NO2ID News No. 51

3 August 2006

LOCAL GROUPS NEEDED NEAR ALL 69 NEW PASSPORT PROCESSING CENTRES

The government's combined ID card/Biometric passport scheme is still rolling along with the announcement last week of an almost 30% passport price hike (�51 to �66) from October 5th. This will be the second price increase in under a year - representing a 57% increase since November 2005. From October the UK Identity and Passport Service (UKIPS) will also be introducing face-to-face interviews for first-time adult applicants at a network of some 69 processing centres across the country. These processing centres will form part of the network eventually intended to enrol the entire population onto the National Identity Register (NIR). To campaign effectively against ID cards and the National Identity Register it is essential that we have local groups in each of the 69 towns that will host these centres. Below is a list of the location of all 69 centres. If you live in one of these locations and there is not currently a local NO2ID group in your area then please consider helping us by setting up a local group.

The 69 passport centres will be in:

Aberdeen, Aberystwyth, Andover, Armagh, Barnstaple, Belfast, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Birmingham, Blackburn, Boston, Bournemouth, Bristol,
Bury St Edmunds, Camborne, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Cheltenham, Coleraine, Crawley, Derby, Dover, Dumfries, Dundee, Edinburgh,
Exeter, Galashiels, Glasgow, Hastings, Hull, Inverness, Ipswich, Kendal, Kilmarnock, Kings Lynn, Leeds, Leicester,
Lincoln, Liverpool, London, Luton, Maidstone, Manchester, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Newport, Newport, Northallerton, Northampton,
Norwich, Oban, Omagh, Oxford, Peterborough, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Reading, Scarborough, Sheffield, Shrewsbury, St Austell,
Stirling, Stoke on Trent, Swansea, Swindon, Warwick, Wick, Wrexham, Yeovil, York.

If you can set up a local group in one of these towns then please contact us at (office@no2id.net). A local group can start with just one person but we will help you to grow.

What's next?

NO2ID Beermats

Newcastle NO2ID have a few hundred NO2ID beermats for sale at �15 per 100 including postage and packing - send cheques made payable to NO2ID to North House, 17 North Street East, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8DF.

New Local Group in Chesterfield

We now have a local group in Chesterfield in the East Midlands, for more information contact Vincent Smile at (chesterfield@no2id.net). A full list of groups can be found at www.no2id.net/localGroups

Parliamentary Committee Report - 4th August

The Select Committee on Science and Technology will tomorrow (4th August) publish its report on 'Identity Card Technologies: Scientific Advice, Risk and Evidence'. The report is expected to be critical of the government's ID card scheme because not enough details have been released.
The report will be available from www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmsctech.htm

5th August - Leeds NO2ID at Unity Day event

Saturday, 5th August in Hyde Park, Leeds at the annual unity day event. Feel free to join us there if you'd like to pick up some leaflets to hand out in your locality, and for a get together chat over a cold lemonade. If you've never been to Unity day, it's a great event, with live music,
circus skills, kids events, loads of stalls and stands etc. More info here: http://www.unityday.freeserve.co.uk/

8th August - Glasgow NO2ID Meeting

Tuesday 8th August at 7:30pm in Mono. If Mono is unsuitable on the night, we will instead go to Laurie's across the road. More details at (www.glasgow-no2id.org.uk/meeting.html). All are welcome!

9th August - Manchester NO2ID - Victoria Station Flyering

Wednesday 9th August, 5:30pm at Victoria Station. NO2ID will be flyering at Manchester's third mainline station, for an hour or so. See http://manchester.no2id.net for more information.

12th August - Manchester NO2ID - Salford Day of ID Register Opposition

Saturday, 12th August, 12:30pm at Salford's Broadwalk Library for a 1pm start (look for NO2ID T-shirts). We'll be spending a Saturday afternoon raising awareness in Salford. We'll be splitting into groups of two or three people and targetting the entrances to Salford's shopping centre.

