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NO2ID Supporters' Newsletter No. 54 - 14th September 2006
Contacting us: Call or email the office - 020-7793-4005 or
(office@no2id.net).
Please do not reply to this email. (The from address
is the not a working email address)
HELP US FIND THE PASSPORT INTERROGATION CENTRES
As we have reported over the last few weeks the government are planning
to begin face to face interviews for first time passport applicant from
autumn of this year. The project named 'Authentication by Interview'
(AbI) was due to launch in October, though UK Identity and Passport
Service (UKIPS) literature is now talking of "from late 2006"[1]. To
facilitate this new program they will be opening 69 interrogation
centres around the country. Eventually many more will be opened and by
2009 face-to-face interviews will be compulsory for all passport
applicants, even renewals, as part of the ID card programme. UKIPS have
announced the towns and cities where these 69 offices are to be
located[2] but the specific properties have still not been revealed.
The contract to set up a new network of passport offices was won by
Mapeley (the controversial property company that bought the offices off
the Inland Revenue in a controversial outsourcing deal five years
ago)[3].
Can you help us locate the 69 centres? Has there been a story in your
local paper or a planning application notice? If you have any
information about the exact address of one of the interrogation centres
then please contact us at (office@no2id.net).
Over the coming months these centres will be a focus of our campaigning
against the ID card scheme. NO2ID has now set up local groups in 27 of
the 69 locations and many of these groups have already brought the
issue to the attention of the local media[4]. If you live in one of the
locations that we do not yet have a group[5] then please consider
setting one up (contact us at office@no2id.net).
References:
[1] http://www.passport.gov.uk/downloads/Passport-Interview-Network-May2006_new.pdf
[2] Map of centres - http://images.thetimes.co.uk/TGD/picture/0,,295266,00.jpg
[3] See 'Passport offices deal won by Mapeley' in Newsletter 41
[4] 'ID office Big Brother fear' - http://tinyurl.co.uk/bfag
[5] The remaining locations are: Aberdeen, Andover, Armagh,
Berwick-upon-Tweed, Blackburn, Boston, Bury St Edmunds, Camborne,
Chelmsford, Cheltenham, Crawley, Derby, Dover, Dumfries, Exeter,
Galashiels, Hastings, Ipswich, Kendal, Kilmarnock, Kings Lynn, Lincoln,
Liverpool, Luton, Maidstone, Middlesbrough, Newport, Northallerton,
Northampton, Norwich, Oban, Omagh, Peterborough, Scarborough,
Shrewsbury, St Austell, Stirling, Stoke on Trent, Warwick, Wick,
Wrexham, Yeovil.
What's next?
Stop Press: Finalised comedy fundraiser line up
The full line up for the NO2ID comedy benefit event (1st October) has
now been announced: Dara O'Briain will headline and Daniel Kitson will
MC. Full details below.
New Local Groups
We have new local groups in two of the regions earmarked for passport
interrogation centres - Swansea in Wales and Coleraine in Northern
Ireland. The groups can be contacted at swansea@no2id.net and coleraine@no2id.net respectively. We still
need many more local groups particularly in the locations of the
passport interrogation centres that are opening this autumn (we now
have groups in 27 out of 69 locations). A full list of local groups can
be found at www.no2id.net/localGroups/index.php.
Party conference season - Volunteers required
We need volunteers to help at the forthcoming party conferences in
Manchester (Labour 24th-28th Sept), Bournemouth (Tory 1st-4th Oct), and
Brighton (LibDem 16th-21st Sept) and Hove (Green 21st-24th Sept). We
also intend to cover Telford(UKIP 7th-8th October), Perth (Scottish
National Party 11th-14th Oct)
and Swansea (Plaid Cymru 21st-24th Sept). Presence is
important. Even a couple hours handing out leaflets to delegates is
well worth while. In Manchester, there will be much more fun. Contact
us at office@no2id.net if you can spare
some time.
