fight fraud. New passport fees, which will see the price of a standard 10-year adult passport rise by £9 to £51, reflect the cost of implementing key anti-fraud measures to combat the rapidly growing threat of passport fraud and forgery. These include:
* enhanced background checks on applicants;
* the gradual introduction of new biometric 'ePassports' from February 2006, which will contain a scan of the passport holder's unique facial features embedded in a chip held in the passport document;
*face-to-face interviews for first-time adult applicants from October 2006.”

www.defy-id.org.uk

[Mitch]

www.identitycards.gov.uk/scheme-what-produced.asp#biographical

Key changes in emphasis are afoot in the passport office, nolonger simply a passport adminstrator - now an identity regulator!

www.passports.gov.uk/general_biometrics.asp

"Until 1 January 2010, people will be given an option to choose not to be issued with an ID card when they receive their passport, although their details will be entered on the National Identity Register (NIR)".

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It's clear glancing at the UK Passports Office, which is now called significantly 'Identiy and Passports Service', that it is through passport issue, renewal and administration that the government will be implementing it's ID card scheme.

From their website - "How the National Identity Scheme will get started
It will take several years for the scheme to come fully into operation and for all eligible citizens to be enrolled. We expect the first cards to be issued from 2008/9. In the early stages of the scheme you will be issued with an ID card if you apply for a first adult passport or renew an existing passport. Later we will begin to issue stand-alone ID cards for people who do not want a passport.

If you are not a British citizen but live in the UK your residence permit, residence card or registration certificate will be in the form of an ID card.

The National Identity Scheme will eventually become compulsory. This means that all UK residents over 16 will need to have an ID card. However, you will not need to carry your ID card with you".

__________

What is particularly shocking is the reasons they give for the introduction of ID Cards and robust security and identity checks here:
www.identitycards.gov.uk/scheme-why.asp

Unfortunately they have forgot to inform us of the following:

How will have access to the National Register - potentially businesses, employers, criminals and sophisticated web hackers selling information on us on.

How easy it will be to produce fraudulant Identity Cards.

Forgetting to mention that a thorough report from the London School of Economics (LSE) has shown that ID cards will doing nothing to prevent terroism, and potentially will increase the risk.

That the introduction of ID cards is about increasing social control over our personal lives, how and what we buy, where we work, and so on.

The implications are horrendous - just thought I'd mention that it is currently being implemented through the backdoor - passports.

[Big Brother]

Actually Mitch, you're wrong - do your research woman for gawd's sake - they do tell us who potentially will be accessing our personal details, and what's more Mitch you'll have the peace of mind of knowing that any company or organisation able to access the National Register will have to be 'ACCREDITED' by the scheme (no doubt for a nice fee to government) - the list is as follows:

Here is just a sample of the types of organisations and businesses we expect to use the scheme in order to check the identity of their customers:

"banks and building societies
Royal Mail and other delivery and courier services
libraries and video/DVD rental companies
mobile and fixed line phone companies and service providers
travel agencies and airlines
universities and colleges of higher education
retailers of all kinds, including internet-based companies
property rental companies
vehicle rental companies.
Many more companies and organisations will use the scheme to check the immigration status of potential employees and to ensure those applying for positions of trust are who they say they are.

Before an organisation can carry out identity checks they will need to be fully accredited by the scheme. Once accredited they will be subject to ongoing audits to make sure they continue to comply with the scheme’s regulations. They will be able to conduct checks on your identity only with your consent. These checks will simply confirm your identity or other known facts, such as your address details, from the NIR. "

[Mitch]

Jeez thanks BB,

On the subject of peace of mind, considering the government has taken millions of pounds from Mobile phone companies to roll out telecommunications masts, might I not assume that the roll out of ID cards and the access to information on people through the National Register might be a rather lucrative venture for the government.

Big companies like mobile phone companies, Tescos, banks and other retailers want personal information on 'consumers' to target/market and potentially exclude - and they'll pay for that information.


Just an idea.

Lurv Mitch x ;D

[Mitch]

I forgot to mention something else I picked up - this was to do with recent clamping down on strict requirements for passport photos, eg.

full face on
background
removal of glasses/headwear and any garments concealing the face in any way
expression

They began clamping down on this fairly recently, so that they could obtain a biometric outline of the individual. It was in effect the beginning of the biometric process. I mention this as I haven't seen it mentioned in any anti-ID literature - and I think it's important to analyse the strategy involved in it's introduction - to learn from it.

The issue of biometric scanning of photo outlines is mentioned in this article.
www.ukinspain.com/News/UKinSpain_News_detail.asp?IdNews=1017&lang=en

Also, what comes across from this article is that a resistance to ID cards needs to be international and co-ordinated. The US got the ball rolling some time ago, and the UK, Germany and Spain particularly are following along with a vengence.