16th August - Manchester NO2ID Meeting

Wednesday 16th August, 7:30pm in Room 3 of the Friends Meeting House on Mount Street, on the far side of the library from St. Peter's Square. At the meeting, we will discuss the progress of the Manchester NO2ID campaign and future events we can undertake to spread the word. You can see our previous minutes at http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/manchester/2006/07/345975.html and an agenda for the meeting should be published in advance. Everyone is welcome to this meeting, which will conclude by 9pm.

14th August - "Scrambling for Safety 8" meeting about internet surveillance

Monday 14 August 2006, at the Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre, South Wing, UCL, Gower St, London WC1. The UK Home Office is currently consulting over plans to give the police powers to require the production of decryption keys and of plain text. They have also produced a draft code of practice on government access to "communications data" - phone numbers and e-mail addresses contacted, web sites visited, locations of mobile phones, etc. 'Scrambling for Safety 8' will bring together representatives from government, industry and human rights organisations to discuss these consultations with interested members of the public. This is the only such meeting during the consultation period, it is free to attend but space is limited. For more details go to (http://tinyurl.co.uk/2utt). Come along and make sure your voice is heard!

August - Inverness NO2ID Campaign stall

NO2ID Inverness will have a campaign stall at various locations in and around Inverness throughout August:
11 August Tain Gathering, 12 August Inverness High Street, 13 August Abernethy Games
20 August Nairn Games, 21 August Crieff Games, 26 August Inverness High Street
27 August Glenurquhart Gathering, Drumnadrochit, 3 & 4 Sept Glamis Castle Country Fair
See http://www.no2id-scotland.net/local/inverness.html

August & September NO2ID Cambridge Campaign stall

Cambridge NO2ID will be running street stalls outside the Guildhall, Cambridge, on the following dates, from 10am onwards: Saturday 12th August, Saturday 2nd September, Saturday 23rd September. Location:(http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=cb2 3qj&ie=UTF8&ll=52.204786,0.119251&spn=0.003971,0.012167&om=1). Drop round to collect a badge and car sticker, or just to say "Hello". Volunteers to help run the stall also welcome. Contact Andrew Watson via cambridge@no2id.net, or on 07710 469624.

12th September NO2ID Volunteers Meeting Central London - 'The European Dimension'

Tuesday, 12th September at 7.00pm in the Brockway Hall at Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1 (nearest tube: Holborn). All are welcome to NO2ID's next regular volunteers' meeting. The meeting will be on the theme of ID cards and the EU. The meeting is free to attend but we will be asking for donations to help cover the cost of the room hire.

Saturdays 1pm - 3pm - NO2ID Edinburgh Campaign stall

A campaigning stall is held three weeks in each month to raise public awareness of the Identity Cards scheme, collect donations and entries for our petition, and also to increase membership of our group. The usual location is the east end of Princes Street, opposite the Balmoral Hotel See http://www.no2id-scotland.net/edinburgh/.

1st October - NO2ID Comedy fund raiser gig - "Who do you think you are?" at the Hackney Empire

Tickets will be available soon for NO2ID's comedy event. Acts include: Stewart Lee, Richard Herring, Andrew O'Neil and Lucy Porter.

What just happened?

Cambridge NO2ID news

Andrew Watson of NO2ID Cambridge reports:
Cambridge NO2ID kicked off the summer campaigning season with a stall at Cambridge's Strawberry Fair on 3rd June, signing up 785 new NO2ID supporters in a single day. Photos of the stall are here: (http://www.gnutters.org/no2id/). Since then, we've been holding a street stall every third Saturday in the city centre to collect more supporters and publicise the "Renew for Freedom" campaign.

NO2ID Edinburgh and its non-partisan meetings

John Welford of NO2ID Edinburgh reports:
Here in Edinburgh we have this year been diligently putting into practice the NO2ID claim to be a non-partisan campaign. Back in December we fired off six emails to representatives of the main political parties in the Scottish Parliament, inviting them to find an MSP willing to come and speak at one of our future meetings. So far this has resulted in three excellent speakers and three excellent meetings, with MSPs from the Scottish Greens, SNP and the Scottish Socialists.