Mass Lone Protest
A few NO2ID members went to the last Mass Lone Protest on Parliament
Square a week or two back. There will be another one on Friday 22
September. Basically the protest is a ridiculing / challenge to the
SOCPA law that prohibits protest on Parliament Square and the
surrounding area. But these protests give individuals the chance of
expressing exactly what they want to express. You could, for example,
denounce the need for fatter wallets upon the introduction of ID Cards,
or something a lot more serious, such as the severe invasion of privacy
or the infringement of civil liberties. Check the website of Mark
Thomas (comedian and activist) for details, or read the previous
Guardian articles tell your mates and come down for one of the
strangest protests you'll ever see! For all the necessary forms and
stuff, drop and email to guyt@mac.hush.com
See: Mark Thomas: www.markthomasinfo.com
Guardian article: http://arts.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1857181,00.html
18th, 19th & 21st September - Manchester University Freshers Fair
Monday 18th, Tuesday 19th & Thursday 21st September, 10pm - 4pm at
the Fresher's Fair at the
Manchester Academy (and the Underground on the Sackville Street campus
on the Monday). Manchester NO2ID will be helping to advertise a new
University society opposed to the National ID Register, and need
volunteers to take signatures and hand out flyers. Please e-mail Dave
Page (manchester@no2id.net)or join
the Manchester NO2ID mailing list if
you're able to help out! (See http://manchester.no2id.net)
20th September - Manchester NO2ID Flyering
Wednesday 20th September, 5:30pm - 6:30pm at Victoria Station. The
Fortnightly Flyering takes on the elegant surroundings of Manchester
Victoria station!
24th -28th September - Manchester NO2ID - Labour Party Conference 2006
Sunday 24th - Thursday 28th September. New Labour, the blinkered
authoritarians behind the National Identity Register, will be holding
their Party Conference in Manchester. Tens of thousands of Mancunians
have already been subject to expensive and inaccurate Criminal Records
Bureau checks, but we'll make sure that New Labour get the message from
Manchester NO2ID that their plans are expensive, invasive and flawed!
Details to be announced closer to the time, keep an eye on the
Manchester NO2ID mailing list for up-to-the-minute information. (See http://manchester.no2id.net)
NO2ID Cambridge Campaign stall & student volunteers
Cambridge NO2ID will be running Saturday street stalls outside
Cambridge Guildhall from 10am to noon on 23rd September, 14th October,
and every third Saturday into the new year. Location:
(http://tinyurl.com/eo42r).
Volunteers to help very welcome - contact
Andrew Watson via cambridge@no2id.net, or on 07710
469624. We will also
have a presence at Cambridge University Student Union's Societies Fair
in Cambridge's Kelsey Kerridge Sports Hall on October 3rd and 4th. If
you're studying at the university and would like to help publicise
NO2ID to your fellow students, please contact cambridge@no2id.net as
soon as possible. (http://www.cusu.cam.ac.uk/societies/fair/)
Saturdays throughout September - Highbury NO2ID stall/leafleting - volunteers needed
Highbury NO2ID is trying to run a stall / hand out leaflets on each
Saturday during September in order promote the 'Renew for Freedom'
campaign before the 1st October passport changes. Anyone in the North
London area who can help out for an hour or so should contact Caroline
Day at (highbury@no2id.net). The dates
planned are Sept 16th,
23rd. Times: 11pm to 2-3pm ish. Place: Highbury & Islington tube
station.
Saturdays 1pm - 3pm - NO2ID Edinburgh Campaign stall
After a short break during the Edinburgh Festival NO2ID Edinburgh has
resumed its regular Princes Street campaigning stall on Saturdays. We
shall be at our usual location at the east end of Princes Street,
opposite the Balmoral Hotel, from 1pm - 3pm this coming Saturday. We
use our stall to raise public awareness of the Identity Cards scheme,
collect donations and entries for the NO2ID petition, and also to
increase membership of our group. Please do pop by for a chat if you
happen to be around. We shall be aiming to have the stall up and
running most Saturdays, and new volunteers are always very welcome. You
can see photos of our stall and contact details at: www.no2id-scotland.net/edinburgh/.
1st October - NO2ID Comedy Fundraiser gig - "Who do you think you are?" at the Hackney Empire
Sunday, 1st October, Hackney Empire, 291 Mare Street, London, E8 1EJ.
Doors 7.30 pm. Featuring Paul Sinha (Perrier award nominee 2006), Joise
Long (Perrier best newcomer 2006), Kevin Eldon, Wil Hodgson (Perrier
best newcomer 2004), Gary Le Strange (Perrier best newcomer 2003),
Andrew O'Neill, Janie Phayre with MC Lucy Porter. All proceeds will go
to NO2ID.
Box Office 020 8985 2424 or book online at www.hackneyempire.co.uk,
Tickets £12.50
29th November - NO2ID Kensington and Chelsea Public Meeting
Speakers to include Sir Malcolm Rifkind MP. Other speakers and venue to
be confirmed later. Contact kensington@no2id.net for more
details
What just happened?
Abolition of privacy - government outlines its Dataveillance Agenda
On Wednesday (13th September) the government released details of their
plans to extend data-sharing between public services. The Department
for Constitutional Affairs published an 'Information sharing vision
statement' which sets out their "vision for better, more
customer-focused services supported by greater information-sharing
which will protect and support individuals and society as a whole". The
new data sharing agenda was launched alongside the Social Exclusion
Action Plan and is being sold to the public as a way of improving "the
life chances of those who suffer, or may suffer in the future, from
disadvantage". In fact data sharing is a cornerstone of the
government's national identity database - allowing complete data
surveillance or 'Dataveillance'. Once the entire population is numbered
via their National Identity Register Number (NIRN) then this will
become the key to link all the records stored on all government
databases. So whilst it may be true that medical records will not
actually be stored on the National Identity Register, the identity
register number combined with the data sharing agenda will allow
medical records to be linked to the identity register. Effectively a
huge virtual database will be constructed from hundreds of databases
within government. Privacy will be destroyed. Yet this change in
government policy has barely got a mention in mainstream news and there
has been no public debate or consultation. A comprehensive plan for
information-sharing across the public sector will be published in April
2007.
See http://www.dca.gov.uk/foi/sharing/information-sharing.pdf
More on Dataveillance at http://tinyurl.co.uk/5kfo
Preston NO2ID protest at fingerprint school
Last Thursday (7th September) Preston NO2ID held a demo at Brockholes
CP school in Preston. Campaigners held placards saying 'Beware Big
Brother' and handed out leaflets following an article in Preston
Citizen by journalist Chris Gee on the fingerprinting of small
children for library cards. Prior to the demo Tracey Gillibrand, local
co-ordinator for Preston NO2ID, went into the school to inform staff of
their reasons for being there. Tracey said: "At first they said they
didn't understand what we were protesting about, then I mentioned the
newspaper article, to which they replied that it wasn't relevant
any more, since the teacher who knew how to use the technology had left
and gone abroad." There was a lot of interest from parents several of
whom took leaflets. "It became rather interesting at one point, when I
happened to speak to a woman who told me she was on the Board of
Governors at the school", Tracey continued, "she told me that she'd
asked the staff about the fingerprinting and they informed her they had
already been doing it, but had now stopped. She was disgusted, because
she had never been informed, despite her position on the Board". Tracey
also heard of another school in Preston that sent a note to parents
asking permission for their children to be fingerprinted, which had
been worded in such a way that parents were "unable to comprehend" it.
Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council passes anti ID motion
Last Wednesday (6th September) Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council
passed a motion against the government's ID card scheme. The council
voted to "only co-operate with the National Identity Card scheme where
to do so would otherwise be unlawful". The motion was proposed by Lib
Dem Councillor Richard Silvester, and all Liberal Democrat and
Conservative Councillors voted to support it. The Labour Councillors
voted against apart from a couple that abstained. A list of councils
that have passed similar motions can be found at www.no2id.net/resources/motions/index.php.
Scottish Parliament motion against fingerprinting of children
A motion against the fingerprinting of school children was submitted to
the Scottish Parliament by Green MSP Patrick Harvie (Glasgow) this
week. The motion "notes that school libraries have managed to function
for generations without needing to treat schoolchildren like criminals;
believes that children should be taught in an environment which
respects their autonomy and privacy and, indeed, encourages them to
hold their civil liberties in high regard".
Blair on ID cards at TUC conference
Tony Blair used a speech at the TUC conference on Tuesday (12th
September) to claim that a hi-tech identification system is required to
allow our "open economy" to function. Blair said that the first UK
citizen ID cards will be issued by 2009 and that they are needed
because "the sophistication of document forgery means we can only be
confident of people's identities if we have their biometrics - their
fingerprints, irises and digital measures of their face". He also said
that "we will have to have a system of electronic borders, checking in
and checking out all our visitors". He failed to mention the loss of
privacy, total surveillance, enormous cost or security risk of such
measures.
