The English ID Cards Scandal: Campaign News

1. The Scottish National Entitlement Card: an exercise in wholesale systematic deception, 6 Aug. 07, by Dr John Welford

ABSTRACT:

Last year national identity cards were reintroduced into the United Kingdom for the first time in fifty-four years. The subject of identity cards is always a controversial one for the British, and so it is surprising that their reintroduction was given almost no publicity and met with minimal opposition. The reason for this is quite simple - nobody was told about it. What happened is that the elderly and disabled citizens of Scotland were invited to apply for a new kind of travel card. But unbeknown to them, what they were subsequently issued with was not a travel card, but a multi-purpose identity card. Moreover, this card and its associated centralised database are so intrusive that they would not today be permitted by law in Germany. The present paper outlines the nature of this ‘Trojan Horse’ identity cards project and the wholesale systematic deception which it involved.

The 12 page report can be downloaded from: report.pdf (548Kb)

2. Campaign leaflet, 1 Nov. 07

The Trojan Horse ID Card - ACT NOW!

If you care about your freedoms and liberties you should read this information leaflet very carefully - and then make sure that your political representatives know the truth about what is happening at present and will take urgent action - NOW...

The very dark side of this picture is that this card and its associated central database will bring about ‘cradle to grave’ surveillance. In such a world the state and its civil servants (inevitably, as well as internet criminals) will have ready access to every detail about you and your personal life: where you travel, what books you read, what illnesses you suffer from, your educational record, where you shop, what you buy - and indeed anything else the government thinks it might find useful.

And to think that all this will have developed from a harmless looking ‘bus pass’, first issued by a duplicitous government in 2006...

The 2 page leaflet can be downloaded from: leaflet.pdf (908Kb)

3. HillingdonFirst, ResidentsLast?, 7 May 09

What is HillingdonFirst?

HillingdonFirst is an ID Card/Privilege Card that will affect upto 243,000 residents based on a consultation of ~150 (which is not available). It will keep a log, for 6 years, of every time and place you park, when you visit the council gym or dump and has some dodgy future uses.

Coming June 15th.

http://hillingdonfirst.info/

4. The Register, 17 Aug. 09 - Pressure group aghast at Hillingdon ID card scheme, John Ozimek

Cheaper local shops for local people

Has Hillingdon Borough managed to find a way to introduce an ID card scheme that is non-intrusive, respects civil liberties – and is actually welcomed by local residents?

According to pressure group NO2ID, the answer is....no...

Michael Parker, of campaign group NO2ID, spoke to El Reg. He said: "NO2ID is concerned about the normalisation of handing over huge amounts of info where there is no clear need and no clear strategy for how it will be used.

"This scheme looks fairly innocuous: the danger is it could be a Trojan Horse for future feature creep, leading to the card being far more like a traditional ID card. Our experience of "entitlement cards" in many areas around the country is that although they are marketed as providing privileges to local residents, they almost always end up being little more than excuses for data-gathering."

He added: "All these schemes would work as well with all information on the card and nothing on a central database."

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/17/hillingdon_id_card/