Posted on 02/19/2006 4:15:58 PM PST by David Hunter
Andrew Watson is coordinating a letter writing campaign to the House of Lords. Please do what you can to help, as this will probably be the last chance you get to have an effect on this rotten bill. Here are the details of his proposal:
The next two weeks in the campaign are crucial. On Monday 6th March the ID cards Bill goes back to the Lords. Last time they looked at the Bill, their Lordships amended it to make ID cards truly voluntary, removing the link to getting a passport. As you know, Labour MPs out-voted the other parties in the Commons last Monday to overturn this amendment. When the Bill goes back to the Lords on 6th March, they have to decide whether to cave in and agree to the compulsory link to getting a passport, or stand their ground and re-apply their amendment to make ID cards truly voluntary, allowing each of us to make up our minds individually whether we want one.
Needless to say, we want the Lords to stand their ground, and make the Labour front bench honour its manifesto commitment.
While peers aren't elected and don't represent any particular constituency, they do listen to public opinion. We therefore need as many people as possible to write to peers over the next 7 days encouraging them to stand firm, and ensure that ID cards aren't forced on people that don't want them.
This may be our last chance to block compulsory ID cards legislation. If the Lords cave in on 6th March, compulsory ID cards will inevitably follow. If they stand their ground, we're still in the game, and we have more time to swing public opinion behind our cause. If the Lords overturn the Commons decision again, that would itself be a huge news event, and get even more publicity for our campaign.
When the battle over ID cards is over, do you want to be counted amongst those who did their part to defeat them? Or will you be one of those who just stood on the sidelines and watched whilst this disastrously bad scheme was forced upon us?
Are you prepared to help the campaign, and spend 20 minutes writing to a couple of Peers?
If so, please check my web page, to get a list of Peers connected to your town that you can write to, to encourage them to re-apply their amendment removing compulsion.
(Its probably best to write to at least one Peer who voted against the government last time, rather than trying to persuade a Labour Lord to change their vote. The voting records of Lords can be found here - DH).
If you can't find the information you need then get in touch with me by emailing: andrew.watson@no2id.net Give me your postcode and an email address, and I'll send you the list of peers.
Every letter will make a difference. Please get in touch now.
Together we can defeat this.
Thanks.
_________________
Andrew Watson
07710 469624
And the alternative is?
In the US, the Social Security Number became the National-ID-in-fact in the same way.
We do not have to carry our national insurance card in fact I only ever seen mine once in my life and I am not sure where it is now.
All we have to have for our employer is our national insurance number.
Well, we already have a voluntary photo-ID card scheme in the UK called the CitizenCard which is accredited by the Home Office. People who don't have any other photo-ID can get one of those, besides, about 80% of Britons have passports and photo-driving licenses are also widely held.
Anyway, the government has misled the public about their proposed scheme. They told us it would be voluntary in their election manifesto, but there will be compulsion by stealth when people apply for, renew or update "designated documents" like passports, driving licenses and others. Also, the justifications they gave for the scheme are deceptive and they haven't published a proper cost/benefit analysis for it. However, the London School of Economics has produced a very detailed analysis of the scheme, which shows that the government has misled the public about the high costs and the small benefits.
Actually, we don't have to carry an NHS ID card. Anyway, the compulsory national ID card scheme which the British government is proposing will be more intrusive than those currently operating at the moment in other democratic nations.
In the US, the Social Security Number became the National-ID-in-fact in the same way.
The proposed UK national ID card scheme will create a National Identity Register Number (NIRN), which shall be used by government departments and by private entities. In the USA, the Social Security Number (SSN) is a similar identity hub and a central reference point to index and link identity in the way the NIRN will do here.
Obtaining a person’s SSN provides a single interface to that person’s dealings with a vast number of private and public bodies. The existence and ease of obtaining the SSN and its usage across private and public databases is a major reason why the level of identity theft in the USA is far higher than it is here. There have been countless cases of identity thefts in the US that were enabled by first obtaining the victim's SSN. To combat this problem the US government has recently passed legislation to take SSNs off driving licenses, state issued ID cards and other documents.
The NIRN is likely to be an attractive target for identity thieves here in the future too. Also, the NuLabour government intends to print the NIRNs on all our national ID cards and who knows what else - how convenient for the identity thieves - so thanks to the government we may catch up with the USA's identity theft rate after all!
Many thanks for the links; there are 4 peers with local connections to whom I shall write this afternoon. Thanks for organising this!
Thanks for the info, I will try to get some letters off.
Now the bill will go back to the House of Commons, so that it can barely scrape through with all the Labour MPs in attendance and a three line whip.
Let's be ready to lobby Peers again when this rotten bill returns to the House of Lords.
The BBC are screwing us over national ID cards
The important defeat of the government in the Lords yesterday over "compulsion by stealth" for national ID cards was not deemed of sufficient interest to even be mentioned in passing on the BBC's national flagship TV news programme at 10pm on BBC1 last night.
Government defeats in the Lords are significant political news and it is only NuLabour that will benefit from people not knowing what is going on.
Let's face it, there has been no real informed public debate on this very expensive and potentially repressive policy and that is hardly going to change if our main public broadcaster doesn't cover this subject during prime-time news. TV license payers who will become unwilling ID Card holders may care to take note of this.
There was only a two second mention in passing on BBC Newsnight on BBC2 yesterday and their audience is much smaller than that of BBC news at ten. Most local BBC radio stations didn't cover the Lords story at all. Also, the BBC's commentary on this issue on their news website and on TV is usually biased in favour of the NuLabour government's scheme.
If this sporadic and inadequate BBC TV coverage continues then we are screwed, since the general public will not be aware of the unpleasant parts of this proposed legislation and the government's dishonest justifications, until it is too late for their opinions to make any difference to the passage of the bill through Parliament.
Everyone who cares about this issue should complain to the BBC news team as soon as possible to encourage them not to be Tony Blair's puppet in the future.
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