A meeting about ID Cards was held in Liverpool on 6th January and a group loosely calling itself Liverpool Defy-ID Group was formed. Its going to be convening an organising and planning meeting in a week or so and will be trying to organise direct action on the 28th and longer-term action thereafter. Anyone in Liverpool interested in getting involved can contact me via this discussion group or my email.
Blunkett may have gone but ID Cards are coming unless we stop them. So should we be scared?
The card will carry all your names (you’ll have to disclose them), fingerprints, iris scan, photo, NI number and resident status. The government says it won’t be compulsory to carry the ID Card BUT if the police stop you without it they will be able to take your fingerprints and iris scan and compare them to a national database where your details are stored. They don’t need an ID Card to know who you are.
Other public institutions and private companies (banks, utility companies, credit agencies, employers!) will have the right to consult this database, the National Identity Register. And anyone who’s asked (your employer, doctor, inland revenue etc) must pass on all the information they hold on you to the NIR who can pass it on to who they like. So, for example, if you’re running away from debts and go to your doctor for a prescription where you are will be passed to the credit company who will send in the bailiffs. The government will be doing the bosses’ dirty work.
Everyone will be required to have their fingerprints taken and stored nationally. The police will have the power to check them against those found at crime scenes, even years old. So, if you stayed in a hotel room and left your prints and the next night there was a murder, it could be you being fitted up and facing thirty years to life in prison.
Terrorists need to stay in hotels and hire cars to do their dirty work, so hundreds of thousands of businesses will be required to have identity card readers to catch them out. So every time you buy petrol or a mobile phone, stay in a hotel, rent a flat or lock-up, take a new job or just go about your daily life you will be required to produce your ID Card to prove who you are. All this is justified by “being in the public interest” or for “national security” but it gives banks, employers, doctors, hospitals, the benefits agency, shops, lawyers, travel agents, just about everyone the right to force you to prove who you are and carry out checks that what you are saying is true. And the government will have the power to collect, analyse, distribute and sell this information whenever it feels like it to whoever it likes.
Don’t’ Think It Won’t Affect You
The government is not going to let anyone stay free from the Card. Failure to be scanned and finger-printed will cost a £2500 fine while not reporting a defective card risks a prison sentence. You can’t refuse to register (£2500 fine) or withhold information (£2500) or give false information (2 years in prison) or just not turn up when ordered to (£2500) or ‘forget’ to renew your card (£1000) or tell the authorities you’ve moved (£1000). ID Cards are just the start. Next the state will suggest your genetic profile should be stored on the card (to help out the hospitals, sure!) and that the card should be fitted with RFID (which will allow the card to be detected and scanned at a distance by hidden sensors in public buildings or street lamps). The police, government and MI5 will be able to track us every minute of the day.
We’ll Pay To Be Spied On!
The cost of ID Cards has already risen to £5.5 billion and it’s us that will have to pay for the scheme. The new ‘enhanced’ passport, which will automatically include your appearance on the NIR will cost £85. Just the ID card alone will cost £40 and there’ll be a stiff charge for changing details, renewing or replacing your card (which you must do or be fined). It’s a tax on simply being alive they’ll go on collecting year after year. Some choice!
So What Can We Do?
You can go to the DEFY-ID website and find information, texts for leaflets and ideas about actions you can take (www.defy-id.org.uk). Defy-ID supports the formation of local anti-ID Card groups, so get going! It is organising a day of direct action on January 28th 2005. You could do anything from leafleting, blockades, sit-downs and street theatre. The website has loads of ideas for actions and suggestions about targets for action, companies and organisations involved with or profiting from ID card legislation, with their locations around the country. People and communities who just want to live ordinary lives in relative freedom need to start organising, now!
WE BEAT THE POLL TAX, WE CAN BEAT THIS TOO. LET’S DO IT!
The card will carry all your names (you’ll have to disclose them), fingerprints, iris scan, photo, NI number and resident status. The government says it won’t be compulsory to carry the ID Card BUT if the police stop you without it they will be able to take your fingerprints and iris scan and compare them to a national database where your details are stored. They don’t need an ID Card to know who you are.
Other public institutions and private companies (banks, utility companies, credit agencies, employers!) will have the right to consult this database, the National Identity Register. And anyone who’s asked (your employer, doctor, inland revenue etc) must pass on all the information they hold on you to the NIR who can pass it on to who they like. So, for example, if you’re running away from debts and go to your doctor for a prescription where you are will be passed to the credit company who will send in the bailiffs. The government will be doing the bosses’ dirty work.
Everyone will be required to have their fingerprints taken and stored nationally. The police will have the power to check them against those found at crime scenes, even years old. So, if you stayed in a hotel room and left your prints and the next night there was a murder, it could be you being fitted up and facing thirty years to life in prison.
Terrorists need to stay in hotels and hire cars to do their dirty work, so hundreds of thousands of businesses will be required to have identity card readers to catch them out. So every time you buy petrol or a mobile phone, stay in a hotel, rent a flat or lock-up, take a new job or just go about your daily life you will be required to produce your ID Card to prove who you are. All this is justified by “being in the public interest” or for “national security” but it gives banks, employers, doctors, hospitals, the benefits agency, shops, lawyers, travel agents, just about everyone the right to force you to prove who you are and carry out checks that what you are saying is true. And the government will have the power to collect, analyse, distribute and sell this information whenever it feels like it to whoever it likes.
Don’t’ Think It Won’t Affect You
The government is not going to let anyone stay free from the Card. Failure to be scanned and finger-printed will cost a £2500 fine while not reporting a defective card risks a prison sentence. You can’t refuse to register (£2500 fine) or withhold information (£2500) or give false information (2 years in prison) or just not turn up when ordered to (£2500) or ‘forget’ to renew your card (£1000) or tell the authorities you’ve moved (£1000). ID Cards are just the start. Next the state will suggest your genetic profile should be stored on the card (to help out the hospitals, sure!) and that the card should be fitted with RFID (which will allow the card to be detected and scanned at a distance by hidden sensors in public buildings or street lamps). The police, government and MI5 will be able to track us every minute of the day.
We’ll Pay To Be Spied On!
The cost of ID Cards has already risen to £5.5 billion and it’s us that will have to pay for the scheme. The new ‘enhanced’ passport, which will automatically include your appearance on the NIR will cost £85. Just the ID card alone will cost £40 and there’ll be a stiff charge for changing details, renewing or replacing your card (which you must do or be fined). It’s a tax on simply being alive they’ll go on collecting year after year. Some choice!
So What Can We Do?
You can go to the DEFY-ID website and find information, texts for leaflets and ideas about actions you can take (www.defy-id.org.uk). Defy-ID supports the formation of local anti-ID Card groups, so get going! It is organising a day of direct action on January 28th 2005. You could do anything from leafleting, blockades, sit-downs and street theatre. The website has loads of ideas for actions and suggestions about targets for action, companies and organisations involved with or profiting from ID card legislation, with their locations around the country. People and communities who just want to live ordinary lives in relative freedom need to start organising, now!
WE BEAT THE POLL TAX, WE CAN BEAT THIS TOO. LET’S DO IT!
e-mail: