NO2ID News No. 97

8 May 2008

+ ASK YOUR NEW COUNCILLORS THEIR VIEWS ON THE DATABASE STATE +

Last week's local elections mean that hundreds of new local councillors have been appointed throughout England & Wales. Now is the time to check who your new councillors are and to write to them to ask them their views on the database state. Ask them to look into the implications of the ID scheme and data-sharing for council budgets and the privacy of their constituents. The latest cost reports issued by the government reveal that the Home Office are looking for ways to shift the costs of the ID scheme onto others (see the �What's Just Happened� section below for more details).

Remind them that decisions at a local level can affect national policies and that they are often the front line of defence as regards our civil liberties. Point out to them the many motions of non co-operation with the government's ID scheme passed by councils and devolved parliaments around the country[1]. By raising awareness of these issues at a local level we can begin a wider debate not dominated by the mainstream national news agenda. Local campaigning is a vital tool in our fight against the database state.

Notes:
[1] http://www.no2id.net/resources/motions/index.php

What's next?

+ 12th May - BioCentre event:Privacy & Surveillance:Monitoring Humans and Monitoring Human Rights? +
Monday, 12th May 3-5pm at House of Lords, Westminster. As we all become more familiar with the 'online' lifestyle, matters of security become more important. When we do venture outside, the number of surveillance cameras monitoring our every move evokes questions over the emergence of a 'Big Brother' state. RSVPs are required. Please include your name and the organisation that you represent in your response. There is no charge for the event. To RSVP: email info@bioethics.ac.uk or call 0207 227 470. More info at: http://www.bioethics.ac.uk/index.php?do=events&rid=150

Local groups news

We now have local groups in 44 of the 69 proposed locations for interrogation centres - of which just 3 have yet to open. Parliamentary answers indicate that the most active centres are: Belfast, Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Newport, Peterborough and Sheffield.

For information on your nearest interrogation centre, see www.no2id.net/getInvolved/idCentres.php. If you can help set up a local group in one of the remaining locations, or anywhere else in the UK, please contact Matty on local.groups@no2id.net

+ Bristol +

10th May � Bristol NO2ID Street Stall
Saturday, 10th May 1pm at the fountains at St Augustine's Parade.

+ Cambridge +

10th May - NO2ID Cambridge Stall
Saturday, 10th May at 10am in the usual spot outside Cambridge Guildhall. Location Map: http://tinyurl.com/eo42r. As ever, volunteers to help very welcome - please email cambridge@no2id.net, or text/call Andrew on 07710 469624 if you can make it.

7th June - NO2ID Stall at Cambridge Strawberry Fair
Saturday 7th June, volunteers needed to man the stall for 2 hour shifts from 10am until 6pm: please contact cambridge@no2id.net, or text/call Andrew Watson on 07710 469624. We signed up 700 supporters last year - we'd like to improve on that number this year. (Strawberry Fair info: http://www.strawberry-fair.org.uk)

+ Canterbury +

15th May - Canterbury NO2ID Awareness Gig
Thursday, 15th May at The Foundry, White Horse Lane, Canterbury. Snuff Radio and Tau Ceti will be playing in support of NO2ID. Doors at 7pm, entry til 11pm, bar til 2am. There'll be a stall with information available and petitions and pledges to sign. Donations welcome. Free Entry. For more details call 07792 567087 or e-mail canterbury@no2id.net

14th June - Canterbury NO2ID Street Stall
Saturday 14th June - Next Canterbury NO2ID High St Stall. Please get in touch if you are happy to help out (canterbury@no2id.net).

+ Dorking +

We have had our third stall and total signatories on the petition against ID Cards are now 500 (including two councillors). Unfortunately the ID questionnaires to local election candidates were ignored by all parties except UKIP (who were all strongly opposed to ID Cards). The others evidently still see this as a national rather than local issue. This will not stop us pushing the Council to pass a motion of non-cooperation with ID Cards. There will be an ID Question Time public meeting in September or October � more details to follow. Finally, we are putting together a 20 minute presentation for schools and other groups.

3rd June � Dorking NO2ID Meeting (every 1st Tuesday of month)
Tuesday, 3rd June 7.30pm at The Barn, The Old House at Home pub, West Street, Dorking. All welcome.

+ Edinburgh +

The speaker at the latest Edinburgh Group meeting was MSP Iain Smith. He said that NO2ID should emphasize the dangers of the database rather than the ID card per se and he advocated evidence-based law-making, asking for evidence for 42 days' detention and evidence that ID cards would have the benefits claimed by the Home Office.

Saturdays 1pm - 3pm - NO2ID Edinburgh street stall
Every week, weather permitting, you will find our campaigning stall at the east end of Princes Street, opposite the Balmoral Hotel. Do drop by for a chat. New volunteers - please contact John(edinburgh@no2id.net), and for more group information see http://www.no2id-scotland.net/edinburgh/

+ Glasgow +

Most Saturdays 2pm - NO2ID Glasgow Street Stall
Most Saturdays there are stalls in Glasgow city centre (usually Buchanan Street) from about 2pm. Volunteers are always welcome, please contact Geraint if you would like to help: glasgow@no2id.net

+ Leeds +

The Leeds Branch of the Academic University and Colleagues Union (UCU) has passed a motion opposing the introduction of ID cards and agreeing to support the Leeds branch of NO2ID. They will now be putting forward a proposal for the Union to affiliate to NO2ID at their National Congress at the end of May.

10th May � Leeds NO2ID Street Stall
Saturday, 10th May 1pm. The street stall this week will move to outside the art gallery, for a change of scene and hopefully a new 'crowd'.

21st May � Leeds NO2ID public meeting - "Identity Crisis"
Wednesday, 21st May 7pm at Leeds University Union Conference Hall, Lvl 2 Union
Building, University of Leeds Campus. There will be 4 speakers, and subjects include a history of ID cards and a talk on the DNA database. Everyone welcome, refreshments will be available. For further details contact leeds@no2id.net

+ Manchester +

10th May - Manchester NO2ID Street Stall
Saturday, 10th May 2pm-4pm in St. Ann's Square. We'll meet in the square itself at 2pm to set up shop; feel free to join us to lend a hand or just chat. You don't need any experience or equipment, just a bit of time to spare and a friendly smile!

14th May - Manchester NO2ID meeting
Wednesday, 14th May 7pm-9pm 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 (manchester@no2id.net).

+ Oxford +

17th May - NO2ID at Levellers Day
Saturday, 17th May we are going to be helping to run a stall at Levellers Day in Burford (http://www.levellers.org.uk/). If you'd like to lend a hand with this, please contact oxford@no2id.net

+ Selby +

First street stall in Selby took place on May 5th, 90 signatures taken, thanks to all who came to help.

13th May � Panel Discussion at York St John College
Tuesday, 13th May 6pm at at York St John College, NO2IS Selby will be taking part in a panel discussion/ debate. All welcome.

20th May � Selby NO2ID Meeting
Tuesday, 20th May, time and venue to be confirmed.

+ Shrewsbury +

19th May - Shrewsbury NO2ID pub meeting
Monday, 19th May at 8.15pm at the Armoury, Victoria Quay, Victoria Avenue, Welsh Bridge, Shrewsbury, SY1 1HH(www.armoury-shrewsbury.co.uk) at 8.15pm. Look for a table with NO2ID leaflets scattered around it. The car parks behind the Armoury are free of charge after 8pm.

+ Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells +

We have just formed a new steering committee to cope with increased activity after phenomenal growth of support over the past twelve months. Heroic efforts to get local Labour to participate in a debate have resulted only in Labour contacts disappearing in a cloud of dust - even where the offer was for us to debate strictly "in Labour forums" not even open to the public. Anybody who knows of Labour activists in the Tunbridge Wells area who would be willing to participate in a debate are invited to email tunbridge.wells@no2id.net. We - at least - are not frightened of a debate.

10th May and 31st May � Tunbridge Wells NO2ID Street Stall
Saturday, 10th & 31st May. If you are able to help at either (or both!) of these then please email tunbridge.wells@no2id.net

What just happened?

+ Cost report claims ID scheme price cut +

This week the government released its 4th "Identity Cards Scheme Cost Report" , also known as the Dobson Report after the amendment to the ID cards act introduced by Frank Dobson MP. The report claims that the cost of the scheme has gone down by £1bn. However upon closer investigation it becomes clear that this is not quite true. The government intends simply to transfer some of the costs from their headline figures to other players such as the private sector. What they don't factor in is the ways in which the private sector are likely to pass those costs on to consumers. The report also reveals that the cost of enrolling people on to the National Identity Register has increased by 60% but apparently this wont affect the cost of an ID card (still priced at around £30 for UK citizens) as "these costs will be fully recovered through charges to the foreign nationals to whom cards are issued". Clearly the government knows that the cost of ID cards is still one of the most popular objections to the scheme. We need to keep publicising the impact on citizens' freedoms as well as cost.
The report can be downloaded at http://www.ips.gov.uk/identity/downloads/IPS-Identity-Cards-Scheme-Cost-Report-May2008.pdf

+ ID panel report criticises scheme � sort of +

This week the Identity and Passport Service released a report snappily entitled 'The Independent Scheme Assurance Panel report on IPS's work under way to deliver the National Identity Scheme'. The five member 'Panel' is made up of bankers and mobile phone chiefs who met during 2007 to lay out their views on the scheme. The resulting report is an odd mix of stating the obvious and meaningless management speak. For instance they advise "that the Scheme would benefit from a robust and transparent operational data governance regime and a clear data architecture". Some sentences make excellent bedtime reading, for instance try to stay awake until the end of this corker: "The Panel feels that a prerequisite of cross-Government adoption of the Scheme is a strategy for harmonising technical and usage standards for identity management across Government and achieving the cooperation of separate Government departments". Ultimately the report is critical of the ID scheme, perhaps their long winded style of guarded criticisms is due to the fact that they were appointed and funded by the government.
Insomniacs can read the report at: http://www.ips.gov.uk/identity/downloads/ISAP_Annual_Report.pdf

+ Report says passport chip scanning not in demand +

The Identity and Passport Service (IPS) made it a hat-trick of ID scheme reports this week when they released their 'Report on key projects implemented in 2007'. This is a self congratulatory review of IPS projects, their objectives and what they delivered. For instance on 'Authentication by Interview' (AbI), their plans to interview all first time passport applicants, they state: "IPS made a decision to implement a more cautious test and rollout plan with an additional user acceptance phase, additional customer experience tests and live pilots". Which of course means - "it's late". Also in the report are details of the 'ePassport Public Reader project' - a facility at regional offices for ePassport holders to check the data on the chip inside their passport to ensure the government hasn't sneaked any extra data in there. The report says "public interest was limited" and that "between April and December 2007 around 24,000 customers used the reader". It doesn't of course spot that most people apply for their passport by post rather than going to a passport office and that might have something to do with the low number of people even aware of the chip scanning facility.
Read the report at: http://www.ips.gov.uk/identity/downloads/IPS-report-on-key-projects-implemented-2007.pdf

+ Selby NO2ID song is hit on youtube +

The 'Say NO2ID' music video produced by Selby NO2ID has reached almost 1500 viewings on youtube. If anyone wants a copy on CD to use (better quality than on Youtube), email selby@no2id.net for more details.
The video is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9HsnIGuHQQ

"ID" in the news

+ ID scheme hit for shifting cost to citizens - FT 7/5/08 +
The Home Office on Tuesday faced claims of �creative accounting� as it pledged to cut nearly £1bn ($2bn) from the cost of the identity card scheme.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/83d8c908-1bc3-11dd-9e58-0000779fd2ac.html

+ Government begins to ponder how to keep our ID data safe - The Inquirer 7/5/08 +
The Identity and Passport Service is still working out how it will avoid embarrassing and harmful losses of personal data from its Identity Cards Scheme even as it finalises tender negotiations with suppliers.
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/05/07/gov-thinks-thinking-id-risks

+ Home Secretary Responds to Citizens' Questions � eGov monitor 6/5/08 +
Jacqui Smith MP the Home Secretary engages with citizens online as she answered questions on a wide range of topics ranging from ID cards,counter terror strategy to community strategies to tackle crime as well as simple public service queries.
http://www.egovmonitor.com/node/18615

+ NHS staff dub e-records 'clunky' � BBC News Online 5/5/08 +
The initial experience of electronic patient records is of "clunky" and "immature" technology, a study finds. A team from University College London evaluated four out of six English pilot sites which have been running the schemes over the last year.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7380567.stm

+ Italy posts income details on web � BBC News online 1/5/08 +
There has been outrage in Italy after the outgoing government published every Italian's declared earnings and tax contributions on the internet.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7376608.stm

+ Mayoral candidates talk IT ahead of polls � Computing 30/4/08 +
Livingstone, who instigated the £117m iBus GPS tracking system, said the scheme will be rolled out to more routes in London. �We are marvelling at the multiple possibilities of Oyster, but come back here in 10 years� time and we will have chips inserted under our skin or inside our heads,� he said.
http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2215579/mayoral-candidates-talk-ahead-3976725

+ Face scans for air passengers will start in the UK this summer � Daily Mail 25/4/08 +
Airline passengers are to undergo facial scans at a British airport for the first time. In a trial set for this summer, hi-tech gates will scan travellers' faces and compare the image with their biometric passport.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=561866&in_page_id=1770

(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.
Newsletter Archive