"ID" in the news
ID card scheme changes tack - Computing 14/9/06
The government is taking the first steps to creating the national
identity card project from existing systems, confirming a shift away
from earlier plans to build the scheme from scratch. Under the new
approach ID cards will be developed where possible from existing
Whitehall technology, procedures and information, replacing the
original plan for a traditional, monolithic, multibillion-pound
programme.
http://www.computing.co.uk/2164137
More Britons applying for Irish passports - The Guardian 13/9/06
Applications from UK-born citizens for Irish passports have more than
doubled in the past year. As many as 6 million people in the UK have an
Irish grandfather or grandmother, which entitles them to claim
citizenship in the Republic.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/britain/article/0,,1871753,00.html
Headmaster justifies fingerprinting pupils - The Register 11/9/06
The headmaster of Porth County Comprehensive School in South Wales has
defended fingerprinting all 1,400 of his pupils days after their
parents were told about the scheme last Wednesday. Children had their
fingers scanned for a system that will replace the old fashioned school
register with biometric scanners in every class room.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/11/porth_county_kiddyprinting/
Prints 'just a bit of fun' says Head - thisisscunthorpe.co.uk 11/9/06
A Headteacher has defended a system which scans fingerprints of
children as young as five to allow them to borrow books, saying it was
simply meant to be a fun way of using technology. The decision to
introduce the scheme at Eastoft Church of England Primary School
sparked anger and concern, with two parents objecting to their
six-year-old daughter's fingerprint being scanned.
http://tinyurl.co.uk/hlg4
US: Sioux City hosts child ID program - Sioux City Journal 11/9/06
Nebraska and Iowa Masonic Lodge members put on Sioux City's first
comprehensive Child Identification Program, called CHIP, on Saturday,
recording crucial personal information for more than 60 area children.
The five different methods of identification used -- photo, video, DNA
swab, dental impression and fingerprinting -- have been a part of
Nebraska's CHIP program for the past two years.
http://tinyurl.co.uk/cise
Great Britain's National ID Card: What Does it Mean for The United States? - public cio.com 8/9/06
Many have called the implementation of national ID cards a shift toward
totalitarianism. With the strict requirement to register residential
moves, the audit trail of every card use, and the sheer amount of
personal data collected, the Orwellian tone of the scheme becomes ever
more noticeable.
http://www.public-cio.com/newsStory.php?id=2006.09.08-100937
Schools can fingerprint children without parental consent - The Register 7/9/06
Parents cannot prevent schools from taking their children's
fingerprints, according to the Department for Education and Skills and
the Information Commissioner. But parents who have campaigned against
school fingerprinting might still be able to bring individual
complaints against schools under the Data Protection Act (DPA).
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/07/kiddyprinting_allowed/
Tell the EC about surveillance - The Register 6/9/06
The European Commission has opened a public consultation on the use of
surveillance technology in civil society. At the initiative's heart is
the desire to work with industry to create more and better surveillance
systems that it can use to monitor the public in order to prevent
terrorist attacks.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/06/ec_surveillance_consultation/
(http://regmedia.co.uk/2006/09/06/ec_surveillance_green_paper.pdf)
Canada: E-Passports may unlock doors to your privacy - Straight.com 7/9/06
As early as 2008, your old Canadian passport may be replaced by a
digitally encoded document that exposes you to the risks of identity
theft, government abuse, and widespread electronic surveillance.
http://www.straight.com/content.cfm?id=20217
NHS IT: NAO planning to look again at NPfIT - E-Health Insider 5/9/06
The National Audit Office (NAO) has confirmed that it plans to carry
out a second study of the late-running £12bn National Programme for IT
(NPfIT). No date has yet been set for this new study to be carried out.
http://www.e-health-insider.com/news/item.cfm?ID=2106
Child database attacked over celebrity exclusions - The Guardian 31/8/06
Government plans to exclude details of celebrities' children from a new
national child database were today seized on as evidence that the
system may pose a safety risk to those it is supposed to protect. The
index, due to be introduced in 2008, will link sensitive information
about England's 11 million children and their families in one database
accessible to hundreds of thousands of officials.
http://tinyurl.co.uk/ok6d
(Please send me any items of interest you encounter -
Editor(newsletter@no2id.net) )
What you can do
You can help us by:
1. Getting involved with a local group
Organise leafleting, a stall or a public meeting to educate the public
about the database that lies behind the proposed ID card scheme.
See http://www.no2id.net/localGroups
2. Helping to spread our message
Tell your friends and any organisations that you belong to about the
NO2ID campaign and that you are supporting it. Most people are scarcely
aware of the government's ID database project, and few understand the
dangers. Feel free to redistribute this newsletter to acquaintances.
* We also maintain a list of things you can do on our website at http://www.no2id.net/getInvolved/other.php
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