Civil liberties and the 'war on terror' - 2006 - news archive

brian has maintained constant vigil for more than five and a half years now day and night in all weathers. he is still fighting off every attempt to remove him and court cases continue in january. indymedia will continue to follow his story and his battle to stop the genocide and torture that our government carries out in our name.

Millions of people, from struggling students to newly-wed women and bereaved relatives, will face a system of penalties, netting more than £40 million for the Treasury. People would be fined up to £1,000 for failing to return a dead relative's ID card, while women who marry will have to pay at least £30 for a new card if they want to use their married name, risking a £1,000 fine if they do not comply.

2006 has been an eventful year for NO2ID. We head into 2007 with www.NO2ID.net named as one of the Top 5 "most useful" political websites by the Guardian, in such hallowed company as theyworkforyou.com and publicwhip.org.uk; 30,000 strong (and more besides) with over 100 active groups spread across every nation of the UK, and dozens of councils on our side; and with an ID scheme in disarray - but, like a wounded beast, more dangerous than ever. Here's a reminder of just a few key moments of 2006, with the odd hint about what you can do to help stop ID cards and the database state in the New Year:

Yesterday must have been one of the coldest days of the year. If not ever. So what better way to spend the evening than standing around in Parliament Square shaking a bucket full of small change? Of course, this wasn't all I was doing, I was also participating in a carol service, which may or may not have been illegal.

The last Mass Lone Demonstration of 2006 was as much fun as the others I've attended only much, much colder. It really was freezing but that didn't stop a bunch of die-hard democracy fans assembling in Parliament Square once again to make a mockery of the idiotic SOCPA law which forbids protest in the vicinity of the Prime Minister's office without written permission from the police which has to be obtained a week beforehand. There was the usual amusing array of diverse protests; from "Fair Pay For Elves" to my own "Stop the Surveillance Society".

More photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcvallee/sets/72157...

The sciences of biometrics, intelligent photography and data processing are advancing at great speed and we are asked to swallow it as a harmless fact of modern life, essential for our security while decent law-abiding folk have nothing to fear. However, the idea that the innocent have nothing to fear rests on the assumption that official agencies are without prejudice and never make mistakes. This is a big ask. Data is a valuable commodity, which has a price. In the future our DNA samples may make it impossible for some of us to obtain medical or life insurance. Our personal data should be ours to give away to those we trust, not for the state to requisition when it sees fit.

The plan was to hold a mass lone demo (as has happened every month since August), completely and humbly legally, from 6 till 7pm, then move a few yards over and have a rip-roaringly non-legal and naughty carol service. And that's what transpired. I hate to say a good time was had by all, but I think it was. It was a good thing to do so although you're supposed to be selfless, I think you're allowed to feel a bit pleased. I have limited experience of demonstrating, and so am irksomely analytical about it, but one of the distinctive things about a demonstration like this is how blooming jolly it is. Jolly and very British - peaceful but not po-faced, a bit daffy without ever losing the sense of enormous importance.

THE introduction of national identity cards has moved a step closer with the publication of Home Office plans to introduce the scheme. Supporters say cards will cut crime and be an invaluable weapon in the fight against terrorism. Opponents argue the scheme is a white elephant which will increase the risk of identity theft and reduce our civil liberties while costing the taxpayer billions.

Today four protesters promised more protests after a High Court judge ruled against them over restrictions on the right to protest in the vicinity of Parliament. All four, Maya Anne Evans, Aqil Shaer, Milan Rai and Stephen Blum had been convicted of offences under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (2005).

While it's not been totally scrapped, the ID card scheme has been put on a crash diet today. The original Blunkett plan of a clean giant NIR with everyone lined up to go on it has effectively been ditched in favour of spreading the data among asylum, immigration and passport databases.

John Reid, the home secretary, axed plans to build a huge new computer system to hold the biometric data, such as fingerprint records, that will underpin the new cards. The government will instead use existing systems for national insurance, asylum and passport databases.

at marylebone court today, the defence barrister completed his submission to have the proceedings stopped on the basis that brian haw has no case to answer. judge purdy told the court that he had a lot of case law to study and would adjourn until the new year. a date of 22nd january has been set for the decision.

Given that the new biometric passport has been cracked and data sucked' from it, will both Mr Wills and Mrs Snelgrove tell us at what point during the compulsory purchase of our identity will they cease their support of this dangerous law?

in a fine performance this afternoon, brian's defence barrister made a submission for the magistrate to throw it out of court on the basis that there is no case to answer. the result of this should be settled in the morning.

parliament square protestor, brian haw, was at marylebone magistrates court today facing criminal charges arising earlier in the year for alleged breach of conditions imposed on his demo. as an 'organiser' he could face a custodial sentence. the case is set to last three days and supporters are welcome - there is a public gallery.

Some of you may remember the various anti SOCPA protests to defend free speech that we have had this year and last year. The unlawful Carol Service, the Simulataneous Lone Mass Demonstrations...Now we have a test case with the irrespressible Brian Haw. Whatever your opinion is of Brian, I support his right, and the right of anyone else, to stand outside Parliament and peacefully protest against the Government of the day. It is quite outrgaeous that the great clunking fist of an unfair law was brought in to crush this man and his protest against foreign policy. So here's the update....

I am not surprised to learn that ID cards have become law, the only surprise there is that it took so long as March to enforce them. No doubt we will soon be getting our application forms in the post. ID cards are but the tip of the iceberg concerning the EU's plans for Britain, which will eventually result, as I am sure Mr Reid will confirm, in a police state where you will be guilty until you can prove you're innocent.

Out there in the Futureland of imaginary Big Lists, a Big List that associates fingers with actual identities will exist in the shape of the National Identity Register, so when Byrne says of miSense that: "This is a good example of how ID cards will be useful when helping people move through security", what he really means is that 'this system would stand a considerably better chance of being successful if all of you buggers already had biometric ID cards and we had you on a huge database.'

A YOUGOV survey published today shows that millions of people could resist the imposition of government ID cards. Twelve per cent of those questioned said they would refuse to get an ID card, even if it meant paying a fine or serving a prison sentence. That corresponds to about five million adults across the whole of the UK.

Starting next year first time passport applicants will be forced onto the Identity Register, despite Anne Snelgrove's assertion that the Identity Register is voluntary. It will not be, if you want a passport you will be entered on the central register. NO2ID is pledged to resist the National Identity Register and it's attendant ID card.

The first signs of a significant popular revolt against the Government's identity card scheme have been uncovered by a YouGov poll for The Daily Telegraph. It suggests that hundreds of thousands of people, maybe even millions, would refuse to register on the proposed database that will underpin the scheme, even if this meant a fine or going to jail.

Britain's role in CIA "torture flights" was roundly condemned yesterday by the European parliament in a scathing report which for the first time named the site of a suspected secret US detention centre in the EU - at Stare Kiejkuty in Poland. It says EU governments, including the British, knew about the practice known as extraordinary rendition - secret CIA flights transferring detainees to locations where they risked being tortured - but made a concerted attempt to obstruct investigations into it.

If you renewed your passport recently, you may have one of the ones with a chip in it - you may not(chipped passport have the International Civil Aviation Organisation(ICAO) ePassport logo on the front[4]). As we have said, the information stored on the chip at present is no more than what you see on the photo page PLUS (we can now confirm) some measurements that have been derived from a scan of your photo. All very useful to identity thieves...

VIRTUALLY identical letters (SA, November 8 and 9) serve to reinforce concerns that we are sleepwalking into a surveillance society. It is true that the level of intrusion is increasing and the quality of our privacy is decreasing. There are now 4.2 million CCTV cameras in Britain - one for every 14 people in the UK.

Union leaders are in discussions this week, following the announcement of plans to leave just a handful of staff working for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs Swindon office by 2010. The Public and Commercial Services union has vowed the fight the closure of the Farnsby Street office that employs 210 workers on its payroll.

Writing to your MP may not result in an accurate, detailed and lucid explanation of their support for the National Identity Register and Identity Cards Act 2006, but at least they will have received your concerns in writing, and you will receive "something" back from them. The Talkswindon forum has published all correspondence its members have received from Anne Snelgrove and Michael Wills on the subject. To date, neither MP has answered any question put to them regarding the issue.

I am a lifelong Labour supporter. If you bring in compulsory identity cards, I will have no option but to vote Tory. Do you really want to be back on the opposition benches?

Police are to demand new powers to arrest protesters for causing offence through the words they chant and the slogans on their placards and even headbands. The country's biggest force, the Metropolitan police, is to lobby the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, because officers believe that large sections of the population have become increasingly politicised, and there is a growing sense that the current restrictions on demonstrations are too light.

While cycling up Whitehall last night with Critical Mass, a cycle cop pulled up alongside and said I wasn't allowed to play my sound system in Whitehall. I asked if he was going to arrest me and he said no but I would be liable to arrest if I did it again. I asked why motorist are allowed to play their sound systems but cyclists are not. He said my sounds were too loud, which I took to be an unintentional compliment, and he said the matter could be tested in court, which I took to be an intentional threat. In the SOCPA Act, see below, it says a sound system can be operated solely for the entertainment of the driver or passenger of the vehicle, so presumably if I have my rear mounted speakers facing forward and respectfully ask the other massers not to listen to my 'entertainment' I should be OK on the next ride.

A passport centre which has been branded the first step towards introducing controversial ID cards is going to be opened in Norwich - despite protests against the move. The Home Office has been granted permission by Norwich City Council's planning applications committee to set up an “interview and administration” centre - one of 69 across Britain - at St Crispin's House, in Duke Street.

brian haw and some of his supporters marked his 2000th day of protest in parliament square this evening with some food and drink and some well-chosen words. labour mp and leadership challenger, john mcdonnell, paid tribute to the amazing resilience of brian, who is facing his sixth christmas living on the pavement of parliament square. there were tributes too, for maria gallestegui who has helped the campaign and looked after brian for many years, after stopping her school bus one day to hear what he had to say. emma sangster was also singled out for praise for her continuing assistance, running the parliament square website and offering other support and encouragement.

Brian Haw's 2,000th day protesting outside Parliament, London, UK. (23.11.06)

barbara tucker, who had a major victory in court yesterday against police, was violently arrested in parliament square this morning, after trying to peacefully demonstrate with banners, as prime minister tony blair arrived for question time. member of parliament and left-wing leadership challenger john mcdonnell has written to the police commissioner for an explanation.

For some time now, I have been warning about the menace that these systems may come to represent in the hands of future governments, the nature of which we cannot know. But having spent the last few months making a film, Suspect Nation, with the director Neil Ferguson - about the growth of surveillance since 9/11 - I realise that the threat exists in the present. Both of us were astonished at the gaps in security that we found and the insouciance of government.

The House Of Commons Science And Technology Committee reported on the Governments Identity Card Scheme earlier this year.

The report paints a very different picture than the one being presented by Prime Minister Blair.

George Lewis is a lovely Gentleman, (with a capital G), who, has sworn, (despite his advancing years), to go to prison rather than submit to the State Ownership of his identity. At Georges request his recent letter to the Daily Telegraph is published here on Talkswindon.

Three million Britons have been issued with the new hi-tech passport, designed to frustrate terrorists and fraudsters. So why did Steve Boggan and a friendly computer expert find it so easy to break the security codes?

The biometric passport has been 'cracked' again - but it's the same crack as the old crack (which is not exactly a crack). This time it's the new UK passport, and Liberal Home Affairs spokesman Nick Clegg is calling for the urgent recall of all the 3 million that have already been issued.

So far, so cynical, you might say. Of course there’s a real danger and as we saw in London last year there are people who will kill us if given the chance. Talk and predictions of terrorist plots are coming thicker and faster than Wayne Rooney. But how many of us run around screaming at the announcement of another? Nobody? OK, how many of us are a slightly edgy? Not many. John Reid said a few months back that terrorism and security were now ‘the highest concerns for daily living’. Really? You can tell he doesn’t have to worry about paying his rent or sending kids going to a shitty school, can’t you?

Well, if I was a wealthy criminal with a sense of humour (which I'm obviously not) here's what I'd do. As soon as Blair's biometrics are added to the database, I'd have some fun. I'd pay an amenable NIR maintenance officer to take those biometric details, detach them from the identity "Tony Blair" and attach them instead to the identity "Osama bin Laden". Blair goes to demonstrate his shiny infallible new system for a press conference, puts his finger on the scanner, and the system says "You are Osama bin Laden. GUARDS! GUARDS! ARREST THIS MAN!!!!!!!".

The state holds information about each and every one of its citizens on a variety of different databases, databases which should be, and have up until now been kept separate, but which ministers have indicated will shortly be being joined up into one monolithic, centrally-controlled system. From 2008 The National Identity Register which will hold information about each and every one of us, including personal details and biometrics, therefore has the potential to act as a central information clearinghouse for all the information collected and stored on us elsewhere.

The Government's anti-terrorism policy is being damaged by party political interests and vote-seeking on the part of ministers, a report has claimed. It also accused Tony Blair and John Reid, the Home Secretary, of playing to a "tabloid agenda" and "trying to win over the white working class vote." Sensible plans to combat terror are now being "submerged by the Government's 'electoral motives'" according to the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust.

a mystery surrounds police plans at the state opening of parliament tomorrow. a protestor has been told that he cannot stand opposite the carriage gates in parliament square. superintendent peter terry claimed that brian haw would be moved away towards westminster abbey too, but brian haw has been told nothing.

Many thanks to all of you who sent in questions to James Hall, the head of the ID card scheme. We had hundreds of questions and got through as many as we could in the hour he had available. Below you'll find the transcript of the webchat - Mr Hall hopes to come back for another session soon.

A list of the 51 "registerable facts" which will be recorded about everyone on the National Identity Register.

Sir, Alice Miles says biometric ID cards could help to prevent terrorism (Comment, “We face a terrible threat — so storing my dull, private details is no big deal,” Nov 8). However, the London School of Economics reports that: “Of the 25 countries that have been most adversely affected by terrorism since 1986, 80 per cent have national identity cards, one third of which incorporate biometrics.” Identity cards clearly do not make countries safe from terrorists.

The Liberal Democrats have called for a mass repeal of 10 parliamentary acts passed by Labour since 1997. A "freedom bill" sets out plans to abolish ID cards, control orders for terror suspects and to end extradition to the US "without proper evidence". The Lib Dems also pledge to end the storage of DNA details of people never charged or convicted of crimes.

ARE you waking up to the surveillance society? Recent media coverage reveals just the tip of the iceberg; the database state that threatens us all. Plans just revealed include intimate questions on your personal life in the next census. Fail to answer and you'll be fined £1,000.

For a man who has invested so much political capital in promoting biometric ID cards Tony Blair rarely sounds convincing on the subject. At his monthly press conference yesterday he again failed to convince. Yet the scheme will hurtle towards fruition long after he is politically dead. Is the stick he takes therefore noble or reckless? Counter-terrorism, benefit fraud, health tourism, serious crime, illegal immigration and working - the prime minister cited all five official reasons to justify the officially costed £5.4bn scheme.

Mr Blair said advances in biometric technology, capturing fingerprint and iris scans electronically, had led to an opportunity for more secure protection of personal identities and would therefore help in tackling identity fraud, illegal migration and terrorism. He said the national identity register would also help to improve police detection rates for the first time in decades by giving officers access to the database to compare 900,000 outstanding crime scene marks with fingerprints held centrally.

Every time a member of the government defends the introduction of ID cards, a new ground is offered to justify them. The latest effort, by the prime minister himself, is very revealing. At his news conference he said that the question of ID cards (along with other matters such as antisocial behaviour orders, CCTV cameras and the DNA database) are not about civil liberties but about "modernity", meaning that in these modern times we must use "new technology" to tackle crime and other problems.

British state terrorism in Iraq has cost more than £7bn. The real cost of Trident may be £76bn. Now it is more urgent than ever to raise our voices against Blair's mutant liberalism. By John Pilger

The id card system is coming to Bedfordshire and you are going to be enrolled whether you like it or not. The Government claims it will defend us from terrorism and help stamp out fraud, but one MP is not so sure. GARRICK ALDER talks to Nadine Dorries about the case against compulsory ID cards.

a brave and concerned group of public-minded citizens today helped to patrol the government's designated zone and prevent unauthorised demonstrations near parliament. they scanned passers-by and marked anyone thought to be prone to political outbursts.

Human rights are British. Human rights are as British as the Beatles. As British as the BBC. As British as bitter.

That was the Lord Chancellor, Charles Falconer this week, the man responsible for our legal system, finding an unlooked-for lyrical alliterative outlook in his unelected and illiberal largesse. You have to wonder how much it cost the tax payer to come up with such patronising and transparently contrived nonsense.

Up until now the best ally of governments and big corporations who wish to place every individual under total and unwavering surveillance has always been ignorance. People have simply failed to grasp the threat posed by individual surveillance systems and the way a range of technologies can reach out to each other almost of their own accord to create new pathways of exchange.

So-called dataveillance is used extensively in marketing, medicine, policing and border control. The state holds information on a variety of databases that should be kept separate but which ministers indicated recently would be joined up. The National Identity Register, on to which everyone's details and biometrics will automatically be entered from 2008, could act as a central clearing house for everything collected elsewhere.

Fears that the UK would "sleep-walk into a surveillance society" have become a reality, the government's information commissioner has said.

Since its creation 11 years ago, ministers have taken great pride in the fact that this country leads the world in the creation of a national DNA database. But its rapid growth - it now contains genetic profiles of more than 3.6 million people, many of whom have never been convicted of an offence - is ringing alarm bells.

This will come as no surprise at all to those people that have remained interested in the National Identity Register, Identity Cards and the Governments plans for 'greater sharing of information..... ....and that would be YOUR information, not theirs.....they've immunised themselves from inclusion, citing grounds of 'personal security'.

Ministers plan to force everyone in the country to declare their income and other wealth in the most intrusive ever national census, it has been revealed. They want questions that will disclose how much much people earn and whether they have a second home in the next nationwide survey in 2011.

One participant's account of a weekend of nonviolent mass civil disobedience - remembering the dead in Iraq, calling for an immediate end to the US/UK occupation, for massive reparations and debt cancellation so Iraqis can rebuild their country free from foreign interference, and for prosecution of those responsible for war crimes. Those events which took place within 1km of Parliament were also a direct challenge to Section 132 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (SOCPA).

Professor Alec Jeffreys said hundreds of thousands of innocent people's DNA was now held. He told BBC News: "The real concern I have in the UK is what I see as a sort of 'mission creep'. When the DNA database was initially established, it was to database DNA from criminals so if they re-offended, they could be picked up. Now hundreds of thousands of entirely innocent people are populating that database, people who have come to the police's attention, for example by being charged with a crime and subsequently released."

NEW Labour wants to send out its snooper scoopers to digitise our lives. The snoopers intend to investigate and interrogate house owners in their own homes and will stamp their beastly feet all over our civil liberties. The big bad wolves will huff and puff until the little piggies let them in. If they are denied access, fines of £1,000 and further £200-a-day fines will be issued.

Plans to add fingerprints to UK overseas passports are under way, despite the cost and complexity involved in gathering biometrics from UK citizens across the globe, a parliamentary answer revealed last week. Passports issued by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office are already "biometric", but only in the somewhat minimalist sense required by ICAO - the addition of fingerprints, however, would pull overseas UK residents into the National Identity Register net, closing off a prized but little-known escape route.

The Naming of the Dead ceremony outside Downing Street was allowed to proceed despite being 'unauthorised' by the police. However, two people were arrested after leaving the Downing Street pen. They had dared to refuse to give their names and addresses. At midday the tents were being packed up and the names of those who died in police custody were still in place after Saturday's demonstration. A sensitive area for the police no doubt.

Not only is there a peace camp right in the heart of London, but it's right on Parlaiment's doorstep, where the passing general public will see it, along with tourists and visiting MPs, but it's also in the middle of what is officially now an exclusion zone! A bit of an embarrassment for the government on many levels you might say, as it not only proves what a farce their so-called exclusion zone is, but it brings home quite literally to the doorstep of the parlaimentary system (note the avoidance of the word 'democratic' here) a stark reminder of that fact that they are currently engaged in at least two illegitmate Oil wars in the Middle East.

Tents abound. Never in the field of Parliament Square have so many been arrested by so few. What happened to the 800 police this time? While I was there they were only arresting people who refused to give name and address but those who did give ID could expect a summons.

The government has spent £7.5 million on destroying weapons. In isolation, that sounds pretty good, but take a look at Escaping the Subsidy Trap: Why Arms Exports are bad for Britain, a report by the Oxford Research Group, the British American Security Information Council and Saferworld estimating the amount by which the taxpayer subsidises the arms export industry.

Luton could be home to an enrolment centre for the Government’s controversial ID card scheme. People will have their fingerprints taken, their irises scanned, be photographed and provide a wealth of documents to back up their identities. The move is being masterminded by the Identity and Passport Service which has announced 69 new offices around the country including Luton where the office would be in A W House, Stuart Street.

As part of a weekend of Nonviolent Resistance to the Occupation of Iraq on the 2nd anniversary of the November 04 US/UK massacre in Fallujah, a peace camp was formed on Parliament Square.

As part of a weekend of Nonviolent Resistance to the Occupation of Iraq on the 2nd anniversary of the November 04 US/UK massacre in Fallujah, a peace camp was formed on Parliament Square.

As part of a weekend of Nonviolent Resistance to the Occupation of Iraq on the 2nd anniversary of the November 04 US/UK massacre in Fallujah, a peace camp was formed on Parliament Square.

As part of a weekend of Nonviolent Resistance to the Occupation of Iraq on the 2nd anniversary of the November 04 US/UK massacre in Fallujah, a peace camp was formed on Parliament Square.

around a hundred protesters took part in today's demonstration which began at midday with a reading of names of the dead of both british troops and iraqi civilians in the iraq occupation. police arrested five people during the afternoon, but at eleven this evening, the majority of people and twenty seven tents remain.

On Wednesday a group of masked-up white-overalled political agitators assembled by Parliament. It is unclear as to whether or not this gathering arranged with the Police as none were present to clarify the situation. After various banner waving antics (that were possibly illegal) the participants (who may have been gathered illegally) marched (definitely illegal!!!) down towards Victoria Street before occupying Methodist Central Hall for some kind of rally. Both the gathering, march and rally were organised under the noses of the Police without any intervention! Yet again the SOCPA legislation lies in tatters! Another blatant violation by political hooligans, which should have every reader of the Daily Mail Shaking with fear!