This exercise has been much more encouraging than might have been anticipated. For although all the speakers obviously arrive with their own distinctive and quite differing political agendas, it has been thoroughly heartening to observe in practice just how middle-of-the-road the NO2ID position currently is across the broad political spectrum - and indeed how strongly supported it is. Other groups might like to try something similar.

At the same time it cannot be denied that some individuals will at times be uncomfortable with our non-partisan position, and will not initially be very keen on listening to someone coming from an opposing political position. But in practice such a disadvantage is heavily outweighed by the many advantages, and it is clear that our non-partisan position is giving us a considerable "strength in numbers" which should be grasped with enthusiasm.

Finally, we have tried repeatedly to encourage a Labour MSP to attend a meeting, but they seem to be remarkably shy creatures these days. We have not given up hope entirely...
See www.no2id-scotland.net/edinburgh/

Blair brands single issue pressure groups "a malign tyranny"

Last week Tony Blair addressed Rupert Murdoch's News Corps in Pebble Beach, California. Blair's speech about leadership laid out his thinking on world affairs and the forces that leaders like him must fight. Blair said: "NGOs and pressure groups with single causes can be benevolent but can also exercise a kind of malign tyranny over the public debate." What led him to this conclusion? Perhaps its his surprise at fact that not everyone shares his vision of a numbered, fingerprinted and surveilled society. Blair hinted at his thinking when he said: "It is, to me at least, almost incredible that the proposal to introduce an identity register in the UK should be so extraordinarily controversial. But it is." Yes it is, in fact some people believe that Blair's vision is, well, a malign tyranny.

EU proposals to allow the fingerprinting of children at birth

Statewatch last week reported details of EU Council discussions regarding what age the fingerprints of children can be compulsorily taken for EU passports. A report from the EU Council Presidency at the end of June (EU doc no: 9403/1/06) states that: "Scientific tests have confirmed that the papillary ridges on the fingers are not sufficiently developed to allow biometric capture and analysis until the age of six." However the document goes on to propose that fingerprinting and storage of a digital facial image (for use with facial recognition systems) should be compulsory from 12 years of age but below that age it states: "storage is permissible if provided for by national legislation". Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, said: "The decisions are being made in secret meetings based on secret documents - people and parliaments are to have no say in the decision." This is once again an example of policy laundering. Decisions are being made by an EU committee composed of representatives of the 25 EU governments. These decisions are then touted by the governments as "international obligations" or the like.
For more details see www.statewatch.org/news/2006/jul/08fingerprinting-children.htm

Dutch Campaign

The Dutch anti-ID campaign MMI is urging people to renew passports and/or IDs before 18 August. The Netherlands will be introducing chips into passports and IDs from 26 Aug. MMI%u2019s special campaign page on this ) includes a link to Renew for Freedom and the following:

"Because passports and identity cards are also used as an internal passport in order to gain access to work, healthcare, education, social benefits and so on, anyone who objects as a matter of principle [to having their biometrics taken] will be under threat of exclusion from society. That also breaches international treaties.

Because of the big financial and political interests involved, the authorities are unlikely to provide any leeway for conscientious objectors. So we will have to do that ourselves, also as a way of supporting each other. The best way of doing this seems to be to set up a foundation which, independently of the authorities, will look after the interests of conscientious objectors."

In Britain, the government is trying to bring in a national identity card with biometrics, a personal number and a central database. The campaign group NO2ID, which is fighting these plans, is working on a fund for opponents and for those who may be prosecuted in future for refusing to comply. We can do the same in the Netherlands."

