Blunkett attacks Database State!

He will come out against the Government’s controversial plan to set up a database holding details of telephone calls and emails and its proposal to allow public bodies to share personal data with each other.
...The former home secretary will propose a U-turn on ID cards for British citizens, although he agrees with plans to make them compulsory for foreign nationals.
Instead, holding a passport would become compulsory for all British people, who could choose to “opt in” to the ID card scheme if they wished.
Mr Blunkett will insist Labour has got the balance between liberty and security broadly right. But he will argue that it has unwittingly given ammunition to its critics by allowing legislation to be used for wider purposes than originally intended. -- Independent

Jack Straw has indicated that the Govt will amend the appalling data grab clause hidden in the Coroners and Justice Bill. But the Govt has been known to mislead the Commons before. Nor has the Govt indicated it will abandon attempts to track all our emails, web surfing, phone calls and phone triangulation data.

Nor does Mr Blunkett's suggestion that passports replace ID cards help, since the Govt wrote into the Identity Cards Act that merely applying for or renewing a passport means you could be entered on to the National Identity Register.

Convention on Modern Liberty

The Bristol Convention on Modern Liberty took place on 28th Feb. Video from the packed afternoon debate is here. Video from the London event including author Phillip Pullman and esteemed lawyer Lord Bingham can be found here.

"Roadmap to our Souls"

"The tendency of the state to seek ever more powers of surveillance over its citizens may be driven by protective zeal. But the notion of total security is a paranoid fantasy which would destroy everything that makes living worthwhile.
We must avoid surrendering our freedom as autonomous human beings to such an ugly future. We should make judgments that are compatible with our status as free people."
"No other country is considering such a drastic step. This database would be an unimaginable hell-house of personal private information."
"It would be a complete readout of every citizen's life in the most intimate and demeaning detail. No government of any colour is to be trusted with such a roadmap to our souls." - Sir Ken McDonald, the recently retired Director of Public Prosecutions on the Govt's new communications database.

Unlike the ID card system, this astonishing grab for our most private information (in a form which is highly abusable) is easily achievable and would be relatively cheap. As such, it is surely the biggest of many surveillance threats to British freedom.

Sir John Major also spoke out against these intrusions into our privacy.

Last May, the Govt decided to hand out billions of pounds worth of ID contracts to every company that bothered to apply. They also tried to break the long-standing principle that governments cannot legally bind future parliaments.

Last March, the Govt finally released the report from the ID taskforce that Gordon Brown ordered when still Chancellor. It laid out 10 clear principles for the scheme -- and the Govt breaks every single one.

NO2ID is a highly respected campaign group who recognise the extreme danger of open-ended national databases, especially the one behind the Government's ID card scheme.

We have already seen the Government lose the entire country's child benefit records.  Whoever controls our data controls our lives.

Andy Burnham, the ex-Minister for ID Cards told us:

"Anyone who is worried about these improvements to the security to our country clearly has something to hide."

That includes 56% of the public, according to the latest poll where ICM polled 1001 people in July 2006.

The ex-Minister is one of very few people who actually recommend their ID card surveillance scheme.  He and other collaborators are so desperate to snoop into the public's private lives, that they have deceived the public & Parliament innumerable times about the scheme.

Bristol NO2ID are a group of professionals and students based in and around Bristol UK who represent the nationwide NO2ID campaign.

We bring together individuals and organisations from all sections of the community and seek to ensure that the case against the identity scheme is forcefully put forward in the media, in the corridors of power and at grassroots level.

  Watch NO2ID's own introductory video

The Case against ID Cards

ID Cards are a front for a surveillance database on the public that is 20x more intrusive than any other on the planet.

At whim, the Government will be able to deny us access to public services, to get a mortgage and even travel in/out of the country.

They will hit you in the wallet, hard.

The Government have about as much success implementing IT projects as England have with international football.

All the benefits the Government have claimed for the scheme are deeply misleading.

ID Cards are the latest in worrying series of totalitarian measures introduced by this Government.

How you can help fight the ID scheme

Upcoming Events


First Wednesday of every month: Public NO2ID meeting at Deco Lounge on Cotham Hill. Starts 7pm and runs for about an hour.