The use of a form of torture known as waterboarding to gain information is a "no-brainer", the US vice-president, Dick Cheney, told a radio interviewer, it was reported today. Mr Cheney implied that the technique - a form of simulated drowning - was used on the alleged September 11 mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is being held at Guantánamo Bay.

The CIA tried to persuade Germany to silence EU protests about the human rights record of one of America's key allies in its clandestine torture flights programme, the Guardian can reveal. According to a secret intelligence report, the CIA offered to let Germany have access to one of its citizens, an al-Qaida suspect being held in a Moroccan cell. But the US secret agents demanded that in return, Berlin should cooperate and "avert pressure from EU" over human rights abuses in the north African country. The report describes Morocco as a "valuable partner in the fight against terrorism".

Once again we need your help tracking down the ID interrogation centres due to open at 69 locations around the UK[1] next year. The contract to supply the offices was won by Mapeley[2]. The exact locations of the centres has not been revealed but they can be ascertained via planning applications and then our local groups can lodge objections to the applications. Last weekend in a heroic tight-deadline effort, NO2ID Cambridge managed to reach two local residents and get them to put in written objections before Monday's deadline in Ipswich. As we find more planning applications - or as Mapeley submits them - theses initial deadlines are likely to come thick and fast. There is thread on the NO2ID forums[3] where people are currently posting interrogation centre planning applications as they discover them (this information will shortly be moved to a page of its own on the main website). Please look out for local council planning application notices. If you have any information then please post it to our forum or contact us at (office@no2id.net). We would also like advice from anyone with any planning expertise and able to give us some hints on how to draft good objections to the applications.

Government needs a more clearly defined legal framework for data sharing, says the Social Market Foundation (SMF). The think tank has made the proposal in a report, "Who Shares Wins? Transforming the public services with intelligent information", published today. It says citizens should be placed at the heart of any government data sharing policy, but that a number of problems remain to be resolved.

A call for more detail on how the card might be used is met by an assertion that, until the card is in widespread use, it will not be possible to say for which processes it will be used. It reiterates, however, that no medical data will go into the National Identity Register that will be developed alongside the card.

Identity cards. Number-plate surveillance. CCTV. Control orders. The list of ways in which the Government has sought to manipulate and define the limits of our liberty grows ever longer. Ten years ago, the novelist and polemicist Henry Porter would have felt silly speaking out about human rights in Britain. But that was before the most fundamental assault on personal freedom ever undertaken. Now, he argues, it's time we woke up to reality

a woman attacked brian haw's parliament square display at about 5.15 this morning. but brian himself was arrested under the public order act, in an organised police swoop, over the content of the display. it is unclear if the woman was arrested. one of brian's supporters was actively prevented from taking photographs of her.

The government yesterday confirmed that it intends to de-risk its £5.4bn ID card programme by rolling the project out in a gradual incremental way rather than take a big bang approach.

the harassment of peaceful protestors associated with brian haw continues. allegations of psychiatric problems, unlawful stops and searches, intimidatory surveillance, dodgy court hearings. on and on it goes. the police still haven't tried barbara tucker in open court for any of her alleged 60+ socpa offences, instead relying on constant intimidation to try and wear her down and remove her by other means.

We’ve had control orders, detention without trial, Guantanamo Bay, up to 650,000 dead Iraqis, suicide bombings on the streets of Kabul, extraordinary rendition, ‘torture-lite’ and the rest of it. And for what? All to create more, better organised terrorists and make us less safe. And what will we get next? Instead of resignations, public humiliation and war crime trials for the ringleaders we’ll get ‘well, let’s try something else instead’ followed by yet more death and disillusionment. A campaign against binge drinking, let’s say, that produced more drunks would be laughed out of town but this shower are allowed to soldier on, making it up as they go along and making things worse. Why not just cut the crap and invite Al Qaeda to consult on policy-making? We seem to be doing exactly what they want so why not take the guesswork out of it?

The government has hired legal experts in an effort to block publication of Gateway reviews of the National Identity Card programme. Legal representation will come from the Treasury's Solicitors department, which has had approval to bring in external legal experts and a Queen's Counsel to fight a decision by the information commissioner, Richard Thomas, that two Gateway Reviews on ID cards can be published. The use of legal experts is expected to cost between £20,000 and £50,000.

The Government has admitted that it doesn't yet have a definite plan for the implementation and management of its ID card scheme, despite having spent £46.4m on the scheme to the end of May this year. On Thursday, Home Office promised to published a detailed, definite Identity Management Strategy within weeks. No final details of that strategy could be given, as it's still in the process of being formulated.

The British government is still trying to work out how it will implement the ID scheme, six months after it was approved by Parliament. Bear with us, parliamentary under secretary of state and MP Joan Ryan said today to an industry audience, which has been snapping at any scrap of information that would suggest where they'll find the pork.

brian has won the right to petition the lords to challenge whether his five-year non-stop protest outside parliament can be controlled under the new serious organised crime and police act legislation. he also has leave to appeal to the high court over the legality of police conditions restricting his current protest. no dates have been set yet for these hearings. meanwhile supporters are warmly welcomed in parliament square.

YOU DON’T KNOW ME. But I know you. Oh yes. You don’t mind me following you, do you? All I want to do is look after you. When you come out of your house first thing, I’m watching. And I’m with you every step of the way — to the shops, to work, wherever you go. I’m there on the bus just behind you. I recognise your car, too. I know where you bought it. And I’ve a list with every trip you take and which way you went. I take notes, lots of notes.

I saw this on the BBC and it made me wonder what would happen if the DVLA database was connected to his bank account, his national insurance records, his health records and everything else that's already kept on file. I'm sure it would be more than just a misundersanding to the victim when their life is put on hold on the basis of their 'dubious' existence.

The boss of UK police technology has warned that government attempts to use surveillance and databases to impose law and order could backfire unless those with access to the system are prevented from abusing the power it gives them. But authorities are not using the means already available to penalize organisations that abuse information in state databases.

The Treasury is fighting the decision of the Information Commissioner that it must publish independent studies on the progress of the national identity cards project.

Not sure I totally buy the control orders story at face value. Surely even the Home Office could keep track of 15...oh hang on, it is the Home Office. Look on the bright side, it is really awfully convenient that we can have another round of torching civil liberties and ripping up a thousand years of legal history because the Home Office can't run its own ruddy policies. They wouldn't, would they?

If people are suspected of terrorism, they should be kept under surveillance until enough evidence can be amassed and so that they can be be arrested, charged and tried fairly. If there is no such evidence, and these people do not have ready access to lots of money, to weapons, explosives, chemical toxins, biological agents or radioactive material, then they are not a terrorist threat to us here in the UK.

These two men are so very dangerous that the government wants to lock them up in Belmarsh high security prison indefinitely without charging them in a court of law. That's according to the government. And yet, according to that same government - who have no idea where these two men are - they are now not a risk to the public.

desperate to keep the ever more bizarre and crazy actions of charing cross police from being discussed in a court of law, superintendent terry seriously tried to have a peace protestor sectioned under the mental health act yesterday rather than charge her with an offence where real evidence could be scrutinised in a court of law..

Eventually, then, we could get to a situation where the ID card has to be presented for checking several times every day. This leads to the second concern. Every time the database is queried, the time, date, location and purpose could be recorded – allowing the database to build up a complete picture of every movement made by its individuals. As more agencies are granted access to the database, the number of transactions recorded will increase dramatically, to a point where we may no longer need CCTV, because ID cards are recording our every move.

The London School of Economics and Political Science Identity Project has published a response to the Government’s first bi-annual section 37 report to Parliament about the likely costs of the ID Cards Scheme (published this Monday). In particular, the LSE acknowledgse the inclusion of set-up costs, for the first time, in the figures that are to be considered by Parliament. However, the LSE says the report remains vague on many important areas of the scheme and raises important questions

On Monday (9th October) the government released its first report of "the likely costs of the ID cards scheme". A similar report will be presented to parliament once every six months - a gesture to appease labour back bench rebels who had the power to stop the ID cards bill earlier this year but were happy to squander our freedoms in return for what was always going to be a pointless exercise. The costings look remarkably similar to all the previous costings that have been touted over the last couple of years. For instance, the report states that once the entire population has been scanned and stored in the National Identity Register the scheme "could deliver between £1 billion to £1.7 billion a year in economic benefits to the UK economy".

The delegation of MEPs who came to Britain as part of their investigation into collusion with CIA flights did not get much co-operation from the Minister for Europe.

At 1pm on Monday October 9th, up to one hundred and fifty angry and concerned people converged on the Palace of Westminster, to sack parliament. The plan was to surround parliament and cause parliamentary activities to cease. MPs, Lords and civil servants would be prevented from re-opening Parliament.

As soon as protesters started to arrive, police quickly moved in stop and search everyone that was considered 'suspicious'. Many people were turned away from reaching Parliament Square, others were singled out by police units and prevented from joining the protests. See 2pm update when protesters were surrounded by police. An NUJ photogapher was hospitalised by police after being violently thrown into a kerb.

The Home Office has announced how much it thinks ID cards are going to cost us - a mere £5.4bn. This is a snip compared to what some independent observers reckon the program will cost. Last year The London School of Economics (LSE) put a price tag of upto £19.2bn on the ID card scheme.

In view that the Home Office has now confirmed costs for the National ID card scheme will be £5.4 billion, can you confirm if you support this scheme? It has also been widely reported that the figure could be closer to £20 billion, therefore could you also confirm at what cost would you personally no longer support the scheme?

Identity cards are to be presented as a crucial weapon in the fight against illegal immigrants in a significant change of tack by ministers. Until now, senior figures led by Tony Blair have insisted that the main reason for pressing ahead with the controversial programme is that ID cards will help win the war on terrorism.

GEOFF Hoon was last night accused of failing to co-operate fully with a European Parliament inquiry into the CIA's alleged use of rendition flights across Europe. Sarah Ludford, the Liberal Democrat MEP on the Brussels investigating committee, said the Europe Minister's answers under cross-examination earlier this week were "not as forthcoming or informative as would be justified by the weight of the allegations raised".

anti-war campaigner chris coverdale appeared at marylebone magistrates court this morning intending to argue that british and international law prevents him from paying a court fine arising from a conviction for 'unauthorised protest' and 'use of a megaphone'. the judge became the 21st who has refused to consider and uphold war law that chris has faced over 3 years in a variety of different cases.

An inquiry into claims that the UK and other nations helped the CIA secretly transport terrorist suspects is taking evidence in Britain. Seven MEPs are spending two days in London questioning MPs, human rights groups, and relatives and lawyers of victims of alleged "renditions".

Last Friday (22nd September) Gloucestershire County Council passed a motion against the government's ID card scheme. The motion received cross-party support and was only opposed by one member, Councillor Steve McHale - a member of the Labour group. Councillor Jeremy Hilton said it was important the council fought "this infringement on human rights". A list of councils that have passed similar motions can be found at
www.no2id.net/resources/motions/index.php

From Ravy Davy's speech

http://www.conservatives.com/tile.do?def=news.story.page&obj_id=132485&speeches=1

Quote
ID cards. When a half-way competent government would be protecting our security by controlling our borders… …these Labour ministers are pressing ahead with their vast white elephant, their plastic poll tax, twenty Millennium Domes rolled into one giant catastrophe in the making. They've given up trying to find a good reason for it. Last week Tony Blair said that ID cards would help control immigration, when new immigrants won't even have them. Does he even know what's going on in his Government? ID cards are wrong, they're a waste of money, and we will abolish them.

With the Labour Party conference just ending, perhaps now is a good time to remind ourselves that both Swindon MPs voted in support of subjecting each and every one of us to having at least 51 intimate "registerable facts" about us stored in one place, the National Identity Register - a single target for hackers and identity thieves.Your ID register information will be made available to "selected commercial partners" on a pay-to-view basis. This now looks likely to include High Street shops and insurance companies.

Some practical freedoms - personal privacy, confidentiality, anonymity, going about our business without need for official permit - are so familiar to us that they are unnoticed, like breathing. This ID scheme will choke them. It seeks to replace the trust in our society with formal validation by officials.

See also http://www.talkswindon.org/index.php?topic=785.msg...

A group campaigning against the introduction of ID cards and the National Identity Register is forming in Lewes under the title ‘Lewes Says No2ID’ ( http://www.lewes-no2id.net ). At an inaugural meeting held in the Lewes Arms last Tuesday, Lewesians who had been in touch via the national No2ID website came together to launch a Lewes branch of the national campaign.

On October 5th, the price of an adult passport will be raised again - from £51 to £66. The price of a passport has increased 57% in 10 months - a doubling of the price since October 2003. The price hikes are being driven by the ID cards scheme and unlikely to be the last. In addition from next year children over 16 applying for their first adult passport will be forced to attend an interview at one of 69 new UKIPS (UK Identity and Passport Service) interrogation centres. If you have not renewed your passport yet then it makes sense to do it now and buy yourself and your family 10 years' freedom from untold bureaucracy, punitive charges, invasion of privacy and the inevitable IT and administrative failures as the government merges our passports with its catastrophic ID scheme.

Today in Manchester, a group of around 70 protesters gathered for the Rally of Resistance, an act of civil disobedience against Anti-Terror laws preventing protests close to the G-Mex conference venue of this year's Labour party conference. Manchester Police decided to act less than peacefully and several protesters were gratuitously shoved into a cordon.

Last Tuesday, comedian / activist Mark Thomas played to a full house at the Arts Centre, promoting his new book "As used on the famous Nelson Mandela: underground adventures into the arms & torture trade". I used to think that he was primarily a comedian who did a bit of campaigning against the arms trade and against silly laws on the side. The opposite seems to be the case; he seems to spend most of his time entraping arms dealers in elaborate stings to higlight the way arms export control laws are full of loopholes, and does a bit of comedy on the side.

A Home Office minister has said the cost of the proposed ID card could be dramatically reduced if the government used its existing databases as a foundation for the scheme. Liam Byrne, Minister of State, Immigration Citizenship and Nationality at the Home Office, was speaking at a fringe meeting at the Labour Conference in Manchester. He told delegates that his experience as an IT consultant made him wary of taking a "big bang" approach to the project, the BBC reports.

Tony Blair is being compared to Hitler in an advertising campaign against ID cards. The advert - sponsored by the Lib-Dem party and Labour MP Diane Abbott, and supported by Blur's Damon Albarn - is running in newspapers and on billboards and shows a photo of the Prime Minister with a barcode on his lip like the Nazi leader's moustache.

The ill-advised Identity Cards Act was passed by Parliament earlier this year. Amongst its effects has been the abolition on March 30, 2006 of those parts of the 1981 Forgery Act which made it a criminal offence for a person to have a false passport or immigration document in his or her custody or control.

More than one hundred individuals gathered in Parliament Square tonight in the the third Mass Lone Protest against the SOCPA law. They protested against anything and everything - the point being that protest itself should not be subject to permission.

Students at Manchester University have sent a clear message to the Government ahead of the Labour Party Conference by forming a society opposed to the National Identity Register and Identity Cards. The Identity Register is expected to form an essential part of the Government's plans for future legislation, despite it being repeatedly shown that they will offer no benefit to counteract their cost, and will cause major problems for everybody in the UK, especially students.

LOTHIANS MSP Mark Ballard is urging people to renew their passports now to avoid being included on the National Identity Register and indicate their opposition to the new system.

We won't talk of causes, we'll talk of effects.
We'll whip up a horror of radical sects.
(We don't want to talk about why they are vexed)
The Rules of the Game Have Changed.

We'll tell you we're listening, but we don't want to hear.
We'll trash civil liberties, ramp up the fear,
(And, if after the PM's job, go up a gear)
The Rules of the Game Have Changed

the police tried more confused and bizarre tactics against barbara tucker in a pre-trial hearing today at westminster magistrates court. superintendent terry is behaving more and more like a madman obsessed by a personal vendetta against this peaceful anti-war campaigner

outside downing street this evening, barbara tucker was arrested by machine-gun carrying police, thrown against the railings, and rear-restraint handcuffed. her alleged crime? - behaviour liable to cause alarm or distress - namely swearing.

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.

after the rather public humiliation of superintendent terry this week in court, barbara tucker was back outside downing street this afternoon, attracting crowds as she sang anti-war songs with fellow activist, charity. meanwhile, steve jago, whose own draconian bail conditions are likely to be lifted on tuesday in a further slap in the face to terry, stood near-by reading orwell's 1984.

Curses, I am still stuck at work on a deadline. So I will have to hand in my form tomorrow for the next simulataneous demonstration on September 22nd ( deadline is 15th September) . Same drill, as last time, turn up 100% legally, and protest against the Serious Organised Crime Act.

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.

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.

Challenging the laws that forbid protest within a mile of parliament has never been so much fun. The idea here is to weigh the cops down with paper work so they themselves put pressure on the government to repeal this draconian and ridiculous laws.

in a substantial blow to charing cross police, a major socpa case against barbara tucker was thrown out today, and bail conditions were also lifted

Liz Davies argues that the new child index system will put more children at risk by keeping the very information abusers look for online

Phil Booth, NO2ID [3] National Coordinator said:
"From now on, you can assume that anything you tell to an official or public servant will not only go on your record, but be passed on to anyone at all in 'the public interest' - which has already been neatly redefined to mean ‘official convenience’[4]. Faced with the monstrous Children’s Index and National Identity Register, the Information Commissioner seems to have thrown in the towel. How many thousands of officials will now have free rein to snoop on your personal, business and children’s lives?"

in brian haw's court case this morning, he won the right to a judicial hearing over police conduct, thus putting superintendent terry in the dock. his own criminal case has been adjourned pending the review although a pre-trial hearing has been set for the 28th september.

With the Bush administration constantly insisting that it does not condone torture, despite an admission from the President that 'black sites' exist, and all the evidence supporting extraordinary rendition, it seems a bit strange that CIA operatives would be required to have an insurance policy to protect them from lawsuits where they might be accused of, erm... torture.

Observations on protest by Mark Thomas. Anyone passing Parliament Square the other night will have seen 150 banner-wielding folk, a man in a tight-fitting leopard suit, a panto cop, a bevy of news crews and one Tory member of the London Assembly complaining about the whole thing. This was the capital's second "mass lone demonstration" and I believe it is a unique new form of protest.

CONTROVERSIAL national identity cards will not be given a test run in Bolton, councillors have declared. Bolton Council voted to have nothing to do with the Government's idea, vowing not to take part in any trials unless forced to do so by law.

Starting with violent attacks on demonstrations against the EDO bombs factory, Brighton Police - under their Divisional Commander Kevin Moore - swamped the last demonstration against the bombing of Lebanon, harrassing demonstrators, especially Arabs and Muslims and videoing everyone present. Moore later declared the march anti-Semitic.

In over 30 years of activism, the Police response to a demonstration calling for an end to the bombing of Lebanon was the heaviest I can remember. Sussex Police are now in the habit of detaining anyone on 'terrorism' suspicions (remember Walter Wolfgang) and are now trying to define support for the Palestinians or opposition to Zionist terrorism as 'anti-Semitic.'

In January 2004, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, the source of reports on al Qa'ida's efforts to obtain WMD training in Iraq, recanted the information he provided. Al-Libi said he had a "strong desire to tell his entire story and identify why and how he facricated information since his capture". Al-Libi claimed he had fabricated "all information regarding al Qa'ida's sending representatives to Iraq to try to obtain WMD assistance". Al-Libi claimed that to the best of his knowledge al-Qa'ida never sent any individuals into Iraq for any kind of support in chemical or biological weapons as he had previously claimed.

brian's judicial review was turned down by the high court, so his trial for breaching socpa conditions last may (before the police operation to clear most of his display) will commence at marylebone magistrates court at 10 am on tuesday. supporters welcome outside the court from 9.30

barbara tucker and steve jago appeared in court on friday. this summons was from a 'report to the crown prosecution service' of their alleged 'unauthorised demosntration' outside downing street on the 2nd july.
in a restriction of their human rights they are on conditional bail not to enter downing street or parliament square

In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, governments around the world realized they needed to know a great deal more about global terror networks. This included how terrorist groups communicate, how they obtain funding, and how they recruit new members. The result has been a surge of government-sponsored initiatives to give security services more abilities to track phone and Internet usage, follow financial transfers, and confirm people’s identities.

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.

when barbara attended charing cross police station on bail, she had no idea she would be held for 24 hours, and obstructed from getting legal representation. her witness friend steve jago, ended up in cells after being violently assaulted. the men behind the continual harrassment of peaceful anti-war protestors, chief inspector robinson and superintendent terry, have recently stopped attempting to use socpa legislation and instead bring ever more bizarre charges against their victims.

President Bush has acknowledged the existence of secret CIA prisons and said 14 key terrorist suspects have now been sent to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The suspects, who include the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, have now been moved out of CIA custody and will face trial.

brian haw appeared at marylebone magistrates court on tuesday afternoon to ask for an adjournment of his socpa trial while a judicial review investigates the lawfulness of police actions. the end of the hearing descended into farce as superintendent terry ran from the court and called for two units of back-up after brian accused him publicly of his involvement in harrasment and intimidation of an innocent woman.

Over the summer several new local groups have been established around the country. Amongst them we now have groups in 25 of the 69 towns in which passport processing centres will open this Autumn. From October all first time passport applicants will require a face to face interview. These interviews will eventually be extended to all applicants, as compulsory registration on the National Identity Register is introduced. It is essential that we have a group in each of these locations to effectively campaign in the months ahead. There are still 44 towns where we need a presence. If you live in one of these locations please consider helping us by setting up a local group.

At 6pm Big Ben chimes and it starts – 200 people, all protesting different things, but at the same time and in the same place – lots of noise, from Brian Haw – who needs a car battery for his megaphone; has anyone got one they don’t need? – through to me “No to ID Cards”, as per my sign. Others I enjoyed were the campaign to ban Robbie Williams for crimes against music – which I wholeheartedly agree with – demanding improvements in public transport, namely the North London Line, people showing the absurdity of the law as people have been arrested for reading newspapers and the Socialist Wanker.

The Government says the Act was brought in for security reasons, though just how it stops a potential terrorist from going down the local nick and having his ‘protest’ rubber stamped by the police hasn’t been explained. Most suspect it’s just a way of suppressing dissent. It’s the political equivalent of sticking your fingers in your ears and shouting, ‘la, la, la, can’t hear you’.

In an attempt to use the act against itself and display it’s inherent absurdity, Thomas came up with the wheeze of the ‘Mass Lone Protest’ where as many people as possible applied, on the same day at the same police station, for an individual permit to protest. And apply they did. Last Thursday, 120 people turned up to lodge their applications at Charing Cross police station.

So, we girded our loins with moral indignation and hurried to Parliament Square. A raggle taggle of causes, from the serious to the eccentric to the simply silly. Warm evening sunshine, bemused tourists, Tim Bloggerheads ringing his bell, Kartina parping her horn, Brian Haw in full-throated fine fettle on his megaphone ( he needs a new one, one that can be powered by a car battery.)

I saw a dancing leopard, a jester's hat, a paper-bar-coded mask. Passion written on T-shirts, printed on balloons, scribbled on A4 limp paper , brandished aloft on card, worn as sandwich boards, waved on placards. We were over 100, not counting the press. It was good humoured and entirely British, eccentric, determined, totally legal. For now. Just.

Photos from the mass lone protests in Parliament Square.

We did it! About 100 people turned up at Parliament Square, each with their own particular issue to protest about, and there were some very amusing issues too. Some memorable ones were: the planetary status of Pluto, free chocolate for pensioners and calls for the exiling of Robbie Williams. My protest against the surveillance state was somewhat less surreal, but in keeping with the spirit of the event I did include my objection to microchips on wheelie bins (I'm not kidding).

My permit/licence/condescension for tonight’s Mass Lone Protest arrived this morning. I, among quite a few others, will be in Parliament Square from 6pm this evening. Come and say hello if you’re passing.

About 100 protesters gathered in Westminster earlier to protest against its "demo ban" zone. The protest, organised by comedian Mark Thomas, included people demonstrating about everything from war to protecting "Pluto's planetary position". They were in the one kilometre exclusion zone in Westminster, where protests now require police permission.

An architect of Iraqi descent has said he was forced to remove a T-shirt that bore the words "We will not be silent" before boarding a flight at New York. Raed Jarrar said security officials warned him his clothing was offensive after he checked in for a JetBlue flight to California on 12 August.

I waved my placard and rang my bell and told anyone who would listen that Tony Blair is a deadbeat who rips off hard-working consultants and doesn't pay his bills. Said placard had precisely the desired effect, and anyone who asked me why Tony Blair owed me £2000 got about halfway through their question before they were swiftly furnished with a pamphlet that explained matters in detail. The text from that pamphlet appears below:

Baroness Helena Kennedy, QC, one of Britain's leading defenders of human rights law, yesterday lambasted the proposed introduction of ID cards. Speaking at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, she said she would "go to the wall" rather than accept their introduction in Britain. "I am damned if they (the government) will introduce them," she said.

The Liberal Democrats have prompted (via a Parliamentary question) exposure of the number of times Home Office government computers have been hacked into in recent years. The figures, released in answer to a parliamentary question, show that the computers’ security have been breached on five separate occasions in the last five years.

Office staff are hacking into the department's computers, putting at risk the privacy of 40million people in Britain. The revelation undermines Government claims that sensitive information being collected for its controversial ID Cards scheme could not fall into criminal hands.

TONY Blair's plan for a national identity card has been dealt a fresh blow by the revelation that several government officials have been sacked for breaching security around the databases on which the scheme will be based. Unauthorised users have got around information technology defences at the Home Office's Identity and Passport Service on at least four occasions in recent years.

When the license to operate the NMR and to broadcast the daily executions was first awarded to Killalot (of Muslims), some even attempted to take to the streets in protest. Their applications to protest were of course refused under the new Defence of Democracy Act 2007 but the intention was there. Looking back, it is remarkable to think that it took so long for the self-evident justice of the NMR to be fully absorbed into the national conscience.

The stunt is designed to subvert the government's widely criticised ban on taking part in protests within a kilometre of parliament without prior police authorisation. Each participant is being encouraged to apply to the police for a "lone protest" licence (one demonstrator holding one placard), in the hope that the constabulary will be overrun by having to grant huge volumes of individual licences.

Dozens of protesters have been flooding police with requests to demonstrate about issues ranging from the Iraq war to "Goth Pride". Those filing into Charing Cross police station say a new law requiring all protests near Parliament to have police permission is "ridiculous".

Sussex Police have learnt that an anti war protest may take place in Brighton on Saturday 16th September 2006. It is a requirement of Section 11 of the Public Order Act 1986 that organisers of assemblies or processions should give notice to Police. No such notification has been received. The purpose of such notification is to allow sufficient time for Police to plan such events safely and if such notification is not received Sussex Police will conduct investigations and if necessary seek to prosecute organisers. If such notice is not received Sussex Police may on the day need to invoke Sections 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act which prescribes routes and assembly areas.

“Is that about terrorism?”, asked the lady that examined my onboard luggage. “Humm, well, it contains mentions of that, but it’s about your former ambassador to Uzbekistan and more about diplomacy”, I replied politely. “Does it have al-Qaida in it?” I looked a bit confused. “What?” - “Well, I have to check this with my manager, the rest of your stuff is fine, though.”

So, what's missing? Well, we've been told/leaked that they planned to blow things up in a big way, so why no charge of conspiracy to cause explosions? Why nothing connected to the rather strict legislation about aircraft security? Why is this important? Because at the time of the 14-28-90 days 'debate' I remember supporters of the Blair position claiming that you couldn't just charge someone with a simple offence and later add on more specific offences as you investigated. Applied to this case the suspects either aren't going to be charged with anything seriously explosive, or the Blair supporters were talking bollocks.

A recent damn-fool law has made it illegal to protest anywhere near Parliament without official police permission, and comedian Mark Thomas is organising a stunt to highlight the danger and stupidity of having this law in a democracy. Please note that taking part in this is 100% LEGAL, and the whole purpose of the stunt is to overload the system by dozens of people all asking for permission to protest all at the same time.

I think the timing was v-e-r-y interesting. And very bloody handy for the Government and its friends in the US. And I am frustrated that I, someone who was nearly killed by a suicide bomb, and who has always voted Labour, should even be thinking like this. And I think that this is the big problem; hardly anybody believes anything the Government tells them anymore. Even if they tell them, look, we have saved you from a terrible fate, people just don't trust them to tell the truth.

Having had his control orders quashed by Judges, Reid and others have been floating the idea of bringing back 90 day detention. The current case shows that the existing 28 days is ample time, but Blair's Bruiser is more interested in enacting as much legislation as he can.

This week David Cameron has released the Conservative party's 'mini-manifesto'. Item 6 clearly states: "Abolishing ID cards if they are introduced." NO2ID would like to see the leaders of *all* the opposition parties make such statements - some already have - but we don't imagine for a minute that even this would guarantee success. On the Parliamentary front, it will be in large part about how high up the political agenda we can get 'ID cards' by the time of the next general election. And then how clearly the electorate vote for abolition or against the surveillance state.

Perhaps the security services succeeded in foiling a terrorist plot this week after months of patient surveillance, or maybe they have made a colossal mistake and we will see the detained suspects quietly released without charge. Whether or not a plot has been foiled, there has been no failure of security that would demand further curtailment of our freedom, despite the well-timed speech from Dr Reid the day before the arrests. There is certainly no justification for the Home Secretary to run off to Europe to demand an EU-wide biometric database containing the fingerprints of citizens from across the continent.

Professor Sasse aired a number of concerns about the government’s approach to biometrics: inadequate consultation with industry experts; cursory trials; and an aggressive reaction to academic reports designed to stimulate debate. She also cast doubt on the way the government has costed the project. Outside the inquiry, she has warned of the vulnerability of a single database holding personal data for the entire population, and of the interoperability problems in store if the government does not decide definitively which departments will be plugged into the system.

SCHOOLCHILDREN across Merseyside are being fingerprinted in the classroom, it was claimed last night. Five schools in Liverpool, Knowsley, St Helens and Warrington are said to be among hundreds in the country to use a new biometric system. The Government says the method is mainly used for accessing school libraries, but critics last night described it as a "big brother system".

If you think Blair's government is above manipulating the timing of events like these in order to serve their own best interests, well, where have you been these last five years? Sending tanks to Heathrow in the run up to the Iraq war just a few days before the largest demonstration in British history is the most obvious example of this government's willingness to manipulate what is undoubtedly a very real threat of terrorism to further their own agenda. What use is a tank against a terrorist exactly? I mean, behave. Tanks do make for very theatrical images for the front pages of the newspapers though. And there have been plenty more examples of this sort of thing.

I don't suppose we'll ever know if there was a plot unless it actually happens, God forbid. We might get a better idea when the 21 people arrested so far get a trial (assuming they get a trial, or even charged). If there is a threat, (and, it does at least seem plausible) then some precautions are obviously necessary, but there is still no reason at all to trample all over the justice system. I still agree with that quote from the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau - "I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery". That is the concept that John Reid just doesn't get. Meanwhile, the Lebanon/ Israel conflict seems to have been forgotten.

Although the government will doubtless seek to exploit this anti-terrorism success to to strengthen it's argument for Identity Cards and the National Identity Register....
....doesn't the apparent success of this operation actually show that diligence, vigilance, intelligence, due care and paying attention to detail still work.
....and that the claim; 'Identity Cards and the NIR are crucial for anti-terrorism operations' is simply not true. A suicide bomber carrying an i.d card is still carrying a bomb. London's 7/7 bombings proved that......

Speaking hours before police arrested more than 20 men in connection with the alleged airliner attacks, this is the challenge that Mr Reid says Britain has to wake up to. In a broad speech on the nature of terrorism and security, he made it clear that the balance has to tip towards those who he says understand the threat, rather than those who "just don't get it". It is time, he said, that we asked ourselves the question "what price our security" - what are we prepared to give up in order to be safe. At the heart of the debate are two questions. Firstly, what powers does the state need to protect the people? Secondly, what can communities themselves do to prevent terrorism?

There you have it. The solution to the threat from "fascist individuals" is to effectively reintroduce state fascism, the very evil which human rights legislation was supposed to protect us against. Marcus Aurelius said that "The noblest kind of retribution is not to become like your enemy.", something our leaders would do well to consider as they take us inexorably down the path to oppression, becoming that which they claim to be struggling against.

There has been an odd series of incidents recently involving hate mail sent to Labour activists and other people unlikely to be on the BNP’s Christmas card list (leftists, gay and lesbian groups, a synagogue). The tactics have escalated from simple nastygrams, through letters containing white powder (not anthrax) to an actual letter-bomb, although one which thankfully didn’t go off. What struck me in the Grauniad story was a reassuring comment made by the police officer investigating the letter-bomb incident:

"He stressed that officers are not linking the incident to any terrorist activity."

Call me a naive literalist, but it strikes me that posting explosive devices to your political enemies is terrorist activity: it qualifies under a common-sense definition, and (more importantly) it falls well within the ample embrace of the Terrorism Act definition. But apparently these were ordinary decent criminals using an ordinary decent letter-bomb; it certainly wasn’t a terrorist letter-bomb.

Harsh realities however have meant that we've only seen glimpses of the weird vision of total security, total surveillance in ID scheme documentation. The idea has still always been there, in the sense that the Identity & Passports Agency is being positioned as the UK's identity gatekeeper within a Government monopoly of ID verification services, but the point where the private sector piles in has always been out there in the middle distance, in some future phase where ID cards had already taken off.

At around 5.20 yesterday I was walking past Downing St and saw the arrest of Barbara - didn't catch any other details as there were too many police surrounding her to have any kind of meaningful conversation. When I arrived they were telling her to move on as she was causing an obstruction. As you can see from the photos, they were causing more of an obstruction than she was. She kept telling them that she had permission to be there, but they made no attempt to verify her story and kept trying to get her to go.

Opponents warn that linking police databases with the private sector to beat crime will lead to a 'surveillance state' and a big assault on privacy

Tony's had an idea. He's going to make ID cards profitable. How? By charging 8 quid every time ant detail is changed on your ID card record, with hefty fines for non-compliance. He thinks he'll raise 11 billion pounds like this. Insane. In case anyone thinks Gordon Brown is going to be any better than Blair, here's a wake up call; Brown plans massive widening of ID cards

Gordon Brown has finally admitted that future Labour Governments intend to sell intimate details of your identity to companies willing to pay for access to them. Brown argues that the costs of building the Identity Card driven meta data-base (The National Identity Register), will be reduced by selling citizens intimate details to interested parties including insurance brokers, high street companies and foreign police forces.

TONY BLAIR’S identity card scheme could make up to £11 billion in “profits” for the government by imposing a range of additional charges on the public, a confidential Home Office memo claims.

The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee inquiry into the thinking behind ID Cards, published today, found the government had decided what it wanted to do before it had determined if it would even work. "In view of the potential adverse impact on large numbers of people, it is better that the scheme is late and workable than on time but flawed," the committee report said. It recommended that the Home Office, which introduced the scheme, "extend the procurement phase to ensure that enough time is taken to gather the necessary scientific evidence and to undertake all the appropriate trials".

Tony Blair’s very pleased with his shiny new ‘arc of extremism’, isn’t he? After testing it at the G8 summit in July he used the conflation of Iran, Syria and Hezbollah no fewer than three times in the speech he gave in Los Angeles this week.
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It makes you wonder just what names got discarded in the obviously-nothing-better-to-do brainstorming session that came up with it. It’s hard to think of anything worse. The ‘cat’s cradle of calamity?’ ‘Trellis of terror?’ ‘Minestrone of mayhem?’

Tony Blair hinted yesterday at a fresh delay to the Government's troubled identity card scheme when he said it would be "a major plank" of Labour's manifesto at the next election. Although the Prime Minister reaffirmed his confidence in ID cards, despite recent delays to the project, he indicated that the Government believed it needed a new mandate from the voters to press ahead with a compulsory scheme.

Geoff Reid of NO2ID Swindon said: "Anne Snelgrove clearly can't have had a clue what she was voting for. The Government still can't explain or provide evidence on how ID cards will solve all the problems that it has claimed they will, and it has no answer to people's fears that their personal information will be abused, spread around or even sold. Assurances about keeping the system secure are laughable in light of the appalling track record of Government IT, and all this secrecy about the mess they are in at even this early stage just shows they can't be trusted."

ID cards are back in the news again and, unsurprisingly, in an unfavourable light. MPs have been attacking the scheme in a report by the Commons Science and Technology Committee. This comes on top of the controversy over the rising costs of the scheme and the doubts over the available technology, as well as the civil liberties issues. Another problem highlighted was 'function creep', more Whitehall departments deciding they could find uses for ID cards.

Government plans to introduce ID cards are "inconsistent" and "lacking clarity", the Commons science and technology committee has said. The MPs were sceptical about the estimated costs of the scheme, which Tony Blair has called "a major plank" of Labour's next election manifesto.

Prime Minister Tony Blair has insisted that identity cards will form a "major plank" of the Labour Party manifesto at the next General Election. His pledge, which comes despite the fact he will step down before then, was made in his monthly news briefing.

The government's combined ID card/Biometric passport scheme is still rolling along with the announcement last week of an almost 30% passport price hike (£51 to £66) from October 5th. This will be the second price increase in under a year - representing a 57% increase since November 2005. From October the UK Identity and Passport Service (UKIPS) will also be introducing face-to-face interviews for first-time adult applicants at a network of some 69 processing centres across the country. These processing centres will form part of the network eventually intended to enrol the entire population onto the National Identity Register (NIR). To campaign effectively against ID cards and the National Identity Register it is essential that we have local groups in each of the 69 towns that will host these centres. Below is a list of the location of all 69 centres. If you live in one of these locations and there is not currently a local NO2ID group in your area then please consider helping us by setting up a local group.

Power is now more centralised in Britain than at any time since the second world war. Within Whitehall power has been sucked upwards to No 10, and at the same time it has drained away from the cabinet, the parliamentary Labour party and the national executive and funnelled towards more presidential rule from the centre. Unlike in the US, however, where power is shared between the president and a countervailing Congress, presidential power in the UK commands every aspect of the power structure and, with few exceptions, can enforce its will without consultation or concession.

The IPS said it would let flexible contracts that would allow it to develop unspecified elements of the ID cards system over time. Suppliers wanted an “incremental and scalable approach”, said the IPS and it agreed to update the market as further plans develop”. But the Committee is expected to criticize this approach for going against received wisdom on how to run a successful IT project.

The 'Rapporteur' of the European Parliament Committee investigating extraordinary rendition by the CIA in Europe, Claudio Fava MEP, has received death threats. Liberal Democrat MEP Baroness Sarah Ludford, Vice-Chair of the Committee today said: "I would like to express my solidarity with my colleague Claudio Fava at this difficult time. The police must offer him top-level protection. It is an outrage that in a democratic Europe, a parliamentarian investigating breaches of human rights and the rule of law can receive a death threat."

Ministers have lost their court appeal against a ruling which said six control orders used against terror suspects broke European human rights laws.

The government is considering making changes to Freedom of Information laws to deter "vexatious" inquiries.

each sunday afternoon, a group of anti-socpa campaigners have an open picnic (all are welcome - bring food and ideas to share) on parliament square. socpa is the serious organised crime and police act, part of which bans protest around parliament unless authorised and controlled by police. last night, to mark the first year of this new legislation, around a dozen protestors stayed overnight in the square in solidarity with brian haw, who has been there five years.

chris coverdale appeared in front of southwark crown court judges on thursday morning to appeal against his conviction under the new serious organised crime and police act for holding an 'unauthorised demonstration in parliament square (the designated area)'. rather than offering a human rights defence, he is challenging the legality of the Iraq war and the mass murder of 100,000 innocent Iraqis, claiming that in law the killings are an act of genocide and that he and every adult citizen has a duty in law to prevent the prime minister and members of the british government from committing such heinous crimes. the outcome of this case could have massive legal implications.

Recent suggestions that the national biometric identity card scheme is hanging in the balance may be misleading. All the latest signals suggest that, despite the manifest absence of the technology procurement, the government's commitment to the scheme is stronger than ever. What is true is that the scheme is broadening almost beyond recognition. But these changes make its eventual implementation if anything more certain - although far, far later than planned.

despite an unidentified police officer trying to stop me filming, here is footage of the assault yesterday outside downing street. highlighted once more is the continuing metropolitan police policy of violence against people who's only crime is holding a placard peacefully. an officer also ignore repeated requests to identify herself.

The cost of a passport is to rise by 29% to £66 from October to pay for the introduction of the first phase of the government's identity card programme.
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Phil Booth of the NO2ID campaign shared his shock: "This is nothing more than a front for the introduction of the ID scheme. Fifteen pounds a person from October is just the first instalment of a plan that will see you pay £93 or more once ID cards are introduced." He said he expected tens, if not hundreds, of thousands more people to renew early to avoid this backdoor identity tax, and keep their personal details safe from the "disaster-in-the-making" that was the National Identity Register.

i went to cover the gently amusing 'multiple lone demonstrations' (15 of them) organised by mark thomas in parliament square this evening, but one story or action after another left me disgusted by the end of the evening.

radical comedy activist mark thomas and the others notified charing cross last week of their intention to hold a range of individual demonstrations requiring authorisation to be held this evening at 5.30 in parliament square. charing cross photocopier worked overtime to process most of the applications and tie up the met in bureaucratic bollocks.

Labour's ID scheme is supposedly on the rocks, but let’s not be overly comforted by this news. There are good reasons to continue to build up the pressure. In particular, passport developments in the UK Identity and Passport Service (IPS) and the European Union could result in alternative identity databases, and since the Act is on the statute books, compulsory ID could start at any future date.

Leading IT suppliers have told the government they may not bid for the national ID cards contracts because they fear being associated with the hugely unpopular scheme, according to a leaked report.
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The report said: "Recent indications show that the British public's appetite for the ID card is declining. Association with the resulting programme may compromise a company's public image." The suppliers have also warned of security risks, saying the ID cards and NIR could be compromised by criminal gangs and identity thieves.

Now the government is looking at issuing cut-down 'early variant' ID cards that would 'protect' your identity with nothing more than a four-digit PIN. A gift to fraudsters. The government will still fingerprint, iris scan, background check and interrogate you for a passport - but then simply store all your data in their database. No 'benefits' or services for the public. Just all the costs, risks and intrusion.

FRESH evidence that Tony Blair’s flagship identity cards scheme is in crisis is disclosed in a confidential Home Office report which has been leaked to The Sunday Times.
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Responding to a question from Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, about the programme’s vulnerability to fraud, Ryan said: “I hope to be able to publish our findings shortly and they will give him [Clegg] the reassurance that he requires, as well as reveal the widespread public support for the ID card system.”
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Clegg said: “This suggests that government ministers are increasingly living in a parallel universe on ID cards. They claim there’s public support when we know it’s dwindling. They claim it’s insulated from fraud when its own analysis suggests it’s much more susceptible to access by criminals. Ministers are displaying King Canute-like powers of self- delusion.”

Approximately 50 supporters gathered this morning at Stockwell Tube station to mark the first anniversary of the murder of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes by the British security forces.

At the full Waltham Forest Council meeting on Thursday, 20th July, Chingford & Woodford Green councillor Sheila Smith-Pryor (Hale End & Highams Park ward) seconded the Liberal Democrat motion opposing the introduction of ID cards in Britain. In her very effective, well-researched and persuasive speech, Sheila spoke of the costs of the scheme and the potential technical problems. She stressed that ID cards would do nothing to prevent terrorism, crime or fraud.

Israel’s military attack against Lebanon is the latest in an endless series of aggressive wars the country has waged against its Arab and Persian neighbours. This time it means missile attacks on Beirut suburbs killing hundreds and the destruction of Lebanon’s ability to function economically. Ports blockaded, the international airport blown up, bombing of water and electricity facilities, bridges, medical supplies and targets picked solely for their proximity to the Syrian border. And of, course the real misery, as with all aggressive wars, is felt by the ordinary people, with hundreds of Lebanese civilians killed and half a million displaced from their homes to avoid Israeli missile strikes.

Plus: Crap Arrest of the Week, EDO blockaded, and de Menezes' killers not prosecuted.

The ID scheme is the most obvious of the Home Office's IT headaches, but it's by no means the only one. The Immigration and Nationality Directorate's recent discovery of up to 450,000 records associated with asylum seekers speaks volumes about the state (or indeed the very existence) of the asylum and immigration database, while serial failures in passing simple pieces of data between departments and agencies indicates systemic IT failure. Even if you conceded the ID scheme was dead now, you would not be able to fix the Home Office without fixing all the rest of the IT.

Identity cards are not just problematic in principle but also because of the administrative challenge they pose. The prime minister told MPs yesterday that the ID-card scheme is on track. But emails leaked last week suggest officials are uncertain about what information is to be stored, both on the cards and in the national register. The Home Office says that getting ID cards right is more important than any arbitrary timetable, but there are reports of a slimmed-down scheme being rushed through to save face.
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Doubts about what the system will do flow from confusion about what it is for. This is a policy increasingly in search of a rationale. Different departments appear to have held different views: a policy confusion, not an administrative one, that must be addressed.

Biometric identity systems, until a few years ago the stuff of science fiction, are now hitting the big time in the real world. All exploit the fundamental physical differences between human beings - whether in the form of the ridges on our fingers, the way we walk or even the way we speak - to identify individuals.
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Over the next few pages we take a look at some of the technologies in use now and the ones that are still in development.

just after 9am, barbara tucker and steve jago set off from parliament square to go and deliver an open letter to met chief sir ian blair at scotland yard.
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next thing, they encircled him, slammed in in overtight handcuffs, and called a van, which arrived shortly after with siren and lights in full emergency mode. they informed him they were arresting him for 'breach of the peace', and he was driven to belgravia station. barbara was not arrested.
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later, barbara was 'reported for summons for holding an unauthorised demonstration' which brings her total of summonses to more than forty now. she filed a notification with charing cross police earlier in the year, but they have failed to authorise her protest as required under socpa legislation, instead, continually harrassing her in the streets.

Laws meant to combat money-laundering and terrorism mean Britons are increasingly being asked to produce ID. Buying an airline ticket, leasing a property, opening a savings account and registering with a doctor require ID. And according to the research, by 2010 Britons will be asked to produce ID an average of 17 times a year.

IN the House of Commons (July 12) concerns were raised that three British subjects were being extradited to the States without them being allowed to put up a defence. Our MP, Anne Snelgrove, claimed that the human rights conditions were met in the various courts that those gentlemen have been through in this country.

Watching the BBC's 'The Record' political programme, I caught the end of a parliamentary debate about ID cards and wondered who the Home Office minister was who was doing such a lousy job of defending the already dead project in front of David Davies. She was getting increasingly hysterical as DD pointed out obvious problems like identity theft. The shrill harpy in question turned out to be Joan Ryan. The name rang a bell but I hadn't heard her dulcet tones before.

In our first video, we explode the myth that the government is going to drop its personal ID plan. It's not going to happen. The campaign continues and in the following video diaries we'll be showing you what's planned and why we need to fight against it.

Children's Minister Hilary Armstrong was due today to outline what could become one of Project Blair's most ambitious, misguided and hubristic projects yet. The Government will attempt to identify children at risk of failure, violent behaviour or criminality at birth, and take the necessary corrective actions to steer them onto a law-abiding and successful path.
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The problem with prediction is that although it is possible to identify 'tell-tale' signs in actual offenders, the presence of these does not necessarily identify future offenders. Start with the real villains and work backwards, and the signs were all obviously there, but studies that start with the signs and work forwards don't end up separating the serial criminals from the law abiding.

What is it about this government that means it never sees a computer system it doesn't love? At least aversion therapy works for alcoholics. After you've thrown up a few times, you don't want another vodkatini. But nothing deters our ministers. Every disaster sends them lurching towards the next - passports, the Child Support Agency, the NHS computer, tax credits, farm payments - the list grows monthly.
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ID cards are going to make every other botched new system look like the merest blip, a minor accident, the equivalent of getting an email asking if your penis is too large and needs to be reduced.

So should we expect a heavy sales pitch for ID cards for immigrants as the actual central plank of Reid immigration strategy? With a 2008 date attached? The flaw here is that all of the specification, design and procurement roadblocks that make it impossible to begin shipping ID cards for everyone from 2008 apply equally to a card for immigrants, unless that card is a lower specification "variant" that doesn't operate with the National Identity Register, because the National Identity Register doesn't exist yet. The civil servants clearly don't think it can be done, but that hasn't stopped Reid and Blair in the past, so this week's announcement could prove to be absolutely fascinating.

The Conservatives have attacked the government's plans for identity cards, saying they could increase the risk of identity theft.
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"ID cards are likely to make the problem of identity theft worse, not better. Microsoft's national technology office says that ID cards could trigger massive identity fraud. One of the FBI's leading identity fraud consultants said the ID card could be replicated by criminals perfectly in six months."

the two demonstrations this afternoon were both on the same issue, against the recent and current devastating israeli attacks on gaza and lebanon. one group, school students against the war, were expecting up to twenty to take part, and received authorisation over the phone for the demo to go ahead with just over twenty-four hours notice. the second group, a lebanese welfare group, also expected small numbers of around 50. but from one 'o' clock onwards, it was clear a much larger gathering was forming as more and more people arrived, and police reinforcements were quickly called in to contain the crowd and monitor the situation.

Last week, Britains Home Office found itself in the uncomfortable position of explaining that they do not have a specific timetable they can commit to with the national identity card. One of the largest public sector projects in Europe, the multi-billion pound project was supposed to get off the ground in March when the Identity Cards Act received royal assent, becoming law, on 30 March 2006.

As of last week, no date has been set for the introduction of the cards and it appears that it will not even begin this year. Originally, the identity cards were to be issued in 2008-2009, but that target now seems in doubt.

The Prime Minster has insisted that the Government's ID cards programme is going ahead - and at the same pace as before. His assurance comes after it emerged last week that a crucial stage of the controversial project has been postponed. Tendering of contracts for the multi-billion-pound programme - which will force every adult in Britain to give fingerprint and iris scans - has been put off until at least the end of the year. Computer Weekly magazine disclosed that the delay will mean the scheme is highly unlikely to be running by 2008 as planned. It also emerged that the project is likely to be dramatically simplified.

The security of the police National DNA Database is in question following the disclosure of confidential emails which reveal that a private firm has secretly been keeping the genetic samples and personal details of hundreds of thousands of arrested people.

Liberal Democrat New Forest district councillor Bob Hale has joined the NO2ID group's Renew for Freedom campaign. NO2ID says when the rules change, passport applicants will have to attend an interview, agree to be finger-printed and provide a wide range of personal information for a National Identity Register database.

Pupils at a Berkshire secondary school are to be fingerprinted and have their details kept on a database in a controversial scheme to be launched this autumn. The plan to scan pupils' prints every time they enter or leave the school has been criticised by sixthformers who claim their human rights are being infringed. They believe the storage of their biometric data on computer systems will breach their right to privacy. Several pupils said using the scanners would make them feel like criminals.

after assaulting steve for holding a single banner with two quotes written on it - one from the magna carta, and another by aristotle - police held him in a van for more than an hour with tight handcuffs behind his back. they then merely 'reported' him for unauthorised protest. was their violence really necessary?

The Home Office will review the Government's controversial identity card scheme and could order a scaled down version of the identity card. But it denied that the scheme is in trouble.

The Information Commissioner says that the identity card scheme planned by the Home Office could breach data protection legislation unless it is carefully controlled. Commissioner Richard Thomas makes the warning in his Office's annual report.

"The creation of a National Identity Register means that the scheme amounts to much more than issuing a simple identity card. Of particular concern is the extent of information to be held by government and how this will be used in practice," says the report. "There is a danger of function creep, whereby information is used for purposes far beyond that for which it was collected."

Procurement for the multibillion-pound national biometric identity card scheme will start only once the current Home Office review is completed.
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The newly-created Identity and Passport Service (IPS) is keen to play down the delays. At a conference organised by supplier body Intellect last week, IPS chief information officer Annette Vernon said there will be no commitments while the review is in pro

Press reports in the United Kingdom suggest the UK’s national identity card project is once again under review. A report in the Sunday Times, based on leaked e-mails from Home Office officials, shows serious doubts exist among the government officials responsible for setting up the ID card scheme.

The government has succeeded in forcing Craig Murray to remove the documents it doesn't want you to see from his website. Yay for freedom and open government! There are quite a few mirrors of the documents out there so you an still read them. Here's a good one. And another. And another. (And here's mine. I've yet to receive any complaints from Mr. Buttrill so I guess in my individual case, it's OK to leave them up. Number 9 still won't unload though, I'm afraid.)

Craig Murray has reluctantly had to remove the documents, corroborating the account in his book, Murder in Samarkand, from his website after threats of legal action from the Foreign Office. It seems that in this country freedom of information, much like the libel laws, is an exclusive plaything of the rich:

To defend this case would cost the price of a London house. I don’t have a house, in London or anywhere else.

If you haven’t seen the documents, they’re available here, here, here, here, here, here, and as a bittorrent here.

Under legal advice, Craig Murray has been forced to remove the documents from his own website. However, the threat of an injunction only applies to him. So, untill we receive a letter from the Treasury Solicitors, our mirror is staying up, as is Dahr's, and as are then numerous other mirrors that have sprung up.

Of course, if the FCO pursue all of us who are now hosting the documents, then they have a very long and ultimately futile job ahead of them and will show just how desperate they are to stop you seeing them. If they do not, then their punitive vindictive attempts to make life as difficult as they can for Craig will be seen for what they are.

For the moment, it looks like they are playing the man, rather than the ball.

The government's multibillion-pound national identity card scheme appeared a project in crisis last night after the Home Office admitted it could no longer give a date when the first cards will be issued. Putting contracts out for tender for one of the largest public sector computer projects in Europe was expected by the industry to start in March, when the ID cards legislation reached the statute book. But tendering has now been delayed until at least the end of the year, with no date set.

A link to the Lib Dems' campaign page on ID cards, followed by a debate about whether the aspect of the campaign to spent the money saved by not implementing the NIR on 10,000 extra police, is valid.

Although the fat lady (or possibly more appropriately, the portly former Home Secretary) has yet to sing on the subject, yesterday's statements from the Home Office make it a racing certainty that ID cards are dead in this parliamentary administration. The portly former Home Secretary meanwhile has been busy singing denunciations of John Reid's misdeeds in other areas, but will no doubt warble on the sad end of ID cards just as soon as he gets a minute in his busy schedule.

brian haw has now negotiated permission from westminster council to use his megaphone at certain times in parliament square. this permission also gives him the right under the socpa law. this morning from 11.30, flanked by two policemen, one of whom was armed with a machine gun, brian was broadcasting to passers-by and tourists, and was berating tony blair as his security convoy swept past for prime minister's question time. meanwhile, the dynamic duo, incorrigible barbara tucker, and front page media star steve jago (see previous reports), positioned themselves in front of the gates of parliament. steve was holding a large sheet of paper with the words "drop blair, not bombs" and "new labour:home-grown terrorism", while barbara was wearing her "blair legacy genocide" banner.

New Labour are not as stupid as they seem. I have now had a chance to take legal advice, and that advice is as follows. To defend this case would cost the price of a London house. I don't have a house, in London or anywhere else. I am therefore obliged to give in to force majeure and remove some of the documents from my own site. This reeking government is therefore able to mask its stink on this particular miniscule corner of the internet.

Here is another piece of legal advice I received. Copyright cases cover one instance of publication in one place. Anyone else who has published any government documents that might be Crown Copyright, or not, (and I believe there are hundreds of thousands of documents on the web on which the government could, by the argument in Mr Buttrill's letter, claim copyright), is an individual case and can wait to hear from Mr Buttrill.

Force Majeure wields a two-edged sword.

The government claims that national identity cards will help to counter terrorism, illegal immigration and ID fraud. That's rubbish, says Henry Porter, and in fact there is something much more sinister about them - they will fundamentally alter the relationship between citizen and state, and make slaves of us all

A plan to introduce compulsory identity cards may be delayed, the British government said on Tuesday, adding to speculation one of the world's largest IT projects could be scaled down or scrapped. The introduction of biometric ID cards, the most ambitious scheme of its kind according to experts as they would carry fingerprint, iris and face-recognition technology, had been set for 2008. However the Home Office confirmed the timescale would depend on a departmental review ordered by new Home Secretary John Reid and said the cards would only be introduced "when the time is right."

The Home Office has denied claims that the national identity card programme is on the skids. This followed reports in The Sunday Times that the plan could be scaled down as part of a face saving exercise after a realisation that aspects of the programme are not feasible. A Home Office spokesperson told GC News: "Any suggestion that we have abandoned the introduction of ID cards is wrong. We have always made clear that their introduction would be in stages – an incremental process. That remains the position."

A BACKLOG of 5,000 passport applications has built up after serious problems developed with a computer system only weeks after the inception of a new online service.
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The spokesman said that the agency expected to clear applications at a rate of 500 a day. He refused to disclose how many of the 13,000 applicants had received their passports within the three-week target promised, or how many of the 5,000 backlog had been waiting longer than three weeks, other than saying that it was “a very small proportion”. “I am not going into figures,” the spokesman said.

Oh for heaven's sake. Yes, we've said it before, but it is worth saying again. What the hell is going on? I am ashamed that I ever voted for these people. More ID lunacy as the whole ridiculous and insulting plan is outed as being doomed to failure in the Sunday Times, and gets another good kicking in the Guardian today from the indefatigable Henry Porter. Nice to see an issue uniting left, right and moderates.

I still mean it, everything I said : Give Me Liberty.
Let's not shut up about it, and don't forget to pop into the nice people at No2ID

The plan calls for a National Identity Register, which will hold the details of some 50 million people. Citizens will get an ID card when they renew their passport, although a political compromise reached to pass the legislation means citizens can opt out of receiving the card until 2010.

The Home Office has estimated the program will cost £584 million per year, with citizens paying about £93 for an ID card and a biometric passport. However, the London School of Economics has said the cost could be double government figures.

The government has come under frequent fire for its track record with other large-scale IT projects. The country's National Health Service, which provides free health care, is modernizing its IT systems but has wrangled with suppliers over missed deadlines and budget overruns.

The ID card plan which Tony Blair has said is central to tackling terrorism could be scaled down as part of a "face saving exercise", leaked documents say. Officials say ministers are setting themselves up for failure and are "ignoring reality" by pressing ahead. The Sunday Times published documents suggesting ministers are engaged in a rethink, but the Home Office denies claims the plans are being ditched.

It's been just over a year since silicon.com launched the ID Cards on Trial campaign. In that year we've heard warnings from the government's Information Commissioner that the database at the heart of the project is "unwarranted and intrusive". We've also seen the Home Office's claims about the cost of identity fraud (a key justification for the project) comprehensively debunked, while all the time the predicted cost of the project has continued to rise.

Craig Murray, erstwhile UK Ambassador to Uzbekistan has published a book "Murder in Samarkand" about our brave partner in the War On Terror and, inter alia, detailing MI5 and CIA use of information obtained from torture. The Foreign Office (FCO) claimed it was a pack of lies so he obtained documents under Data Protection and Freedom of Information Acts to back up his statements. The FCO said, if he included these documents in his book , they would sue for breech of copyright. (Read those last two sentences again slowly, and see if you can spot the logical flaw ...).

The Mirror this week revealed that over 700,000 schoolchildren have been fingerprinted without the prior consent, and sometimes even knowledge, of their parents. Although not directly linked to the National Identity Register (NIR), concerns have been raised about who will have access to data gathered for this and other databases - most notably the Children's Index, which has been in the spotlight again [2].As well as riding roughshod over the principle of consent, it appears that parents are left largely in the dark about which agencies in what circumstances will have access to their child's information - not just data derived from their fingerprints, but all associated records.

This mornings protest, which was attended by 60 people including Caroline Lucas MEP, continued for longer than expected after the police imposed an order under section 14 of the Public Order Act, preventing anyone from leaving before midday without seeking permission from the senior officer present. The senior officer refused to reveal the grounds on which he would release protestors. This raises concerns that protestors are suffering arbitrary detention as defined by the Human Rights Act. Legal advice is being sought by the protestors.

Tony Blair’s bid to rollout a national identity scheme is heading for disaster and may not be fully unveiled until 20 years time, according to leaked memos from the men charged with running it. The scale of the problems facing the multi-billion pound project has caused officials to draw up a “face-saving” version of the scheme, to allow Labour to keep its pledges to the electorate.

Yesterday, one footballer headbutted another footballer, and today it's still all over the news.

Also yesterday, two people were violently arrested outside Downing Street. Their crime? Holding banners saying "Peace, Justice, Love for all", "to no-one will we sell, to no-one will we refuse or delay justice or right", and "the only stable state is the one in which all men are equal before the law". But this has seemingly gone completely unnoticed by the mainstream media. I have just listened to the full hour of radio 4's PM news programme, and there was no mention. I searched the web, and the only reference to it is this report on Indymedia where I originally read about the incident (reproduced below).

Leaked e-mails between David Foord of the Office of Government Commerce and Peter Smith of the UK Passport Agency discussing the unfeasibility of the ID card scheme

TONY BLAIR’S flagship identity cards scheme is set to fail and may not be introduced for a generation, according to leaked Whitehall e-mails from the senior officials responsible for the multi-billion-pound project. The problems are so serious that ministers have been forced to draw up plans for a scaled-down “face-saving” version to meet their pledge of phasing in the cards from 2008. However, civil servants say there is no evidence that even this compromise is “remotely feasible” and accuse ministers of “ignoring reality” by pressing ahead.

What do you get when you combine an ambitious IT scheme run by the government and a plan that threatens to ride roughshod over civil liberties? The answer is an unholy mess. As leaked e-mails today reveal, Tony Blair’s flagship identity card scheme is struggling and could even collapse in an embarrassing shambles. Two years before ID cards are set to be introduced for people renewing their passports, the chances of meeting that timetable look remote. The entire scheme may yet have to be shelved.

Can I remind readers that Labour has done more than any government in the past 50 years to restrict liberty, to compromise freedom of movement, assembly and speech, to reduce due process, to bring about a state of total surveillance and to remove rights which were indeed guaranteed at Runnymede and in the Bill of Rights? The disconnect between what Labour says it believes and what it does is beyond satire.

We are 1 year on from 7/7

Are we any safer or less safe than we were on the day the UK celebrated London getting the Olympics?

Would ask why we have not been allowed a public enquiry - but i suspect it's 'cos HMG knows the outcome of it & the outcome will include troops going into Iraq!

Suspicion of foreigners, fears over terrorism, suspects held without charge - an Elizabethan episode has useful lessons for today's times. In January 1594, Queen Elizabeth I's headstrong young favourite, the Earl of Essex, accompanied by officers from the Elizabethan security forces, raided the residence of the Queen's personal physician, Dr Roderigo Lopez.

They detained him on suspicion of treason, interrogated him briefly and imprisoned him. Intelligence, carefully gathered over the preceding months had, Essex claimed, uncovered an elaborate plot, masterminded and financed by the Spanish government, to poison the Queen, restore the Catholic religion and seize the English throne.

In 3,500 primary schools across the UK, impressionable children aged from 5 to 11 are being fingerprinted. 3/4 of a million have already been processed, and 20 schools a week are joining the scheme. If you're a parent, your school could be next. But even if you're not, is this really the kind of society we want to live in?

The whole process may be illegal. We haven't found a single parent who was ever asked for their permission. Many were not even informed until afterwards. Some only found out from their children. But in our school, in Cambridge, concerned parents decided to do something about it...

To find out what happened, and how you can help us, please visit http://www.LeaveThemKidsAlone.com

The government is battling to ensure that estimates of the benefits and risks of identity cards remain secret. The freedom of information watchdog ordered the Department of Work and Pensions to publish its findings about how the cards could fight ID fraud. Now the department has decided to appeal against the information commissioner's ruling.

FURY erupted yesterday after it emerged an estimated 700,000 children are being fingerprinted at school. Systems in 3,500 primary school libraries allow pupils to take out books by scanning their thumb prints instead of using a card. But campaigners warn the technology is a massive invasion of privacy and a step towards a "database state".

edwin is setting off on a 'freedom march' round britain, giving talks and meeting people along the way to publicise the massive restrictions on freedom that this government has been responsible for.

last week brian haw (5-year veteran parliament square protestor) won back the limited right to use a megaphone in parliament square in a court case against westminster council who had raised concerns about noise previously.

inspector hart from charing cross threatened a mother today that she would be arrested and that her seven-year-old daughter would be taken to the police station and handed over to social services. her crime? singing outside downing street with a statement about bullying round her neck.

This article was orignally published in Vanity Fair, and reprinted in the Independent. It's very long, but well worth reading, and sharing with anyone who hasn't yet woken up to the creeping erosion of our freedoms. I've reproduced it in full here (with some commentary, a few related links, and some of my own emphasis) due to the tendency of the Independent to hide their best articles behind a subscription firewall. This article is too important not to share.

Topics covered:
Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 / Parliament Square protest ban
Anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs)
Terrorism Act 2000
Protection from Harassment Act 1997
Civil Contingencies Act 2004
Inquiries Act 2005
Legislative & Regulatory Reform Bill (still going through parliament)
ID Cards Act 2006

... and examples of how they have been (and could be) used for sinister purposes unrelated to their original intentions.

Charity Sweet, 40, and a mother-of-three, was holding a copy of Thursday's edition which carried the headline: "Warning: if you read this newspaper you may be arrested under the Government's anti-terror laws." Inside was an article reprinted from Vanity Fair magazine which ran across the first three pages of that day's issue of the newspaper. The article, by the writer Henry Porter, accused the Blair Government of a sustained erosion of civil liberties.

When is a demonstration not a demonstration? That's a question that SOCPA followers have been asking for almost a year now, as ever more people come before the judge as Serious Criminals. Today we got a clue, inasmuch as it seems that wealth and power might have a bit to do with it. Britain's top bosses marched straight through the SOCPA zone to the Home Office - author of that law - without a constable in sight.

In the guise of fighting terrorism and maintaining public order, Tony Blair's Government has quietly and systematically taken power from Parliament and the British people. The author charts a nine-year assault on civil liberties that reveals the danger of trading freedom for security - and must have Churchill spinning in his grave

Today the Institute of Directors marched around 100 of their members through the SOCPA zone without seeking permission from Charing Cross nick. They handed some kind of petition into the home office and then dispersed. They were only challenged once by two cops who let them off the hook completely. The Police did not monitor the demo or even provide plods to stop the traffic. This seems a little odd when you consider that half a dozen anarchists/animal rights campaigners/pacifists will be surrounded by up to 20 cops "for their own safety". Proof if its needed that we are not and never will be equal in the eyes of the law.

On June 18, a man was arrested in Whitehall under the Serious and Organised Crime and Police Act, which prevents demonstrations within a kilometre of parliament. Steven Jago, who was carrying a placard bearing the George Orwell quote "In a time of universal deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act", was later found by police to be in possession of several photocopies of Porter's article Letter from London: Blair's Big Brother Britain, printed in the latest issue of the magazine. Mr Jago claims that they were confiscated by police and he was told the article constituted "politically motivated material".

on the 18th june, steve stood outside downing street with a banner on which he had written two quotations. "in a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act" - george orwell, and "no man deserves punishment for his thoughts" - anon.
...
henry porter, who held a very public exchange of emails on civil liberties with tony blair in the independent newspaper earlier this year, has now written to sir ian blair at the met as follows:

As details of the supposed plot and the identity of the alleged conspirators came more sharply into focus, however, the media backed away. Not only was the Chicago skyscraper in no danger, there also existed no plot, much less the means of carrying one out. The entire government case was so manifestly bogus that not even the right-wing fabulists at Fox News could sustain it.

Nevertheless, the initial sensationalism and fear-mongering had an effect. By the time public defenders were appointed for the seven men indicted in the case, the attorneys’ protests that their clients were victims of blatant government entrapment received a minute fraction of the attention given the government’s “terror” charges at the outset.

In a judgment today the Court found for Mr Kay ruling that:

"an unbroken succession of over 140 of these collective cycle rides, setting out from a fixed location on a fixed day of the month and time of day and travelling, albeit by varying routes, through the Metropolitan Police area, cannot by now sensibly be called anything but common or customary."

Basically US lawyers are using the 2003 Extradition Act that was passed to enable the extradition of terror suspects to extradite people for every other type of crime. The thing that really annoys me is that while the US do not have to prove people they want to extradite have a case to answer in the US, the UK has to provide that proof before it can extradite a US citizen. Anyone would think that our government thought that US citizens are more important than there own.......

The home life of every child in the country is to be recorded on a national database in the ultimate intrusion of the nanny state, it has emerged. Computer records holding details of school performance, diet and even whether their parents provide a 'positive role model' for 12 million children will be held by the Government. Police, social workers, teachers and doctors will have access to the database and have powers to flag up 'concerns' where children are not meeting criteria laid down by the state.
...
Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said: 'We are heading towards a situation in which an entire generation of kids won't know what privacy is, as though we are preparing them for prison rather than life in a free society. It is time to ask ourselves why we sacrifice the privacy of our children first.'

On Saturday 24 June 2006, Birmingham Guantanamo Campaign held a vigil on the A45 outside Birmingham International Airport to "demand action to put a stop to the CIA's torture flights"

One of our members proposed affiliation with NO2ID at the recent Unison Natioanl Conference. The proposal was passed ( alnost unaminously !) Unison organises 1.3 million workers in the NHS, Local Government and the Police.

Saturday 24th June saw a day of protest at 5 British airports (Glasgow, Prestwick, Edinburgh, Gatwick and Birmingham International) against the so-called `rendition flights`. The protests were supported by the national Stop the War and by a variety of local campaigns. The process of what is euphemistically called `extraordinary rendition` amounts to secretly and illegally shuttling people around the world for interrogation, very often to countries where torture is practiced. The Edinburgh protest took place between 12.30 and 2.00pm and involved about 35 people. Banner and placards read `Stop the torture flights`, `Stop the War`. `Scotland against criminalising communities` and ` Kidnap and torture called rendition flights by the media`. One activist dressed up in an orange jump suit worn by detainees in Guantanamo and was also shackled and handcuffed.

barbara tucker was today violently assaulted outside downing street. meanwhile steve was arrested for holding a banner appealing for witnesses to his assault last week (plus video)

People on this board appear to have strong views about ID Cards, so I have asked the question. This can be fed back to the Conservatives, hopefully by MJD.

I can hear the voices starting up already. ''Ah, you wishy washy liberals, now you will see the true extent of the threat. This is why we are in a new war in a new world, and this is why we must have new laws, biometric ID cards, detention without charge, new powers of arrest and surveillance...''

No. Making political capital out of terror is not a good thing. Terror is about just that, instilling terror and fear, and whilst I expect terrorists to try to attack my civil liberties, I do not expect my democratically-elected government to do the same. Not whilst there are already perfectly serviceable laws to protect us from terrorism and to arrest and charge those who plot murder and mayhem and treason and fraud and spread hate-filled propoganda. (Terrorism Act 2000). We just need the police and the security services to act on them properly.

Its a sign of the popularity of Bliar that his visit has to be so secret. One may argue that this security is about terrorism, but the policing on show with its choppers and Forward Intelligence Teams (FIT – the coppers with cameras) was more geared to crowd control than anti-terror. The venue was kept unannounced (though word had been leaked out before) and the audience had to be selected. Even the 50 'public' who attended via an application to the evening post were diluted down the the hundred or more neo-labour supporters to dilute the possibility of people who are not 'on-message' spoiling the plans to spin crime as a method of distracting the public from the mess that is Iraq and in particular Basra.

Yesterday despite the courageous efforts of Ian and Tony Blair, terrorists were able to assemble outside parliament and engage in illegal activity. Unbelievably the MET who are seen as world leaders in the fight against terror had licensed the event to happen!

A MET spokesman said: “Obviously this a blow to morale after our successes in Stockwell and Forest Gate, but we will learn from this and ensure that we are ready for them next time”. The incident happened when a protest was booked to support the PKK’s demands for human rights in Kurdistan. Bungling plods failed to notice that the PKK are illegal under recent terror legislation and so put already terrified Londoners lives at risk.

Life long Daily Mail reader Mrs Edna Agast said: “I don’t what my inheritance tax is going on? They clearly have not shot enough people yet, they only wounded the last one. It’s just political correctness gone mad!” Readers of The Sun are said to be organizing a campaign of direct action in protest at the MET’s incompetence. Meanwhile the Daily Mail are setting up a helpline for Londoners worried about their house prices.

No photos of Tony, he was obviously smuggled in through the kitchen window round the back. Good turnout for the protestors and and NO 2 ID Cards campaign. They certainnly made their presence felt, 'Troops out of Iraq, Blair out of Bristol', The queue of specially slected delegates waiting outside looked a tad bemused by it all. Strong police presence (70 or 80?) around the Will Memeorial Building.

Money spent on introducing identity cards would be better spent on improving public services, conference heard yesterday. UNISON is opposed to the government’s ID scheme and remains concerned about the cost of the scheme and the impact on race relations and civil rights. The scheme is expected to cost up to £19bn, and charges are likely to impact most on the poor, especially those living in insecure accommodation who are expected to be charged for changes to the database every time they change address.

a few minutes before bliar was due, barbara and steve took up their position on the public pavement directly between the two gates of parliament. steve was sporting a new placard today with different quotes from those he used on sunday. the placard attracted the interest of passers-by, and at one point a brave tourist held onto it briefly putting himself in danger of being beaten up as steve was on sunday.

it wasn't long before the eagle eyes of two officers spotted the socpa breach, and they went over to inform the inspector who then approached the peaceful duo. barbara has explained to coppers on many occasions before (and at least the thirty times she has been reported to the crown prosecution service with a view to summonsing for unauthorised protest) that she notified them in march, that they had to authorise her protest by law, and that they couldn't impose conditions on her as she didn't match any of the possible reasons for conditions given in the legislation. normally, this explanation doesn't get too far and she gets 'reported' anyway, but today she came armed with a physical copy of her notification.

the inspector studied the document. he wandered away and made phone calls, he looked deep and hard in his blue folder, he returned and asked the duo to leave, but in the end they remained where they were.

TWO famous heavyweight boxers are fighting the corner of a family of asylum seekers who are desperate to stay in Swindon. Boxing promoter Keith Mayo flew to America to recruit former Olympic gold medallist and undisputed heavyweight champion of the world Leon Spinks and the new WBC heavyweight champion Russia's Sergei Liakovich. Both men were keen to back the Eltuyev family once Keith explained their situation.

a peaceful single male held a placard with two quotes outside downing street yesterday afternoon. police told him he would be arrested, and although he agreed to go peacefully they violently handcuffed him in front of a crowd of astonished tourists.

It’s back to skool for the latest thought crime initiatives in Crackdown Britain. Why even bother waiting for people to commit crime before taking their fingerprints? Let’s face it, with another 1,000 criminal offences created in the last six years and thousands more on the way, courtesy of the democracy busting Legislatory And Regulatory Reform Bill (see SchNEWS 534), pretty soon everyone’s going to be part of the criminal classes. And with this explosion in the numbers of criminals it makes sense to get ‘em early.

So here, the National Identity Register is the lifebelt, and it makes sense to pretty much forget the existing pooh-pile. Identifying legal immigrants and UK citizens via the NIR's interview and identity checking process oughtn't to be hard, but given the state of existing IND records it would be very hard indeed to deal those of debatable and illegal status. Nor, without the incentive to turn themselves in, are the illegal immigrants (or the ones who're just confused) going to make it easy for you to drag them to the filter. Amnesty, however, simplifies the process massively; illegal immigrants can be offered a one-time ticket to legitimisation, and then anybody who doesn't come forward or who arrives after the amnesty's over has only themselves to blame when IND comes down hard on them.

NO2ID National Coordinator, Phil Booth, has been chosen as one of eight campaigners to be followed for 12 months as part of a new web/TV project called 'Activ8'. The project has been set-up by the Community Channel and BBC Action Network and will involve making a series of short films and possibly a longer documentary on NO2ID and the issues surrounding ID cards.

We are asking for volunteers to get involved in the production of one or more of these pieces, the theme of which will be agreed in advance. We'll be filming around the country, as the NO2ID roadshow travels the UK, so don't feel that you necessarily have to be in or near London to get involved. We're looking for people with experience of camera work and sound recording, as well as groups doing anti-ID activities (protests, public meetings, stalls, benefit concerts, etc.) that would get across not only our message, but how we go about spreading it.

A round-up of links relating to the Forest Gate "chemical device" police raid and shooting.

Britain is a "partner in crime" with the United States in organising secret flights to move terror suspects around the world, a human rights groups says. Amnesty International claims that UK ministers have adopted a "see no evil, hear no evil" approach to CIA flights. It has called on Britain and all other EU states to stop their airports from being used for the practice.

The man who was shot during an anti-terrorist raid in east London has said he feared he would be killed. Abul Koyair, 20, and his injured brother Mohammed Abdul Kahar, 23, were released without charge a week after the raid on their Forest Gate home.

Silent Protest is a new website aimed specifically at the SOCPA legislation banning protesters from demonstrating in a loosely-defined area around Parliament Square, London. "I got the ball rolling on this once I thought that I had a way to answer the question posed by the SOCPA legislation: How do you protest about the removal of your right to do just that?" says site founder Irving Washington. The concept is relatively simple.Would-be 'virtual protesters' simply upload photos to the site, showing them within the SOCPA-defined area, in the 'Silent Protest' pose:

"In what may possibly be seen as a daft move, we're encouraging people to stage a virtual, goverment-un-sanctioned protest. All you need to do is get a picture of yourself, or your friends, within the protest free zone. Assume the pose (hand over mouth), aim and click."

Here is a short piece with 7 photos of Brian Haw's contimuing vigil in Parliament Square.

Sunday 11th June saw a large and noisy protest outside the headquarters of the London Metropolitan Police Force, Scotland Yard. The demonstration of about 500 took place outside the 20-storey office block along Broadway and Victoria Street in Westminster. The yard is about 500 yards away from the Houses of Parliament. The rally was in response to heavy handed police tactics in a raid on a house in Forest Gate, East London on Friday June 2nd. The mainly Muslim neighbourhood was invaded by over 200 police, many of them wearing chemical protection suits and accompanied by MI5 agents.

The raid, which occurred at 4.00am on Friday 2nd June led to the shooting of 23 year-old Mohammed Abdul Kahar. He and his brother Abul Koyair were in police custody for a week after being detained in the dawn raid but were eventually released without charge. They were arrested amid great fanfare with tabloid headlines screaming `HUNT FOR THE POISON BOMB` (Daily Mail) and `POLICE HUNT FOR LETHAL CHEMICAL SUICIDE VEST` (The Times). Even the so-called liberal Guardian read `FEARS OF CHEMICAL OR BIOLOGICAL ATTACK TRIGGERED TERROR RAID`. Their release, however, was much more low key and coincided with England’s first game in the World Cup.

The roll-out of the Government's controversial identity card scheme is set to be delayed by a Home Office failure to begin the procurement process on schedule.

The Sunday Telegraph has learnt that the process of allocating contracts to private companies to build and manage the ID card scheme was due to begin towards the end of this month. However, the starting date has now been put back to September at the earliest.

Another aspect of the whole thing, which has received some press coverage and mentions in the No2ID forums, is the idea of thumbprinting schoolchildren so they can use the school library. I was horrified to learn on Monday that my daughter's primary school planned to thumbprint everyone for a new library system.

Upon further investigation, it turns out that the biometric part of the system is an optional add-on, strongly encouraged by central government. 5000+ schools have already hooked up. It seems to me that by using biometric data for trivial purposes, our children are being conditioned to accept that authority figures will at some future point expect them to present their fingerprints on demand. The notification letter we received from the school was very vague and frankly looked as if it had been drafted in Whitehall (which it probably was!)

I have insisted that my daughter is exempted and obviously I shall be taking the matter further.

war law expert chris coverdale was handed his verdict today at bow street. judge cole found him guilty under socpa legislation and awarded £250 costs, no fine and a 12 month conditional discharge. chris will appeal

Betty informed all those who turned up (approximately 60) that the picket was illegal and that people may be asked by the police to give their name and address. Indeed some people were asked to do just this. The police handed out leaflets to those present about the illegality of the action. The picket was ended at 6.20pm. Betty and four others, Mike Kushman, Aqil Shaer, Ruth Tenne and Wilf Dixon have been summoned to appear in court on 15h June. They have been charged under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005.

Critics of a new law giving ministers greater powers have renewed their attack despite a major climbdown, warning that the government got its proposals "badly wrong". The Cabinet Office was forced to drastically prune the legislation - dubbed the "parliamentary scrutiny (abolition) bill" - last month, after whips warned that the Lords would throw it out.

The government has been ordered to publish secret reports into the benefits of ID cards. Information Commissioner Richard Thomas ruled voters should be allowed to see the information compiled by the Department of Work and Pensions. It now has 30 days to decide whether to appeal against the decision - which came as a result of Liberal Democrat pressure.

I fear my MP has once again failed to ask the pertinent questions, such as

... what the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings has to say on the subject of covertly transporting prisoners to secret locations in third-party countries in the name of the war on terror ...

... and whether in the light of the answer to the above, the government is actually qualified to sign the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings...

... and if it is, whether the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings actually has any meaning or is just a symbolic gesture.

In this article, we're assured by Honest John that; "... there had been CIA flights, but most were carrying experts or forensic evidence. Only a handful had carried terrorism suspects." He then goes on to attribute the reports of rendition to people with "anti-American views", but it's that 'handful' term I'm most interested in.

Scale is important to the Bush administration. You're not allowed to call Guantanamo a 'gulag', because they don't detain millions of people without charge or trial and torture them mercilessly; they only detain hundreds of people without charge or trial... and torture them gently. The rough stuff is left to allies. Speaking of those allies... It would appear that it is OK to ship a few terrorism suspects so they can be tortured abroad, just so long as you shape your admission in the form of a 'denial'. Again, scale is all-important. Hundreds... bad. Handful... gooooood.

But exactly how many terrorism suspects make up a handful? (I'd admit to being able to hold a maximum of two aloft myself *if* they co-operate, but don't want to be charged with having sympathetic links to Al Qaeda.)

Lord Holme of Cheltenham said that while the legislative and regulatory reform bill had a "fine aspiration" of cutting excess regulation, ministers should have know that the powers it gave them to amend existing laws "was constitutionally questionable". He was speaking as a report from the Lords constitutional committee warns that despite attempts to tighten the scope of the bill – dubbed the 'parliamentary scrutiny (abolition) bill' by critics – it remains "over-broad and vaguely drawn".

The rush to pass new laws means ministers do not put enough effort into getting their plans right in the first place, says a committee of peers. The Lords Constitution Committee accuses the government of "lamentable" attempts to consult on new laws aimed at cutting red tape. It says ministers failed to recognise the constitutional impact of the plans. The peers welcomed changes to the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill but said more safeguards are needed.

You might think your personal data is safe, secured under computerised lock and key, and fenced by the Data Protection Act with its sanctions against release of private data. Especially, surely, that which the government holds.

The reality is that everything has its price. Last month, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the state-funded watchdog for personal data, published a report, What Price Privacy?. The title's question was answered with a price list of public-sector data: £17.50 for the address of someone who is on the electoral register but has opted out of the freely available edited version; £150 to £200 for a vehicle record held by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency; £500 for access to a criminal record. The private sector also leaks: £75 buys the address associated with a mobile phone number, and £750 will get the account details.

A PETITION calling for the Home Office not to deport a Chechen family living in Swindon is winging its way to Government ministers.

Information from the UK's controversial DNA database is being given to foreign law agencies, it has emerged.
...
Lib Dem home affairs spokeswoman Lynne Featherstone, who obtained the figures, said they were a "bad omen" for the identity card register. "There are no real safeguards in place to control this huge database which leaves it open for misuse - and now we find out it's not only being misused in our country but also internationally," she said. "What confidence can we have in the government's reassurance of the DNA database having proper safeguards when, until last year, they didn't even collate requests properly?"

The new report says: "It is now clear - although we are still far from having established the truth - that authorities in several European countries actively participated with the CIA in these unlawful activities. "Other countries ignored them knowingly, or did not want to know." Spain, Turkey, Germany and Cyprus provided "staging posts" for rendition operations, while the UK, Portugal, Ireland and Greece were "stop-off points", the report says.

The UK stands accused of not only allowing the use of British airspace and airports, but of providing information that was used during the torture of one suspect. The report adds that there is strong evidence to suspect two European states, Poland and Romania, of permitting the CIA to operate secret prisons on their soil, despite official denials.

war law specialist chris coverdale appeared at bow street magistrate's court yesterday in connection with an 'unauthorised' protest at parliament square in march. his extensive and well-researched defence raised questions about the legality of the war, and the judge will announce his verdict at 10am on friday.

on march 29th this year, war law specialist chris coverdale used a megaphone and held a banner in parliament square. he was trying to report the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, and attempting to effect the arrest of the offenders, tony blair et al, who were in westminster for prime minister's question time on that morning.

he was arrested by police and charged, under the serious organised crime and police act, with carrying on a demonstration without authorisation, and using a megaphone (which is banned at any time under the law).

when he appeared at bow street magistrate's court yesterday morning, he presented a fully researched legal defence which if accepted will throw the socpa law once again into disarray and have huge possible implications for brian haw's continuing protest in the square.

Investment in Britain's railways could be put at risk if new laws on red tape are passed, the rail regulator has warned the government.
...
"There is considerable scope for ministers to make fundamental changes to the functions of an independent economic regulator or to the structure of regulation generally," he says.

Private Eye's OBN recipients are chosen with care and it's a sad entry in the history book of Swindon that one of its MPs has been chosen. Ms Snelgrove's comment in the same article that she puts Swindon before party politics rather confirms the award went to the right person.

WILL someone explain to me how the Home Office can be trusted to run a national identity card system and its even more insidious database when it clearly has no idea of the number of illegal immigrants already in the country.

Brian Haw - Five Years in Parliament Square, London

How much of the coverage of the latest raid is based on truth, fantasy or downright deceit is still unclear and, based on previous experience, it will remain unclear indefinitely. Last night, a couple of news shows drew parallels with the ‘ricin plot’ in North London a few years ago. Conveniently neglecting to mention that there, er, was no ricin and that the accused plotters were found not guilty by a bemused jury; some of whom went on the record to quote their disgust at the pisspoor quality of the case against the accused.

Another letter to Anne Snelgrove from a constituent on the subject of ID cards, and her reply.

Sunday 28th May saw a gathering of North-West groups opposed to ID cards meeting at the Basement in Manchester to share ideas and combine efforts in opposing ID cards. Many groups were represented, from Nottingham to Liverpool and beyond, and loads of interesting discussion was generated, as you can tell by the length of this post! The meeting lasted for around five hours, including a lunch break.

this morning brian appeared before a bow street magistrate charged under socpa legislation. he was released on unconditional bail until july 15th and continue his albeit severely restricted demonstration until then. the case will challenge the draconian restrictions imposed on him.

A long-term peace protester charged with breaching the conditions of his Parliament Square demonstration has made a defiant appearance in court. Brian Haw's camp was raided last week by police who said he had been told to reduce the number of anti-war placards. Mr Haw, 57, said he could not enter a plea, as police had "stolen" the signs he intended to use as evidence. The judge at Bow Street Magistrates' Court entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf and granted him bail.

WITH pensions and pensioners in the news again this week I wonder how many of our elder citizens know how the Identity Cards Act 2006 will affect them? Within the next three or four years every pensioner in the United Kingdom will be required to attend an interview where they will have at least 51 of their "registerable facts" recorded and entered on to their identity car and National Identity Database. They will be compelled to pay at least £93 for this dubious honour, or they will be fined £2,500 each time they fail to attend the interview.

The comment by Dr. Reid about the 20 conspiracies was in response to our calls for a public enquiry, to reiterate his point that the security services could not divert resources for fear of missing further attacks, about how we'd feel if ''our'' public enquiry and subesquent resources-diversion led to more families loved ones dying. So far, so emotive, but hmmmm, I negotiate and strategise for a living and I can see through this rhetoric. It doesn't wash.

Counter-terrorism is not just about reacting to known plots. It is about preventing them, proactively, and surely part of the process of that is to learn from our mistakes, learn lessons from July when the bombers struck? You analyse success, and you analyse failure: that is good management practice.

If Dr. Reid is as gung-ho as he seems about overhauling the ''not fit for purpose'' Home Office, then surely properly examining the lessons of July 7th is a crucial place to start? Rather than rushing through legislation about ID cards and imprisoniong people for 90 days, or 28 days, or any of the other legislation and resources which the police and security services ask for, how about taking a step back and asking the hard, grown-up questions about social, foreign and domestic policy.

AS the British government’s Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill grinds on inexorably through Parliament, politicians this side of the Atlantic would do well to have a look at a simple reform on Canada’s west coast that has cut regulation by over a third in three years.
...
British Columbia’s approach could not be any more different from the numerous failed deregulation initiatives in Britain, of which the current bill, which gives ministers the power to increase as well as reduce regulation, will only prove to be the latest. Since 1997, the UK has seen a Better Regulation Task Force, a Regulatory Reform Act providing for Regulatory Reform Orders and Regulatory Impact Assessments, a Hampton Review of regulation, a Better Regulation Commission, a Better Regulation Action Plan setting out a “risk-based” approach to regulation, and now the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill. Countless millions have been spent on these initiatives. But despite these grand ideas, regulation continues inexorably to increase. The Federation of Small Businesses notes that almost 900 new regulations have been introduced since 1997.

Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, risks embroiling Scotland Yard in a fresh round of infighting after ordering an inquiry into why details of a private meeting were leaked. Sir Ian told the Metropolitan Police Authority on Thursday that the cost of removing a peace camp from Parliament Square, which involved 78 officers, was £7,200.

The following day, the issue was discussed by the Met's management board. Within hours, details of the meeting were passed to a journalist, who contacted Scotland Yard for a comment. That afternoon, Sir Ian admitted that he had misled the authority, as the true cost of dismantling the anti-war protester Brian Haw's placards, including officers' pay, was £27,754.

On Thursday May 25th a legal demo took place when Superintendent Peter Terry of Charing cross nick licensed Mark Thomas to hold a protest in Parliament square against the licensing of protests in parliament square. The demo was permitted between 1pm and 1.45pm solely for the protesting against the previously mentioned legislation. For this reason people who arrived with placards containing illegal slogans like ‘No War’ and ‘Peace’ had to be advised of their legal status and warned that they may face arrest.

The long-running government campaign to prevent anti-war campaigner Brian Haw from protesting in Parliament Square ratcheted up a notch this week (see SchNEWS 543). Last Tuesday night at 3am fifty armed Police turned up and, with no sense of the evident over-kill, proceeded to remove nearly all of Brian’s placards, banners, and assorted evidence of UK war crimes. He was only allowed to retain a display to fit within the three metre space compliant with the conditions set out under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005.

Ministers are failing to meet their legal duties to investigate claims that the CIA is flying terror suspects through the UK, say MPs and peers. Parliament's joint committee on human rights says the government should take "active steps" to find out more details about certain flights. The appeal comes in a damning report which also accused the UK of trying to undermine the absolute ban on torture.

ADVER readers are backing a bid to let a family of asylum seekers stay in Swindon. Eighty-five per cent of people who voted in a phone and internet poll say that the Eltuyev family should remain. The family fled torture in Chechnya to come to Swindon in May 2003 and now the town wants them to stay, with more than 1,100 people responding to the vote.

May 23rd, 2006 should be a date etched on our collective memory. Yesterday marked the true beginning of authoritarianism in this country and the end of British democracy.

Brian Haw moved onto Parliament Square five years ago, motivated by the same revulsion with violence that inspired over a million people to march through London. His is a life dedicated to compassion and understanding. It is perhaps unsurprising, therefore, that his neighbours in the House of Commons have taken such an intense dislike to him. Brian’s presence is familiar to any Londoner. Over the past half-decade he has amassed a startling array of photographs, banners, placards and cuttings. They are shocking, graphic and deeply disturbing – and this is precisely why they are so vital. Brian’s extraordinary actions were, and are, an excruciating reminder to those across the road of the consequences of their decisions.

By 4am they were starting to dismantle the demonstration. At first it was done with some, if clumsy, care. But when the extent of the sturdiness of the placards became apparent more force was used. Wood was ripped apart, banners torn down and one by one loaded into the large blue metal shipping container. Privately contracted council workers stood by and watched. When asked what they thought about the police action one replied, “no comment”.

Teddy bears, peace flags, even umbrellas were loaded into the container, much to the protest of the peace camp. “How is an umbrella part of a demonstration?” yelled Barbara. She demanded they be returned, as the Chief Inspector had assured the protestors personal belongings would not be taken.

Have you renewed your passport early ?

Quote from: Charles Clarke, on 21st March 2006
"... anyone who feels strongly enough about the linkage not to want to be issued with an ID card in the initial phase will be free to surrender their existing passport and apply for a new passport before the designation order takes effect."
— .

The Old Home Secretary has said you can do it.

Don't delay — The new one, John Reid might change this....

There are two EDMs that you may wish to bring to the attention of your MP:

EDM 2146 - BRIAN HAW AND THE RIGHT TO PROTEST
EDM 2257 - BRIAN HAW

A very good point is made here:

In 1996, the Independent asked the Labour Party leadership what it planned to do about Murdoch's taxes, or lack of them. Gordon Brown, then Shadow Chancellor, had fre-quently denounced 'fat cats' and promised they would be taxed 'fairly'. When asked about Murdoch's taxes, neither he nor other members of the Labour front bench were available for comment. Alistair Darling MP was eventually put forward as spokesman. 'You can't be subjective,' he said. 'You must never design a tax system to get at one person. It is a matter of fundamental principle."

But this 'fundamental principle' does not appear to be universal.
...
So, while you may want to check how your MP voted in the following divisions before directing them to the relevant EDMs, do keep in mind that a 2:35am swoop by upwards of 25 police officers may not be what they had in mind if they voted 'aye'.

The Home Office has questioned Liberal Democrat advice to people to renew their passports now to avoid inclusion on the ID card database for 10 years. Anyone requesting a new passports from 2008 will have their details stored on the National Identity Database. The Lib Dems are urging people to act in "the coming weeks" to avoid this.

But the Home Office said it was "hard to see what would be achieved" by making applications in advance, "other than incurring unnecessary expense".

The Lib Dems say by applying for a passport now you can avoid appearing on the ID database until 2016. By then, the theory goes, the Lib Dems or Conservatives - both whom have pledged to scrap the ID scheme - could be in government. The Lib Dems are backing the "Renew for Freedom" campaign of pressure group NO2ID.

In a shocking illustration of the truism that more integrated databases make for larger and more lucrative honeypots/ disaster magnets, the data of approximately 26.5 million US veterans was stolen recently. A Veterans' Affairs employee disregarded security protocols and took a laptop with sensitive data home, then the laptop was taken during a burglary at the employee's residence.

The Liberal Democrat Home Affairs team yesterday applied to renew their passports to prevent their details from being added to the ID cards database. Once the Government has set up the National Identity Database, everyone who applies for a passport will have to attend an interview and have their fingerprints and irises scanned. Passports issued now will be valid for 10 years, meaning people will be able to wait until 2016 before they have to register for an ID card.

The Met certainly have difficulty when it comes to math. Like when a million people turn up to a peace march and they claim only 100,000 were there. Or when 50 or so police turn up to shut down a single protestor, and we're told that it was 'more like 25'.

The Liberal Democrats are urging people to renew their passports to avoid being entered on the National Identity Database for the next 10 years. People applying for a new passport will start having details - such as eye scans - taken and stored from 2008. Nick Clegg was among five of the party's MPs who took their passports to Passport Office in Victoria, London, to highlight the option. "You do not have to wait until your passport runs out," advises Mr Clegg.

In a gesture of support, Liberal Democrat MPs Susan Kramer (Richmond Park) and Vince Cable (Twickenham) today offered a new poster to Parliament Square protester, Brian Haw to help replace those taken by the police in the early hours this morning.

Apart from Brian's display there were several others. Although they all had police permission to demonstrate within the SOCPA exclusion zone, conditions imposed on Brian were much stricter. Some had no conditions at all! The police also tried to impose an on-the-spot condition on Brian supporters about banner holding. When Tony Blair arrived for Question Time he was greeted with cries of 'Nazi Blair'.

SWINDON'S former mayor Ray Fisher is backing the campaign to let a family of asylum seekers stay in the town. Mr Fisher met Islan Eltuyev, who fled torture in Chechnya, on the open-top bus tour to celebrate Jamie Cox's gold medal win.

Police have removed placards from peace activist Brian Haw at the scene of his five-year vigil outside Parliament. Officers went to Parliament Square in the early hours of Tuesday to deal with alleged breaches of Mr Haw's demonstration conditions. Mr Haw, 56, from Worcestershire, said he will fast in protest at the action.

So...am I right in assuming that Brian Haw, by displaying more than the 'allotted' 3 metres of protest space, has, in the eyes of Parliament, and the law they created specifically for him, branded himself a 'Serously Organised Criminal' ?.

What's next....internment ?
.... a quick road trip to RAF Northholt to board the 'rendition express'
..... have him committed ?

Labour ministers repeatedly imply future terrorist attacks will be somehow thwarted by the creation of an identity database big enough to contain the 51 registerable facts of 60 million people. I don't believe them.

This is a 600 word article which takes its title from ITN's `Just another day in Iraq` slot. The failure of the mainstream media to adequately cover Iraq related events such as Brian Haw's vigil is covered. 7 photos are included.

Police moved in overnight to remove the majority of anti-war placards from Parliament Square - although its lone protester, Brian Haw, has not been evicted. Although Mr Haw - who began his Iraq peace vigil in 2001 - has been allowed to stay, all but three metres of his posters facing parliament have been removed. The police operation took place at 2.35am, after an appeal court ruling earlier this month. Mr Haw, who was not evicted from Parliament Square, said his large display of anti-war banners, placards and flags had been "completely destroyed".

Here's a summary of the exchange that took place last Wednesday:

- Police arrive and confiscate Brain Haw's hand-held bell. The reasons they give for doing so range from "because I can" and "orders from the Chief Inspector" (when the Chief Inspector was finally asked just what the hell was going on, he informed Brain that that the police had acted in order to "prevent the bell being used as a potential missile").
- "Because I can"... I'd rate that right up there with "What do you think?" and "If I perceive it's becoming a demonstration, I shall come and let you know." How about that?" for sheer childishness, but it's about to get better...
- Early on in this exchange, Officer CW133 caught his finger on a sharp edge within the bell. Police then used this as an excuse to hold on to the bell saying they were now keeping it as evidence. What was Officer CW133 doing rummaging around inside the bell in the first place? Well...
- When police finally returned the bell at 3pm, it was found that the clapper inside had been removed, thus rendering the bell silent. The police apologised for this and didn't know where it had gone. But I think I might have a clue...
- And if you're thinking it couldn't get any more childish... this entry speaks volumes: (At around 11:30am) the officer states "YOU CAN HAVE THE BELL BACK IN 6 MINUTES". and then Tony Blair arrives, passing by in his car to face Question Time in the House.
Yes folks, that's right... Big Baby Blair is afraid of bells. He is far too sensitive to have his eardrums assaulted before facing questions in the House.

Governments have sacrificed principles and ignored human rights in the name of the "war on terror", says a leading rights group in its annual report. But Amnesty International celebrates what it calls a "wake-up call" issued to governments over the last year. It says their "doublespeak and deception have been exposed by the media, challenged by activists and rejected by the courts".

Europe has passed the "tipping point" over which citizens fall head over heels in love with the idea of a society regulated by biometric identity scanners, according to a survey published today.
...
It also installed an optional biometric fast lane at the customs in Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. That was five years ago. A mere 20,000 people have enrolled to use it, whereas 42.5m people used the airport last year. What does that say about how eager the Europeans are for biometrics?

Sir - My passport expires next month after faithfully assisting my passage all over the globe for the last 10 years. After the Identity Cards Act 2006 became law in March this year, passports have become "designated" documents, and future applications for them will be treated as "voluntary" applications for identity cards, which, I am reliably informed, will eventually double or even triple the cost of applying for a passport.

On Wednesday (17.05.06) after documenting the Outrage! protest at the Home Office about the plight of gay refugees and then documenting the animal right protesters and Pro-Test founder having a clash of views at the Glaxo AGM I drop in on Brian Haw and the protest at the Parliament Square. Brain said that the police had taken his bell of him just before I had turned up. As ever a mix of people passing by and wishing him well and cars and van tooting there horns.

Those righteous dudes at No2ID have organised the "Renew for Freedom" campaign so that the free people of Britain can avoid the Government's insane plan to create a dossier of personal information on every citizen to be available for any future government who wants to persecute them.

If you renew this month, you can:

1. Avoid being forced to attend an interview
2. Avoid being fingerprinted like a criminal
3. Avoid giving up your national insurance & driving license numbers to prevent your tax/income/benefits status and international/car journeys (courtesy of ANPR) being connected to the ID Big Brother database.
4. Save £42+ over the Govt announced passport/ID price of £93.

You CAN renew your passport early. Click the link for more details: http://www.renewforfreedom.org/

As Brian Haw’s demonstration faces it’s second week of opposing the High Court ruling, the police and political pressure, Oscar Beard finally gets time to recount the first week of the final stand of democracy.

We will be gathering in open challenge to, and full defiance of, the latest politically-motivated repressive legislation under the Serious and Organised Crime and Policing Act (SOCPA) and the Terrorism Act 2006. This legislation threatens those who infiltrate HMNB Devonport or trespass on any other ‘Designated Area’ with up to 51 weeks imprisonment and/or a fine of up to £5,000 and is aimed squarely at groups such as Trident Ploughshares.

The Government was accused of planning the "abolition of Parliament" with legislation giving Ministers sweeping powers to change the law. MPs and the media "took their eye off the ball" and failed to spot the threat to democracy, according to Midland MP Mark Fisher (Lab Stoke Central).

The government faced repeated calls to add further safeguards to new powers which the opposition says would allow ministers to change laws without fully consulting parliament. Tories and Liberal Democrats pressed for MPs and peers to have a veto over the new order-making powers proposed by the Cabinet Office. Under ministers' plans, select committees would be able to block a minister's order - but opponents of the legislative and regulatory reform bill say members in the Commons and Lords should have a veto over any law changes.

Estimates vary on the cost of purchasing an Identity card and passport in 2010, but passport applications later this year will cost you a hefty £93. Makes sense to renew now, for £51, even if yours has several years left on it.

Another advantage to the 'renew now' argument is that your new passport will be valid until 2016......that's a full 6 years past the point where either: identity card purchases and passport applications will be forever linked and horrendously expensive......or the whole identity card and national identity register will hopefully have collapsed in a ruinously expensive mess.

If you don't renew now, you can expect to pay at least £93 for a passport renewal until 2010, (and that's only 3 and a half years away), then if you renew during, or after, 2010 you can expect to pay several hundred pounds for your passport and, by then, compulsory identity card.

Following the recent ruling Brian could be removed by the cops at any time. Of course they are not going to bother today. A rumour has been circulating that Mr Chavez of Venezuela is going to pay Brian a visit. Brian is totally indiferent to the idea concentrating more on shouting war statistics at the armed cops guarding Parliament opposite. Mark Thomas drops by to show his support for Brian. The presense of numerous journos and Chavez supporters ensures Brians safety for today.... This just leaves the problem of tommorow and the day after and the day after that...ect. The more people who take an interest in Brian and his protest the harder it will be for them to get rid of him.

There are just a few days of our renew for freedom campaign left. Now is the time to encourage friends and family to renew their passport for almost half the predicted cost of the forthcoming ID card/passport and without compulsory fingerprinting, iris scanning and entry on to the National Identity Register. Many supporters have sent emails to people they know highlighting the benefits of early passport renewal. For instance over at www.elephantintheroom.info you can read the text of an email that one supporter sent to around fifty of his friends - a number of whom went on to renew their passports. Please if you can spare a few moments spread the word.

MY passport expires next month. After the Identity Cards Act 2006 became law in March this year, passports have become "designated" documents, and applications for them will be treated as "voluntary" applications for identity cards, which, will double or even triple the cost of a passport. However, if I renew my passport now, I will not yet be forced into the compulsory purchase of an identity card, (until 2010), but my details will be entered into the fledgling National Identity Register.

Pat McFadden, the recently-appointed government minister, will try to persuade MPs today that the controversial Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill has been amended sufficiently to limit its powers to purely regulatory changes.

Almost a week has passed since the courts found the Brian Haw protest to be illegal after all; yet Brian and- today - forty or fifty supporters are still very present in Parliament Square. Add the constant beeping of passing motorists, responding to the new "Beep for Brian" sign, and it's pretty clear that the level of support and the focus of publicity is making it difficult for police to enforce the judgement.

Since Tony Blair took office in 1997 he has presided over the complete implosion of every fundamental human right in Britain that one would expect to hold in a free society.

Sir – According to Cabinet Office Minister Jim Murphy the government has “tabled amendments that put beyond doubt that [the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill] will deliver a better regulation agenda and nothing else.” This is a large claim. Sadly, close study of the proposed amendments does not substantiate the claim.

For over four years now, Brian Haw has been a thorn in the government's side with his permanent protest camp across the road from the Houses of Parliament, initially against the sanctions against Iraq, and then against the invasion and subsequent occupation. Every time ministers and MPs attend parliament, they are confronted with a reminder of the crimes committed in our name, in the form of banners and posters along the whole of one side of Parliament Square.

So what do the government do? They add a section into the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act, specifically intended to remove Brian Haw from Parliament Square, by requiring that any demonstrations within a kilometre of parliament be authorised by the police, who can then impose arbitrary conditions on the demonstration.

Last July, Brian’s crafty lawyers claimed that because he had been on his marathon demo constantly for the past 5 years, he was exempt from the act because his protest began before it came into force. Red faces all round – but the Home Office appealed against that ruling, probably had a few quiet words in some m’learned ears and on May 8th, Brian lost his right to demonstrate outside Whitehall without permission. The government described his behaviour as “absurd”, and said he could be a security risk. Brian retorted, “This is such a farce. Security? I have been here five years keeping the security of Parliament. We are not the security risk, we are not the risk to the world - Bush and Blair are.”

THE siting of a passport office in Swindon may appear to be a welcome development (Advertiser, May 4). However, it should be sounding the alarm bells. For it marks the first step in the Government's plans to introduce compulsory ID cards. The cosily named "interview centres" will eventually function as legally enforced Government registration offices and they will be at the heart of the new State surveillance IT system.

Now is the time to renew your passport and promote our 'renew for freedom campaign'. This is a once only campaign so spread the word. Tell everyone you know - mail your friends and colleagues directly, write letters to your local newspaper saying why you've renewed your passport and encouraging others to do the same. You can also tell them about our website( http://www.renewforfreedom.org ), which contains details of the campaign and a factsheet about passport renewal.

Remember a 10 year passport will cost £51 and last until after the next election. Soon the government will require UK citizens to attend interrogation centres to be fingerprinted like criminals, numbered like cattle and entered onto the government's big brother database the National Identity Register(NIR) at a cost of £93. It is quite possible that from later this year the UK Identity and Passport Service(UKIPS) could start collecting data of people renewing passports and storing it in a holding database, ready to be transferred to the National Identity Register at a later date.

HAVING "lost" a largish group of people that were under lock and key, can we trust Charles Clarke to keep our identity safe on his National Identity Register? I would say, no.

the short film of brian haw's statement in parliament square after the high court verdict against him (with captions corrected), and an amusing short film about a comic challenge to the socpa law by a small band of serious organised criminals (slightly re-edited)

a short film of reactions to the high court verdict that brian haw's demonstration is covered by the socpa legislation - this may lead to his removal from parliament square very soon.

On the subject of how medical records could be added to the National Identity Register, and a sample letter of objection.

The attempt by arms manufacturers EDO MBM to restrict protest outside their Brighton factory has ended in expensive failure. Their attempt to secure a no-protest exclusion zone with an injunction under the Protection from Harassment Act has ended in unconditional surrender after a year-long High Court battle. The case is estimated to have cost the company upwards of £1 million and this week US parent company EDO Corp announced 2.7 million dollars losses this year and citing losses from legal actions as a contributing factor. EDO MBM will pay the protesters costs, expected to be tens of thousands of pounds.

brian haw won a court case in july last year against the home secretary and the metropolitan police which gave him permission to apply for judicial review, and quashed some provisions of the act, on the basis that it could not apply to his continuing demonstration that had started in june 2001.

he won the case and since august 1st his demonstration has been the ONLY one that has not needed police permission. however, the home sec and the met appealed against this decision, and today's verdict was the response to that appeal.

the appeal has been allowed.

section 132 DOES apply to brian haw

costs have been set aside and brian will not be made to pay any costs.

permission to appeal to the house of lords is REFUSED

permission to stay in parliament square pending any petition to the lords is also REFUSED.

brian is not prevented from petitioning the lords himself, but he is now subject to the socpa act until any further future judgement.

Peace activist Brian Haw may have to end his five-year vigil outside Parliament as the government has won an appeal against an earlier legal ruling. Last July, Mr Haw, 56, from Worcestershire, won a High Court action against a new law threatening his round-the-clock protest. But three Court of Appeal judges have now overturned that decision.

Before this convenient glitch, the former Home Secretary had been on a roll, describing all the changes made under Labour to the criminal justice system. He began each sentence about the new laws with 'I brought in' or 'I made'. In this revealing egotistical litany, there was not one mention of parliament 'bringing in' or 'making laws'. In years to come, that would have been the reality in Britain if the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill had become law in its original state. But on election day, traditionally the best time to bury awkward news, the cabinet office website announced a substantive withdrawal so that the bill, which promised a vast extension of ministers' arbitrary powers, is now limited to the reduction of business regulation, which is what the government had been pretending all along.

The senior officer of the house I talked to yesterday evening was definitive. "It's a climbdown" he said. "They've listened, and they've given in." He was talking about the legislative and regulatory reform bill, a measure that would have given the government unprecedented powers to change almost any law by order, rather than by having to argue for it on the floor of each house. After three months of increasing concern and unease about the bill, among MPs, the media and the public, the government has finally given way and written amendments into the bill that severely restrict its power. They chose to slip their announcement out on the Cabinet Office website, on the day of the local elections, which guaranteed that there would be little coverage of the issue.

Charles Clarke has been sacked as home secretary in the biggest Cabinet reshuffle of Tony Blair's career. The prime minister is trying to regain momentum after one of the worst local election results in Labour's history. Mr Clarke will be replaced by Defence Secretary John Reid. Margaret Beckett is the new foreign secretary, with Jack Straw becoming Commons leader.

The Conservatives yesterday hailed a climbdown by the government over a bill which they had warned would give ministers powers to alter legislation virtually at will. Jim Murphy, the Cabinet Office minister, published amendments to the legislative and regulatory reform bill which he said would ensure that ministers could only use the law to cut unnecessary red tape.

There should be dancing in the streets! Charles Clarke - NCADC are not sorry to see you go. However not for your failure to deport foreign nationals as NCADC have always opposed the Double punishment of sentence followed by deportation. We are glad to see you go because of your Crass and Cumulative abuse of Asylum Seekers

MINISTERS have backed down over a bill which would have given them unprecedented powers to change laws without parliamentary approval, after critics warned it could pave the way for a future dictatorship. Amendments have been made to the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill to limit its scope for cutting red tape on businesses and voluntary groups. Committees of both Houses of Parliament will have a veto over decisions made under the new order-making power, while parliamentary scrutiny time will be extended from 21 to 30 days.

The US has defended its treatment of suspects detained in its "war on terror", telling a UN committee that it considers the use of torture as wrong. US Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights Barry Lowenkron told the Committee Against Torture in Geneva that US law prohibited such practices.

While the racist lobby makes such a big fuss about a few ' foreign criminals' being let on the loose - and gets huge media attention, around 25.000 innocent men, women and children are detained in immigration removal centres - high security prisons in all but in name. Around 15.000 are deported every year, often to countries deemed too dangerous for Brithsh citiziens to travel to. Many are torture and rape survivors. What is the real scandal?

IN January this year there was cross-party agreement in council to oppose the use of the National ID card for access to local services. There will be new councillors following today's elections and to help voters understand the position of their candidate on the hugely expensive and invasive ID card Swindon NO2ID surveyed each candidate to check out their view.
...
All responses to the NO2ID survey are posted by ward on the public forum http://www.talkswindon.org

The government is to back down over a bill which would have given ministers the power to alter legislation without the approval of Parliament. The amendments are in response to criticism by MPs from all parties and from civil liberties groups. They claimed the regulatory reform bill would enable ministers to re-write a range of laws.

Ministers have today tabled major changes to a bill designed to cut red tape after widespread concern that it would give them too much power. New powers included in the legislative and regulatory reform bill can now only be used with the aim of lightening the burden of regulation on businesses and voluntary groups. Committees of both the House of Commons and the Lords will have a veto over decisions made under the new order-making power, while the period in which parliament can scrutinise such decisions has been extended from 21 to 30 days.

IT would be interesting to know the various parties' views regarding the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill. This is a piece of legislation the government is seeking to get through with the minimum of publicity. The secretiveness is not surprising given that if passed on to the statute book this law could effectively end parliamentary democracy as we know it.

silicon.com has been tracking the development of the ID card project since the beginning - and over the following pages we'll take you through the A to Z of identity cards. We'll tell you everything you wanted to know about the scheme... but were afraid to ask. How much will the cards cost? What if you don't want one? Will you be asked for your ID card by policemen? Or alternatively, how soon can I get one? Click on the letters below to find out more...

ALL adults in Swindon applying for new passports must attend a 20-minute face-to-face interview at a new office to be opened in the town, it has been revealed. The hunt is now on to find offices that can cope with an estimated 4,222 applicants every year, in a move to combat the growing threat of identity fraud.
...
"If you renew your passport now you get 10 more years of freedom and hopefully the idea of national identity cards will have been abandoned by then." For information on renewing your passport go to www.renewforfreedom.org

on mayday police mounted a huge operation to control 10 brave protestors who entered the socpa zone armed with just one blank banner. this is a short comic film of the event.

A new network of 69 offices to be used to interview first-time passport applicants has been unveiled.

The head of the UK pressure group, The Freedom Association, has criticised plans to introduce finger scanning in Yeovil pubs and clubs. The move is "the insidious low-level start of general population movement control", said Michael Plumbe.

The anti-terror "control orders", which give ministers the power to put terror suspects under effective house arrest, are to be reviewed four times a year. The increase from once-a-year reviews comes after watchdog Lord Carlile raised concerns about the orders.

Read the bbc online 'Have your say' letters/comments and note that more than a few are asking the obvious question of the competancy of a man and department who fail to deport dangerous foreign criminals... The same department which claims compentancy to run an ID database...?

At our London volunteers meeting last week (18th April), NO2ID announced our new "renew for freedom" campaign. A factsheet and renew for freedom website were also launched. The aim is to encourage supporters to renew their passports in May, ahead of the linkage between the passport and the National Identity Register. Last month the Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, said that "anyone who feels strongly enough about the linkage [...] will be free to surrender their existing passport and apply for a new passport before the designation order takes effect." As detailed in our factsheet it is possible to renew your passport at any time without having to pretend the dog ate it. The price of a standard 10-year adult passport is set to rise to £93 when the ID card scheme kicks in. If you renew now you get 10 years of freedom for just £51 rather than waiting to pay £93 for lifelong surveillance.

Red tape is evil, I replied; doing away with it is no bad thing. “But that’s not what the Bill is really about,” Peter replied, and proceeded to educate me about the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill. This unexcitingly named piece of draft legislation purports to be the Government’s means of reducing the “red-tape hurdle” that its reforming zeal perennially stumbles over. In particular, the bill is supposed to remove the burden of regulation weighing on British business without the tiresome problem of having to refer to parliament first.

Hey, do you remember just a few short days ago when Charles Clarke said this?

"Since the (SOCPA) legislation came into effect last August, 157 demonstrations have taken place in Parliament Square, on issues ranging from human rights in Burma to a protest about the right to protest itself..."

It was noted over at Bloggerheads that he didn't bother to say how many of these protests had been of the authorised variety... and guess what? That's because he DOESN'T KNOW!!!!!!

The no2id Swindon group recently sent every candidate, standing for election in the May the 4th Local Council ELections, a small questionaire. The questionaire asked each candidate for their views on the Governments plans to introduce compulsory identity cards, compulsory entry onto the database of National Identity Register. Also asked was whether the candidate supported, or would have supported the motion to oppose national ID cards and the National Identity Register which was carried on the 26th January 2006 by the Councillors of Swindon Borough Council.

Many candidates have already returned their questionaires, however, on no2id's behalf, we would be delighted to receive, and publish, responses from the following candidates who have not yet responded.

Last week, the news that those who are wrongly imprisoned and freed on their first appeal receive will not receive any compensation. That really offended me. (Just how worried are you about having to compensate the wrongfully imprisoned, Mr Home Secretary? We all know about backing the 90 days imprisonment without charge - thankfully defeated but we're still left with the draconian 28 days. How many people are locked up who shouldn't be? How many more do you want to lock up on suspicion but without charge, without trial? And are we any safer for it?)

Blair and Clarke have been passing three crime and security bills every year. They wanted 90-day detention without trial, control orders and curbs on free speech, publication and assembly. They wanted to retain any DNA sample they could find and put everyone's personal and medical records on a compulsory swipe card that could be read by counter staff throughout the country. The legislative and regulatory reform bill - a title again recalling regimes we dare not name - would let Downing Street alter any law without going to parliament, on the grounds of "cutting red tape". The bill was withdrawn, not because it offended the democratic sensibilities of Clarke, the prime minister or the lord chancellor, but when an overwhelming legal outcry reached the House of Lords.

I am writing with reference to Anne Snelgrove's letter (SA, April 12), in which she quite clearly states: "Mr Reid got lots of answers from me. He just didn't like them!" This statement is simply not true. In my second letter to Mrs Snelgrove I politely asked her: "Might I press you to comment, in your own words please, on the quotes I have taken from your letter dated March 10, 2006."

Politicians should answer the substantive objection to their legislation, which is its value to a future totalitarian government. Mr Clarke's "pernicious and even dangerous poison" lies neither in the journalists nor the politicians, but in the whole network of uncontrolled powers the government has acquired and is still demanding to use against people and parliament.

A familiar trick of the bully is to accuse an opponent of the very vice the bully himself practises. So when the Home Secretary spoke yesterday of the "distorted" reporting of his security policy by the media, and the "dangerous poison" of depicting Britain as a sort of dictatorship, it would be unwise to take his words too seriously. Charles Clarke may have acted in some respects in good faith to try to prevent our country coming under murderous attack from terrorists. He has also, however, sought to introduce illiberal measures that belong to a time of total war, such as identity cards, control orders, detention without trial and restricting the jurisdiction of ordinary courts.

New powers that would allow ministers to change laws without consulting Parliament must be watered down, an influential group of MPs says. The government has already been forced to change the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill amid fears it would hand too much power to ministers. But the public administration committee says concerns will remain until the amendments are outlined publicly.

It is always impossible to know whether the prime minister is being disingenuous, or whether he is genuinely ignorant. Take his defence of the truly alarming legislative and regulatory reform bill currently going through parliament. This was blandly trailed last year as a measure to cut red tape. When it was published, civil servants were astonished to find it was nothing of the sort. It gave ministers the unprecedented power to change laws by order, rather than going through parliamentary procedures. They could, in theory, use it for almost any purpose, including ending jury trials, sacking judges, or making political protest illegal. The government resolutely refused to limit the bill while it was in committee. It was only 10 days ago, in the face of media criticism and internal Labour unease, that the government finally conceded that they would restrict some of its powers. Yet no one knows whether this is a major climbdown or a minor tactical concession, since the details haven't been published.

People living with constant, low-level intimidation and law-breaking have welcomed Asbos, which may be limited and crude, but are often effective. They will welcome, too, Blair's populist promise, in his response to Porter, to harry criminals until they give up. Here the same simple message that he has developed in response to all threats to order, from terrorism to mugging - free me and my authorities from outdated constraints, and I will identify the bad people and save you from them - has real resonance. It is echoed by the home secretary's claim that criminals should not be freed on technicalities. It is as if both men believe in their and the system's ability simply to know when people are guilty or innocent, without the tiresome business of procedure or proof.

A leading Tory peer tells David Cameron that he should be restoring the party's traditional values on liberties
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What surprises, worries and depresses me is the apparent relative quietude on the part of the Conservative party on these issues. I repeat - it did not vote against the Regulatory Reform Bill on second reading. It has not remembered the great Edward Gibbon's comment on Augustus Caesar's Rome: 'The principles of a free constitution are irrecoverably lost when the legislative power is nominated by the executive.'

Over the past few months Henry Porter has written a series of articles in The Observer criticising what he sees as a sustained government assault on fundamental freedoms. He attacked a range of measures, including legislation on identity cards, new police powers and anti-terror laws. Porter's critique has generated a huge response from the public - and now from the Prime Minister. Here, in this extraordinary email exchange, Tony Blair rejects the criticism - and announces plans to go further

THE GOVERNMENT has climbed down from their strong defence of the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill which many thought could potentially by-pass democracy. The decision to amend the bill, intended to decrease the amount of legislative ‘red tape’, has been welcomed by many but Christian organisations are still determined to fight the bill, which some see as a ‘blank cheque to by-pass parliament.’

"No one should fear correct identification" - David Blunkett, former home secretary. With a picture of the yellow star that Jews were obliged to wear under Nazi Germany.

OK, class... I have two homework assignments for you this weekend. You may choose either (or both for extra credit).

1. Relax, sit back and write/blog about your sofa. (No begging, use pictures if you can, and be creative if you're able.)
2. Attend the SOCPA protest this Sunday after building one of the following:
a) A *blank* placard or banner
b) A megaphone

Yes, you heard me... a megaphone. A real one like what directors used to use in them good old days before teh electremonics (see picture to right). Y'see, I've been reading this section of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 carefully and the 'designated area' ban applies ONLY to 'loudspeakers'... a term that every dictionary I look in applies exclusively to an *electronic* audio/amplification device (and/or part of same).

A REGISTER of children's details similar to that to be kept under the government's controversial ID card scheme has been recommended by officials. The Citizen Information Project (CIP) said a child population register should also be set up. Under-16s had been exempt from the national identity register.

No2ID is calling for mass passport renewals next month to create a spike in the system that shows the government how unhappy people are with its plans to have everyone clocked in an identity database. Guy Herbert, general secretary of No2ID, said: "If everyone renews their passport now, that inconveniences their plans to get everyone on the register." The May renewal date is also good for people who want to delay having the government store their fingerprints, mugshots and eye-scans.

IN the recent debate on ID cards in the commons, Anne Snelgrove argued that Labour's manifesto pledge that ID cards would be voluntary was not being broken, even though it will be compulsory to have an ID card if you apply for a passport.

We are pleased to announce that over one hundred NO2ID local groups have now been set-up around the country. Local groups are the key to getting the facts about ID cards and the National Identity Register to people at a grass roots level. Our groups have been holding public meetings, encouraging local councils to pass anti-ID motions, setting up street stalls, handing out leaflets and collecting signatures from Inverness to Torquay. What is more local groups were instrumental in delaying the ID bill as it moved through parliament, particularly the extraordinary five rejections by the House of Lords. Well done to all involved.

Since our last newsletter many of our supporters have been lobbying election candidates for the upcoming local elections on 4th May. Our Doncaster group have even managed to get our web address on Liberal Democrat candidates' leaflets. If you haven't contacted your local candidates yet please do. Ask them their position on ID cards and make it clear to them that you will never vote for a supporter of compulsory registration or ID cards. ID cards are a local issue, the astronomical costs of implementing the scheme will be passed to councils who will be forced to increase council tax.

I was just trawling around the home office site and came across this intesting little press release with a memorable quote from Andy Burnham - the Home-Office Minister :-

"For the first time frequent travellers and non-EU citizens will be able to enter the country via Manchester Airport quickly and securely by using IRIS technology. With over 97 million people entering the UK in 2005, it is important that the UK remains at the forefront of the latest technology in immigration controls and the Government’s commitment to project IRIS demonstrates that. Secure and effective border controls are vital to safeguard our citizens against terrorism, serious and organised crime and illegal immigration, while at the same time facilitating entry for legitimate travellers."

I find it funny that the Blair government is will to implement a system with known faults over such a simple method of securing borders known as more immigration officers checking peoples paperwork.

Like the constitution-hijacking bill now reaching its final stages, and the criminalising of peaceful protest, ID cards are designed to control the lives of ordinary citizens (as well as enrich the new Labour-favoured companies that will build the computer systems). A small, determined and profoundly undemocratic group is killing freedom in Britain, just as it has killed literally in Iraq. That is the news. "The kaleidoscope has been shaken," said Blair at the 2001 Labour party conference. "The pieces are in flux. Soon they will settle again. Before they do, let us reorder this world around us."

I have just read what I believe to be the first letter in support of the Government's ID Card Bill (Mistaken on ID card responses, April 12). I was not surprised to discover it was from Anne Snelgrove MP, the same MP who first claimed that she had not received any letters opposing the Bill (SA, November 19 2005) when, in fact, a number of her constituents had sent such letters (SA, November 26, 28 and 29, 2005).

The government will argue in Britain's highest court next week that foreign officials who commit torture abroad should be immune from civil action in the English courts. Christopher Greenwood QC, the international lawyer who advised the attorney-general that the Iraq war was lawful, will argue for the British government, which has intervened in support of Saudi Arabian officials accused of detaining and torturing four Britons in Saudi jails.

I am beginning to wonder if opinion is on the move. Labour's climbdown last week on the wretched Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill may indicate that the Prime Minister feels exposed on an authoritarian record which is only now coming into public's focus.
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The Prime Minister really is a puzzle, for what are we to make of a lawyer who disdains the rule of law at home and abroad, a missionary who preaches the spread of democracy on his foreign tours while removing the freedoms of his own people, a Labour Prime Minister whose policies penalise those least able to defend themselves?

You may have already read Geoff's report of his communications with Anne Snelgrove MP (Labour, Swindon South) on the subject of ID cards and the National Identity Register, in the thread Is my member of Parliament Deaf? elsewhere in this forum. I had a very similar experience in my own communications with Ms Snelgrove on the same subject, so I'm posting them here to demonstrate that Geoff's experience is not an isolated incident.

WITH reference to the letter by Geoff Reid (SA April 10) I write to Tony Blair and also I have written to Labour MPs Anne Snelgrove and Michael Wills. On each occasion I have received most satisfactory and enlightening replies. Maybe Mr Reid is not asking the right questions.

This is a 1,500 word piece (including an article from the `Independent`) asking if the rich and powerful can be held to account for war crimes. 6 related photos are included.

Below is an open letter sent, on 15 April, to our MP regarding the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill which threatens to end meaningful parliamentary democracy in Britain.

I AM writing regarding Geoff Reid's letter about the MPs ignoring his questions. I must say that he can't have had much dealing with Mr Wills because I have had to write to Mr Wills on at least seven occasions and, when writing, I introduce myself as one of his constituents not as someone who votes for him or anyone else. That is my business.

The Government has defied its critics in recent weeks, insisting the highly technical Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill was about making it easier for Whitehall to axe unnecessary regulations. But Jim Murphy, the Cabinet Office minister, performed a U-turn yesterday by offering a series of concessions to opponents of the Bill.
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However, the Confederation of British Industry warned ministers not to emasculate a Bill that was designed to slash red tape.

THE Government has backed down over the so-called “dictatorship Bill”, which would have allowed ministers to bypass parliamentary scrutiny. This comes after trenchant criticism from a cross-party group of MPs, peers and senior lawyers, including six Cambridge law professors, who gave warning in a letter to The Times that it would allow the Government to rewrite almost any Act.

The greatest deception, however, was in the 1933 "Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the State". What could be more banal and innocuous than that? This was, however, the Enabling Act (Ermächtigungsgesetz) which created Hitler an absolute dictator, and the rest is history. We in the present day are not so far from the brink. Is Blair's proposed new state police force – a "kind of FBI" as he put it – destined to be our very own Geheim Statspolizei? Is Belmarsh to be our Dachau? And in his Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill has he proposed the motion which will rob us of the last of our democratic rights?

The newly introduced Terrorism Act 2006 has some alarming clauses relating to websites - particularly likely to affect sites where members of the public can contribute content. Unwary bloggers, forum owners and even Indymedia staff could find themselves held liable (with maximum 7-year sentence) for unwitting "endorsement" of materials deemed to be terrorist in nature.

Every place that sells alcohol or cigarettes, every post office, every pharmacy, and every Bank will have an NIR Card Terminal, (very much like the Chip and Pin Readers that are everywhere now) into which your card can be 'swiped' to check your identity. Each time this happens, a record is made at the NIR of the time and place that the Card was presented. This means for example, that there will be a government record of every time you withdraw more than £99 at your branch of Nat West, who now demand ID for these transactions. Every time you have to prove that you are over 18, your card will be swiped, and a record made at the NIR. Restaurants and off licenses will demand that your card is swiped so that each receipt shows that they sold alcohol to someone over 18, and that this was proved by the access to the NIR, indemnifying them from prosecution. Private businesses are going to be given access to the NIR Database. If you want to apply for a job, you will have to present your card for a swipe. If you want to apply for a London Underground Oyster Card,or a supermarket loyalty card, or a driving license you will have to present your ID Card for a swipe. The same goes for getting a telephone line or a mobile phone or an internet account.

A select committee of MPs will be able to veto ministers' decisions. And the Regulatory Reform Bill will not allow any powers to make constitutional changes. Mr Murphy rejected suggestions the government was performing a U-turn telling the Financial Times: "It's the same policy but with reassurance being given to those who have concerns." The changes would prevent people from misconstruing the reform as a bid "by government to take a wider constitutional power", he added.

Jim Murphy, cabinet office minister, has agreed to redraft legislation aiming to cut red tape amid claims the proposals were "totalitarian" and an attack on democracy. The East Renfrewshire MP branded such warnings "hysterical" but said he would table amendments to the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill to eliminate the possibility of it being used to make constitutional changes.

I sympathise with Geoff Reid who seems to find Anne Snelgrove's correspondence nothing more than the regurgitation of New Labour pap. However, I have to tell him that I have found Michael Wills to be a very willing and combative correspondent.

A short video (wmv I am afraid) in which Milan tells of feelings on Judges decision, and why he will continue to stand to protect his freedom and civil liberties in the United Kingdom.

The government is to write new safeguards into a controversial bill giving ministers sweeping powers to change the law after Labour's chief whip in the Lords warned it would otherwise face defeat. Critics claimed the legislative and regulatory reform bill would allow the government to change almost any law it wished - even introducing new criminal offences or altering the constitution - without scrutiny.

Mr Reid (SA, April 10) says that his MP Anne Snelgrove does not answer his letters. He is lucky to have received a generic letter. At least three Wanborough residents have written to her, on several occasions, and we are all waiting for a reply. After four letters I am still expecting a response. Even an acknowledgement slip would be acceptable!

There is a new Criminal Trespass law which will apply on 13 military sites from 1st April 2006 and all nuclear sites from 13th April 2006. This briefing attempts to explain what it is. If anyone has any experience with this new law, whether of its use or threatened use, please let us know at legalsupport at tridentploughshares.org Updates on this briefing can be found on www.tridentploughshares.org We are not lawyers. This briefing can also be downloaded in PDF format as an A5 booklet or a double-sided A4 sheet.

justice not vengeance' founder activist milan rai appeared at bow street this morning to hear the verdict and sentencing in his trial as organiser of an unauthorised demonstration in the designated zone around parliament. his was the first prosecution of an organiser, and he faced up to three months imprisonment (rising to 51 weeks later in the year!)

We might be obliged to Doug Maugham (New Lab) for informing us (while solemnly castigating Thomas MacLaughlin for his over-colourful use of language) that "ultimately public policy has to be determined by rational argument on the facts as known at the time, not by wild fancies" – were it not for the trifling wee matter of Tony Blair's decision to embark upon the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, unquestionably the gravest British foreign policy blunder since the Second World War.
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In his latest salvo at Thomas McLaughlin, Doug Maughan makes no mention of New Labour's outrageous grab for totalitarian power through the passage of the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill – which bill occasioned Mr McLaughlin's initial letter touching off the latest round of argumenta ad hominem between these two.

If we have done nothing wrong, read nothing wrong, talked to no dodgy types, then we have nothing to fear. And anyway, keeping watch over people is not the monopoly of the Government. Neighbours could be encouraged to keep tabs on neighbours, employees on each other. Imagine if businesses could target their advertising towards me by knowing about me from my centrally-stored data? Based on what they know about my credit history, salary, savings and marital status and property-ownership status? Based on what they knew about my medical history, driving history, tax history, criminal record? Wouldn't that be something else?
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We can threaten, invade and bomb places where we think they are known to be sympathetic to the idea that we are intent on threatening, invading and bombing Muslims. Terrorist-harbouring countries.
Like um, Saudi Arabia, where the 9/11 bombers were from. Oh, sorry, Afghanistan then. And Iraq. And Iran. And...
Or Leeds, where 3 of the 7 July terrorists were from?

Hang on. They could be anywhere, these people, who think we're engaged in a war against them. These terrorists. They're following an idea. We can't catch and idea and try it or make war on it. We can't control it.