See www.id-nee.nl/English.html and www.id-nee.nl/paspoortaktietegenchip.html (in dutch)

Poll shows majority against ID cards

An ICM poll commissioned by NO2ID in July shows a majority of people opposed to the introduction of ID cards. NO2ID has commissioned ICM to ask the same question at various points over the last year. The latest poll shows that 47% of the 1002 people asked think the introduction of ID cards would be a good idea, 51% think they would be a bad idea. The same poll in February showed 52% in favour, 45% against and in November last year 50% in favour and 48% against.
The full data set and question asked can be found at http://tinyurl.co.uk/h29w

US: New documentary looks at ID cards

Hollywood producer Aaron Russo released a new documentary 'America: >From Freedom to Fascism' in the US last week. Russo produced hits such as 'Trading Places' and 'The Rose' but has now turned his hand to documentary making. Amongst other things the film looks at ID cards and the surveillance society.
See http://www.freedomtofascism.com and an extended trailer at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1616088001333580937

"ID" in the news

ID cards 'in Labour's manifesto' - BBC News Online 3/8/06

Prime Minister Tony Blair has insisted that identity cards will form a "major plank" of the Labour Party manifesto at the next General Election. Mr Blair's pledge, which comes despite the fact he will step down before then, was made in his monthly news briefing. He was responding to recent delays in the identity card scheme.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5242300.stm

False ID %u2018escalating%u2019 among under-18s - Morning Advertiser.co.uk 2/8/06

A leading bar operator has warned that the use of false ID cards is escalating. Ultimate Leisure executive chairman Mark Jones said: "It has increased dramatically since the new Licensing Act came in. We are having to ID virtually everyone before we allow them into our premises."
http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/news_detail.aspx?articleid=17998

Gordon Brown will drop ID cards scheme, PAC chairman predicts - Public Servant 31/7/06

The Labour Party would face 15 years of damaging Commons%u2019 criticism if it pushed ahead with the controversial national identity cards programme, writes Dean Carroll. Chairman of the public accounts committee (PAC) Edward Leigh told Public Servant he thought Gordon Brown would drop the scheme when he became Prime Minister.
http://www.publicservant.co.uk/news_story.asp?id=290

State snoopers compiling sinister photo database of your home

Conservatives today sounded the alarm at a new database of every home in the country being rolled out by stealth by Government inspectors. Every man, women and child %u2013 and the home they live in %u2013 will soon be logged and recorded by the state, with photos to match.
http://www.conservatives.com/tile.do?def=news.press.release.page&obj_id=131203

Ivorian ID scheme sparks clashes - BBC News Online 23/7/06

In Ivory Coast at least one person has been killed and several injured in the southern town of Divo. The clashes were sparked by a UN-backed ID scheme, part of preparations for presidential elections later this year. The scheme will issue identification cards to some 3.5m unregistered people to enable them to vote.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/5208776.stm

Fingerprint security at day nursery - Northampton Today 21/7/06

A nursery in Northamptonshire has installed a hi-tech fingerprint entry system to create an even safer environment at the centre. Hardingstone Day Nursery is using sophisticated technology, usually seen in military bases and government buildings, to admit parents and carers on to its premises as part of a �7,000 package of security measures to protect staff and children.
http://www.northamptontoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=255&ArticleID=1643669

Biometric passports can be scanned from 20 metres - NewsRoom Finland 20/7/06

Finnish daily Keskisuomalainen cited tests carried out in the US showing that the data contained in biometric passports, to be introduced in Finland in August, can be hijacked from a distance of up to 20 metres. It was discovered in the US test that the data could be read by an unauthorised third party when the chip in a passport was being scanned by an official agent. Kari Rajam�ki (soc dem), the Finnish interior minister, told reporters that any potential data security issues would be addressed. "If there are any problems with the Finnish passport [type], then they will certainly be addressed," he said.
http://newsroom.finland.fi/stt/showarticle.asp?intNWSAID=13204&group=General

(Please send me any items of interest you encounter - Editor(newsletter@no2id.net) )

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