[michele cryer]

Hi Mitch, I've just read your interesting posts. Very well argued!! Thanks for your comments too, BB..

[Mitch]

Cheers, I guess what I was suggesting is the link between US policy on security - a rigorous tightening up with very soon noone being allowed to enter the US without a new e-passport which has stored on it iris eye scans, fingerprints and so on - and how this is driving and putting pressure on other countries to move towards ID cards and e-passports.

Countries that don't follow this line will be penalised by withdrawal of US business investment and interests in that country. US foreign policy and tightened security is I think playing a big part in the push towards extreme social control through ID cards and passports around the worlds.

Governments such as the UK, Spain and Germany are particularly quick to follow along - serving their partners 'Big Business' along the way.

[Mitch]

Has anyone renewed a passport recently. Someone I know has - I've looked at it - and compared it to one done a year ago.

They look very different, on the one done just this month there's a chip on it, but who knows if there's any data or what not on this chip? The person who ordered it didn't have an eye scan or anything.

Also, on this esculating circus in the media and government over the wearing of veils, does anyone see a link between whipping up fear amongst the general public - paving the way for the introduction of ID cards? I do.

Also, Cotty mentioned that what they are leading to is issues around identity checks and visibility - they banned the wearing of headgear, veils and eye glasses on passport photos a couple of years ago.

This pernicious government of ours thinks ahead, and has become expert at whipping up fear.

[michele cryer]

Too right Mitch!!

I watched last night's Tonight with Trevor MacDonald programme with great interest. I think it's despicable that women are being told that they must remove their veil to see Jack Straw at his surgery and that 1 woman has lost her teaching assistant job for refusing to remove her veil when in the same room as a new male member of staff.

I understand some people's concerns regarding the issue of whether or not the women are choosing the wear the veil themselves or feel forced to do so by their husbands, but surely that is something that they must take up within their own community. It is none of ours or anybody else's business what anyone chooses to wear.

The next thing I can predict is men not being allowed to wear kilts outside of Scotland!! ;D

Yes, I do see the parallels between this issue and scaremongering in order to get the public to accept ID cards etc.

You fancy doing a piece about these issues in the next B&PV?

[Mitch]

admin said:

Too right Mitch!!

I watched last night's Tonight with Trevor MacDonald programme with great interest. I think it's despicable that women are being told that they must remove their veil to see Jack Straw at his surgery and that 1 woman has lost her teaching assistant job for refusing to remove her veil when in the same room as a new male member of staff.

I understand some people's concerns regarding the issue of whether or not the women are choosing the wear the veil themselves or feel forced to do so by their husbands, but surely that is something that they must take up within their own community. It is none of ours or anybody else's business what anyone chooses to wear.

The next thing I can predict is men not being allowed to wear kilts outside of Scotland!! ;D

Yes, I do see the parallels between this issue and scaremongering in order to get the public to accept ID cards etc.

You fancy doing a piece about these issues in the next B&PV?

Aye, people have to make up their own minds.

What I'm trying to dig at is the agenda behind the government spotlighting this issue now in the full knowledge that a media circus would commence, and indeed every bloody chauvenist twat, Liberal elite feminist and a rag bag bunch of racist nitwits would seize the opportunity to tell us all what we should think.

My own personal opinion has been with me most of my life - I reject anything that is about power and control over me, (others make up their own minds about what they see as power and control) and that includes for me all religions and indeed systems that preach competition. I've absolutely no interest in either veil wearing or hobbling around in 6 inch heels.

On that article sweets - here's an idea, getting a lot of the women we know to write a paragraph on the subject and pulling it all together in one article. Reckon that would make interesting reading.

taras till Saturday. Lurv Mitch x

PS. In the early days of RAWA - The Revolutionary Women of Afganistan (http://www.rawa.org) they turned power and control on it's head, and used the Burqa as a form of disguise to smuggle people out of Afganistan who were hunted by the Taliban.

It's changed though RAWA since Meena's day - I hear more voices from Liberal feminists in the US coming out of this organisation now, than from the women of Afganistan. They are calling for just women's rights, rather than a change in the system and me, I got problems with that.

byeeeeeee xxxxxxx

[michele cryer]

Hiya Mitch...Fab idea about asking women we know about their opinion on the veil situation and including their replies in the next B&PV!!

I've got plenty of women contacts who I can email, and will see how the replies go...

See ya tomoz,
Michele xx

[Mitch]

Fantastic

You're comparing at the Lets do on Saturday was magic!! The quiz was great fun sweets.

Dammit, we forgot our cameras again!!

byeeeeee Mitch x

[michele cryer]

Thanks Mitch...I did enjoy it, despite my state of anxiety!!! My heart was racing for about 3 hours afterwards, think it's cos me psychiatrist is reducing me meds too quickly!! Will keep you updated.