NO2ID Scotland 3e Grovepark Gardens, Glasgow Press Release For Immediate Release 2008 TEXT BEGINS SCOTS ID CARDS SCANDAL Early in 2006 the Scottish Executive introduced national identity cards into Scotland for the first time in fifty-four years. Disgracefully, it did this by conning the most vulnerable members of society - the elderly and the disabled - into believing that they were merely being given a new kind of bus pass. And most shockingly of all it did this in total secrecy and by going behind the back of the Scottish Parliament. The new ID cards, backed up by a centralised database, are so intrusive that they would be forbidden in Germany. One of the pensioners who applied to renew his bus pass, retired academic Dr John Welford, said: "It is a national scandal that the Executive should have behaved so dishonestly towards the elderly, and heads should now roll. I have returned my ID card to be destroyed, but despite months of fruitless correspondence with the Executive it has refused to send me the bus pass I applied for and am entitled to." As Mark Howarth commented in the Scottish News of the World, Scotland has clandestinely become "England's lab rat" over the introduction of ID card surveillance [1]. ENDS NOTE 1. 'Compulsory ID is on the cards', Mark Howarth, Scottish News of the World, 19 August 2007. See: www.jwelford.demon.co.uk/snec/article.pdf NOTES FOR EDITORS: A more extensive description is provided below. Note that this press release, together with a detailed (12 page) report and associated images, can be downloaded from: www.jwelford.demon.co.uk/snec.html Two particular images which you may wish to use for publicity purposes can be downloaded from: City of Edinburgh bus pass, c. 2005 - http://www.jwelford.demon.co.uk/snec/bus.jpg Scottish National Identity Card, 2006 - http://www.jwelford.demon.co.uk/snec/snec.jpg For further information, or for immediate or future interview, please contact John Welford (john@jwelford.demon.co.uk) or Geraint Bevan (NO2ID Scotland Coordinator, scotland@no2id.net). NO2ID is the UK-wide, non-partisan organisation campaigning against ID cards and the database state. We have over 30,000 registered supporters and are funded by membership subscriptions, donations and grants from bodies such as the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust Ltd. See: http://www.no2id.net ---- The elderly and disabled throughout Scotland have been sold a massive lie. Early in 2006 a million of them were invited to renew their bus passes by applying for a new kind of entitlement card. But what the Scottish Executive issued them with was not the promised bus pass, but an identity card. Unfortunately, they were never told about this and, most shockingly, neither was the Scottish Parliament. What is more, this type of card and its associated centralised database are so intrusive that they would not today be permitted by law in Germany. Dr John Welford, a retired academic from Edinburgh University, applied for and received one of the new 'bus passes'. But because of his relevant technical background he immediately became suspicious, realising that he had been seriously misled. He says: "Identity cards were abolished in this country more than fifty years ago, and many people, like me, are firmly opposed to their reintroduction. But what has been so deeply shocking has been the way in which the Scottish Executive has been adopting a 'Trojan Horse' manoeuvre to phase in its ID cards without actually telling anyone. Calling the cards 'entitlement cards' has deceived most people, but this was only one element of a whole web of deception. And what has been so particularly shameful about the Executive's actions is that it has operated like some shady door-to-door salesman, choosing to target the most vulnerable members of society first - the elderly and the disabled. Moreover, from the beginning of 2007 it moved on, and began to issue identity cards to the next most vulnerable group - school age children, and again without telling anyone what it was really up to." At the heart of this scandal is the fact that the Scottish Parliament has voted decisively for identity cards not to be required for access to devolved services. But while that vote was being taken [1] the Executive was already in the process of ignoring the views of MSPs and hatching its own secret ID card scheme. New Labour has clearly been using Scotland (and Wales) as a testbed for its national entitlement card project and for what it likes to call 'transformational government'. If all goes according to government plans, the next step will be to roll out the ID cards in England as from April 2008. Does this process sound at all familiar? Well using Scotland as a testbed for your latest wheeze is what Margaret Thatcher did with her beloved Poll Tax. So hardly a happy precedent there. As for Dr Welford, he has returned his ID card, and has demanded a proper bus pass, to which he is fully entitled. He says: "The actions I have been taking are those of a concerned, law-abiding pensioner against an increasingly overbearing and unaccountable state. And I would recommend others, both young and old, to do the same. We should not be treated like this by our public servants. The people of Scotland deserve much better." NOTE 1. Scottish Parliament motion, S2M-2463 Patrick Harvie (Glasgow) (Green): Identity Cards, 24 February 2005. MSPs voted 52-47 in favour of the motion, with 15 abstentions.