In the run up to the 2005 General Election, the Labour Party made many promises and claims in a bid to win favour with the British electorate. One such promise concerned the introduction of identity cards and a national identity database. Labour promised us:

‘We will introduce ID cards, including biometric data like fingerprints, backed up by a national database and rolling out initially on a voluntary basis as people renew their passports’

Now we are told that, (after 2010), if we wish to apply for a new or renewal passport, (or certain other 'designated documents'), we also will be ordered to attend an appointment to have our biometric data recorded and placed onto a government database, and an identity card will be issued to us for which we will be expected to pay an amount that the government has yet to announce.

I wrote to Anne Snelgrove recently (Labour, South Swindon ) regarding my concerns over Labour's plans for voluntary identity cards being anything but. I received a generic letter by return, not surprising, considering that almost anything produced by this Government is ambiguously generic and Teflon coated, particularly if it is committed to paper or videotape.

About 30 activists from Bristol attended the No Borders demonstration outside Harmondsworth and Colnbrook detention centres yesterday (8th April 2006). The demonstration, attended by about 300 people in total, was called to protest against the imprisonment and deportation of asylum seekers. For more information see http://www.ncadc.org.uk.

can some one give me a straight answer to my questions ?
will medical information be on the data base that the id cards will be linked to?
if so who will have acess to this information?
if so why are medical groups not up in arms about it ? for example mental health groups, terence higgins, elderly ect, and if medical info is not on there, will it stay that way?
if medical info is going to be shared then i wonder if jo bloggs who supports the id card and has had depression ,will feel the same when they relise this info could be shared with employers, insurers ect.

on april 6th, brian haw's campaign manager and long-standing right-hand woman, maria gallestegui, won a historic battle against the ridiculous section 132 law banning protest around parliament. her case was thrown out of the high court when the prosecution offered little evidence.
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in the hearing of maria's case (www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/london/2006/01/331285.html), the court heard how she has supported him in many ways, co-ordinating others to make sure that the square was never left unattended when brian had court appearances or food and ablution breaks. she herself stayed in the square when brian was in hospital. she looked after his welfare and made sure he had an opportunity to have regular showers and clean changes of underwear etc. she made sure that he ate either by arranging cover for him to leave his space, or by bringing him food. in 2005 when brian ran for parliament, she was his campaign agent. all this meant that she was under the impression that she too would be immune from the new legislation as she was clearly part of his protest.

The Home Office has proposed logging details of every financial transaction conducted by every citizen with a value over £100, and the database will be operational from 2008. As IT experts we have a responsibility to ensure the government is made aware of the technology's limitations.

Harmondsworth, 8 April 2006. Around 300 people from London, Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Brighton, Reading and Cardiff demonstrated at the Harmondsworth and Colnbrook detention centres near Heathrow to ensure that "those inside will hear our voices and know that they are not alone." The call out for the demonstration was made by London No Borders, the Campaign to Close Heathrow Detention Centres, London Against Detention, and The Square Occupied Social Centre in solidarity with the Noborder actions in Australia

However, we are more worried about the new "takedown notices" empowered under the recently passed Section 3 of the Terrorism Act 2006. These notices under Section 3 only require the "opinion of a police constable" i.e. any constable, no matter how junior or how technologically or politically ignorant. The verbal promises by Home Office Minister Hazel Blears, that somehow only specially trained police officers would ever be dealing with such "takedown notices" is, of course, utterly worthless, since these assurances are not written into the text of the Act.

Thomas McLaughlin is right (April 6). The title, Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill, has been deliberately chosen. It reads like something one might expect to find in a sub-clause of a local by-law. It could not be less memorable and is almost unpronounceable. When I wrote to my MP to express my concern I had to copy out the name in order to refer to it.

In January the commissioner of the Metropolitan police got into enormous trouble for saying that he couldn't see why the Soham murders had become such a big story. Like every other journalist, I marvelled at his inability to see what makes a story run. But now, as I follow the news, I have developed a blind spot of my own. Piece by piece, month by month, Tony Blair's administration is removing the safeguards that protect all of us from the whims of a government and the intrusions of a powerful state. It is engaged in a ferocious power-grab. Yet this story has not seized the imagination of the media or the public. In our failure to respond, the government must be reading a tacit acceptance that it can do what it chooses, because we either don't notice or don't care.
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The perverse fact is that we are being asked to place great trust in a government that makes a point of distrusting everyone outside its inner circle. If we don't share their assumption that they alone know what is best for the rest of us, we had better start protesting now. Last year Blair promised to listen to us. As he dismantles our defences, what he is hearing is something close to silence.

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament activists Helen John (68) and Sylvia Boyes (62) were arrested at Menwith Hill Spy Base on Saturday 1st April, the day the new Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 came into force. Both women entered the base through the front gates wearing peace placards and equipped with household tools in anticipation of an opportunity to take non-violent direct action against the spy equipment on the base. Helen and Sylvia were held in custody at Harrogate Police Station for twelve hours while the Crown Prosecution Service deliberated on whether to prosecute them under the new legislation. The Director of Public Prosecutions decided to defer any decision for two weeks.

We were misinformed' says Paul Flynn, Labour MP for Newport. In a recent interview he is the first to break ranks and admit this. 'We accepted it at face value. It hadn’t been properly discussed. It didn’t emerge on the radar. We accepted the assurances that it was a deregulatory Bill, with no malign effects.' He was, he added, very unhappy.

To understand how someone like Flynn, a prominent Labour rebel, can be taken in, one must look at the saga of the Bill. Eight months ago no-one had heard of the 'Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill', because it didn’t exist. Instead, launched on July 20th 2005, was something described as a 'Bill for Better Regulation'. It would, said the Cabinet Office, 'speed up the Government’s Better Regulation agenda'.

Words and symbols can be designed to repel as well as attract. This is a clue to readers like Alan Sinclair puzzled by the "deathly and mysterious silence on this measure" - the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill (Letters, April 4). Its terms are so widely drawn as to allow government to bypass parliament on virtually anything. The bill's title has been "negatively branded" to be as boring as possible. It is unmemorable and almost unpronounceable. Visually unattractive, this ugly chunk of blurb makes us yawn and turn away. Anyone who thinks this overstates the case should try to read aloud three times: Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill. Or later, without a note, try to recall the bill's name.

judge anthony evans delivered a written verdict today which he refused to read out in court. he handed down a £250 fine, plus £250 costs, and of course a criminal record. mark barrett will appeal to a higher court on human rights grounds. for a full report on this court case, go to http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/03/337309.html...

today, the defendant, mark barrett, returned to receive the verdict and sentencing. judge anthony evans refused to read out his written verdict, and refused to enter into discussion over the severity of the sentence. in previous cases, participants of "unauthorised" demonstrations in parliament square have received conditional discharges, or small fines (the highest so far being £100). the costs awarded have generally been small too, typically £50 to £150, with the higher end reserved for those the judge had thought had wasted court time by "trying to wriggle out of it".

The Government said in its manifesto that ID cards would be rolled out on a voluntary basis as people renewed their passports. This means there will be no choice about enrolling on the National Identity Register and paying for an ID card when renewing one's passport. This does not sound voluntary but more like compulsion to have our personal details entered on a Government-engineered database.

ALLAN Watt (Letters, April 3) is to be congratulated for his bravery in risking the (future) anger of the Thought Police who will no doubt be created by ministerial fiat if this totalitarian Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill is allowed to become law. Jim Murphy, MP, has the job of piloting it through parliament. He should be ashamed.

Consider, for example, the likely outcome of possibly the nastiest Bill to go before Parliament since the Six Acts of 1819, the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill. The Commons has given a second reading to this Bill, which would increase the already great ability of ministers to bypass Parliament in enacting, repealing or amending (according to Clause 2 of the Bill) "any legislation". The Bill would especially be used, if enacted, to import EU law into our own without any parliamentary scrutiny, but could be used for even worse things besides.

The House of Lords constitution committee has expressed the fear that it will "markedly alter the respective and long-standing roles of ministers and Parliament in the legislative process". The Lords may well, despite Mr Blair having packed it with so many mates since 1997, defeat it. It may require the Parliament Acts to be used to put it into law, but then only after a long delay, with high-profile press coverage of the row alerting the public to this potentially massive loss of their liberties. That might in turn be so damaging to the Government that it backs down altogether.

On 2 April 2006 an event took place on the second anniversary of an attack on Fallujah, Iraq which started on 2 April 2004. The event started at 12:00pm with people starting to gather in the middle of Parliament Square. A plan had obviously already been made by those involved to start reading out the names of some of those who have been killed in the war in Iraq. The participants at the event had signs hanging around their necks with a series of pictures of people who have been killed in the war also marked with the slogan 'Who Dies?'. Another set of signs was used, marked 'Who lies?' with photos of those who had lied about Iraq - one particular sign was a photo of Condoleeza Rice who was recently forced to face protests during her visit to Liverpool. A third set of signs had the slogan 'Who profits?', and had some of the names of companies who had profited from the war - such as Control Risks, and BAE Systems. A large banner was held up with the message "Who Lies, Who Dies, Who Profit$". Five large puppets were also present - intended to depict the victims of the war.

The new UK Identity and Passport Service, spawned out of the Passport Service after the ID Cards Act became law on Saturday, celebrated its birth by trying to stop people renewing their passports whenever they want to, whether or not the passport is about to expire. The change in terms and conditions were slipped into the website without announcement, and were quite clearly ID card related. And then, spookily close to the publication of The Register's first version of this story drawing attention to the change, they changed it back again. Fortunately, we have witnesses and while, no, we can't fathom precisely what they're up to, it's probably reasonable to guess that they know they have a potential problem, and they're going to have to figure out how to deal with it before ID cards go live.

ALLAN Watt is correct to be concerned at the imminent approach of the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill (Letters, April 3). There has been a deathly and mysterious silence on this measure since it first surfaced in the press some time ago. Information appears to be at a premium and the public have been kept in ignorance about one of the potentially greatest threats to democracy since first-past-the-post voting was introduced.

The Draft Code of Practice on the application of Civil Penalties under the Identity Cards Act 2006, and how an ID card will be used when you do something as everyday as collecting a parcel.

Today, 3 April 2006, the Home Office were appealing the decision taken in the High Court last July, that Brian Haw is exempt from the measures in the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 which ban unauthorised protest near Parliament. The Home Office, the Metropolitan Police (as an interested party) and Brian's barrister all made submissions based on arguments about what the relevant sections of the law say and how they should be interpreted, what Parliament's intention was in passing the law and the legality of the extra measures included in the secondary legislation under which Brian would have to seek authorisation.

Naming the Dead, Mass Civil Disobedience Against the Occupation of Iraq took place in Parliament Square and Whitehall, London on 2 April, 2006. Photographs of the event

With reports of bomber activity at RAF Fairford over the last week, alongside a new law which came into force on 1st April (not an April Fools) carrying a maximum penalty of one year for trespassing on 13 designated military bases - including Fairford - the indications are that the powers that be are gearing up for new wave of military action - probably against Iran - while simultaneously ensuring that any direct dissent can be dealt with in a far more draconian and effective manner than during the protests against military bases in the lead up to the aerial bombing of Iraq from British soil in March 2003.

New Labour presented itself as a modernising force in 1997. Modernising? Well, that's a moot point when peerages are being sold to Labour party donors out of a hatch at the back of Number 10. Nearly nine years on, what we can say - quite categorically - is that Labour's programme of legislation challenges the British constitution like no other administration before it. In a thousand tiny - and not so tiny - cuts Labour threatens our rights and freedoms, the rule of law and the sovereignty of Parliament.
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In just nine years all the conventions of the rule of law, the 'gentleman's agreement' as Liberty's Shami Chakrabati describes it, have been swept away by a Prime Minister with a winning manner and the instincts of tyrant. We, the people, all need a constitution to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms, to set the legal limits upon the legislative and the executive and to guarantee an independent judiciary which has the duty and the power to protect the constitution. It is an irony - or something more sinister - that the people who will never give us a constitution are the modernisers of New Labour.

The Home Office are appealing the decision by the High Court last July that effectively made Brian exempt from the ban on unauthorised protest brought in by the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act. If the appeal goes against Brian, eviction proceedings are likely to start. We are not sure when and how this will happen but it would be great if people could be on the alert to go down to Parliament Square to show solidarity with Brian when it becomes necessary.

A protest against the SOCPA [Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005] Exclusion Zone around the Houses of Parliament in London on April 1, 2006. Today's Fools' Paradise Parade marked the day with a protest agains the SOCPA [Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005] Exclusion Zone, with a parade starting at the London Eye and ending in Parliament Square, where there was a bit of a party, with a pinata stuffed with presents being attacked and destroyed by the children. There were one or two minor problems when a small group of security men came to assert that the Victoria Embankment was private property, and so could not be used for a TV interview, but otherwise the protest - largely without political banners and entirely without amplification - went without problems, and indeed a reasonable amount of co-operation from a small group of police who stood watching.

THE Government want compulsory ID cards, the Lords prefer a voluntary scheme. What both groups have seemingly forgotten is that the majority of the public, the electorate, don't want ID cards at all, a fact which I'm sure the Prime Minister will be reminded of at the next General Election.

Reclaim Fool's Day parade. London Eye to Parliament Square, ceremony and fairies in Picadilly Circus. Starting at the London Eye some Security Guards tried to muscle in on the act. One of them told me it is OK for security guards to smash cameras. The police maintained a fairly low profile and no one was arrested before I left for Picadilly Circus at about 2pm, to shoot the fairies. Further details: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/03/337171.html

judge anthony evans adjourned until next week after hearing the evidence against socpa activist mark barrett at bow street magistrate's court today. he will give a written verdict on wednesday morning after considering human rights arguments in the interpretation of the law. mark has been involved in the regular sunday afternoon picnics at parliament square where people meet to campaign against the serious organised crime and police act (socpa) 2005 section 132 which outlaws spontaneous protest around parliament. the picnics have been held on a weekly basis since the draconian law came into effect last august. mark was arrested on the 28th august while participating in one of those regular picnics, when police decided that it was not a picnic, but a demonstration.

The Home Office is being accused of showing "casual disregard for taxpayers' money" after a spending watchdog criticised its accounts. The National Audit Office said it had not had the evidence to form an opinion on the accounts for 2004/5, and there were fundamental problems with them.

BBC - Intelligence lessons of 7/7: Whitehall officials have told the BBC they are now facing an unprecedented number of terrorist plots in Britain. They say the threat of home-grown terrorism has increased substantially since the Iraq invasion of 2003, and that 50% of recent disrupted plots are home-grown, involving British nationals living in Britain. Well, there's a big f?cking surprise; irresponsible foreign policy leads to further terrorism. But the people you really have to worry about are the protestors...

A great letter from yesterday's Indy: The Labour manifesto commitment on ID cards was: "We will introduce ID cards ... backed up by a national database and rolling out initially on a voluntary basis as people renew their passports". The present Bill, however, would compel people to apply for an ID card when they renew their passport. In their attempts to link the Bill to the manifesto, the Government have come up with some shocking statements, such as "passports are voluntary documents", "applying for a passport is matter of free will" and "this is not compulsion by stealth". Far from blocking the Government's manifesto pledge, as ministers claim (report, 29 March), the Lords have consistently attempted to amend the Bill to make it consistent with the manifesto. It is the Government's heavily-whipped majority in the Commons which is being obstinate and unreasonable here, in refusing to accept any amendment whatsoever to the Bill.

The Identity Cards Act finally (but one still hopes, temporarily) made it onto the statute book yesterday, and the Passport Service and all of its ultra vires identity-related activities will magically transform itself into the Identity and Passport Service tomorrow. We still don't accept that this is entirely legal, but phase one of the Government's incredible, improbable and unworkable joined-up border-watch, security and immigration policing system has now been given the Parliamentary green light, and immigration is one of the areas where it should bite first.

Taking legislating out of the Legislature. Barry K Winetrobe, Reader in Law at Napier University, highlights dangers in the Legislative & Regulatory Reform Bill currently making its progress through the Westminster Parliament.

People applying for passports from 2008 will have to pay for an identity card whether they want one or not, Home Secretary Charles Clarke has said. A compromise won by the Lords means passport applicants will be able to opt out of getting an ID card until 2010. But those opting out will get no discount - something the Tories say will make people resentful. Mr Clarke also announced that ID cards would be made compulsory if Labour wins the next election.

The way has been cleared for the introduction of identity cards after weeks of parliamentary wrangling. MPs have approved a compromise drawn up by the government, after the Lords repeatedly blocked the scheme. Anyone who renews a passport will be put on a national ID database - but will not now be forced to have an ID card until 2010, instead of 2008.

Firstly, there's the question of registration on the NIR, which will now be compulsory (as not specified in the Labour manifesto) for people renewing passports, with all the quasi-fascist state palaver of trotting along to your nearest centre (run by someone like Capita, doubtless) and being fingerprinted, iris scanned etc. The least important thing for the Government is the piece of plastic, so the 'compromise' of no-plastic-till-2010 isn't a compromise at all. Besides, the chances of the scheme being up and running on time are fractions of a percent, reducing the time this notional 'compromise' will be in force.

Secondly there's the question of the rate at which we're all going to be put on this thing - I've done some calculations before on the speed at which the system will have to work based on 700,000+ people turning sixteen every year for ever, which showed that for normal office hours there isn't actually very long to do all the 'background checks' and duplicate biometric checks that would be required for a gold standard database.

The original proposal, that anyone who renewed their passport would be forced to get an ID card as well, has been held off for just four years until January 2010. People can choose to opt out for now, and there might now be time enough for civil liberties campaigners to build a stronger base of opposition to the rollout. However, people who renew their passport will still have their details entered on the National Identity Register, the mother of all government databases, a biometric database to which the cards are just the public face. Throughout the protracted ID debate in Westminster it has been pointed out time and again that the database is what really scares them.

Last week, news emerged that Primrose Hill primary school in north London had been fingerprinting pupils without their parents' consent. It seemed shocking yet should not have come as such a surprise. Micro Librarian Systems' Junior Librarian has been marketed in the UK since 2002 and is estimated to have fingerprinted hundreds of thousands of British children.

That so many schools have been happy to install such systems, often without thinking it necessary to consult parents, is a reflection of how this technology is infiltrating society. We can expect more of the same, for children and adults, should the ID card, debated once more this week in parliament, become reality.

The way has been cleared for the introduction of ID cards after weeks of parliamentary wrangling. BBC News examines the next steps, and what form the scheme will take.

Incredibly, both Houses of Parliament have voted for an amendment which means that you will still have to pay £30 and have your biometric details recorded on the centralised National Identity Register, even if you do not choose to be issued with an actual ID Card when you apply for a Passport (and pay the separate Passport fee). This phony "compromise opt out" from having to get an ID card with a passport only applies until 1st January 2010 i.e. probably before the next General Election in May 2010. It does not apply to anything except Passports, so foreigners applying for residence permits will be caught much earlier.

"While I recommend that my party support the amendment, let there be no doubt that my first act when I take over as home secretary after the next election will be to do away with the Bill," declared shadow home secretary David Davis in the Commons last night, after telling Conservative MPs to vote in support of the compromise amendment.

Sir - All these arguments about ID cards boil down to one prime factor - can we trust any governnment with so much power over us? Did "they" never ever hang an innocent man? You bet - sorry!

Where does one go next when your own Member of Parliament doesn’t want to answer your questions?. I wrote to Anne Snelgrove recently, (Lab Swindon South), regarding my concerns over Labours plans for ‘Voluntary’ identity cards. I received a generic ‘catch-all’ letter by return….. not surprising considering that almost anything produced by this government seems to be ambiguously ‘catch-all’, generic and Teflon coated, particularly if it’s committed to paper or videotape.

[Includes full text of letters between exchanged between Anne Snelgrove and her constituent]

The Government suffered a fifth defeat in the Lords today over its plans for compulsory identity cards. Peers backed an amendment by Lord Armstrong of Ilminster, a former Cabinet Secretary who sits as a crossbench peer, for a system that allows citizens to opt out of the scheme. Voting was 219 to 191, a majority of 28.

The government suffered a fifth defeat in the Lords today over its plans for compulsory identity cards, as the stand-off between peers and MPs continued.
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The Conservatives claimed Mr Burham's admission twisted "the English language beyond all recognition." Home affairs spokesman Edward Garnier said: "Day by day the government's case for ID cards and the National Identity Register is unravelling. The intellectual incoherence and dishonesty of their arguments are revealed more clearly every week."

Peers have rejected for a fifth time government plans to force passport applicants to get ID cards. They voted by 219 to 191 - a majority of 28 - to back an alternative scheme to allow people to "opt out" when cards are introduced from 2008.

Sir - The Government claims ID cards will help stamp out identity theft and financial fraud. I wonder whether ID cards would have helped Labour Party treasurer Jack Dromey find out quicker who had anonymously loaned his party £14million pounds.

Michael Mansfield, QC, talking at the Oxford Literary Festival, delivered a systematic attack on the way in which recent reforms have cut back civil rights on a domestic and international scale and claimed the Prime Minister had become arrogant and corrupt. The latest such bill, he said, was the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill, currently being debated in committee. The QC said the bill will allow ministers to amend or introduce laws without sufficient scrutiny from MPs, and will do away with the checks and balances provided by the legislature.

Sir - Russell Norton is right (Your Say, March 23) that databases for bank details, medical records, school performance, licenses for driving, shooting, selling alcohol, serving food, caring for our children and voting contain intimate details of our lives. But imagine if all these databases were combined into one, so that a search algorithm could quickly evaluate whether you are part of the citizenry who buy a lot of alcohol and got into trouble with authorities at school. Or whether you're poor, black and have signs of an addictive personality. Or whether you rebelled at school and have a strong interest in politics leaning towards the current opposition.

ID cards will not belong to us, but to the state: the Home Secretary will be able to revoke any individual's card at any moment, by the touch of a Whitehall button, rendering him or her a non-person, cut off from all the transactions in which freedom consists. It is not exaggeration to say that the National Identity Register will give the government both knowledge of, and control over, your life. A photo of your face, your fingerprints and a scan of the back of your eye will be recorded, as well as 49 separate pieces of information, including your residence and your religion. Every outpost of the state, and every outlet that operates under licence from the state (including shops selling cigarettes and alcohol), will have access to the register.
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And then there is the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill, which is presented as a means of repealing red tape and therefore restricting the reach of the state. But the Bill, quite simply, gives any minister of the Crown the power to "make provision amending, repealing or replacing any legislation", meaning "any public general Act", or indeed "any rule of law".

Peter Keith-Lucas, a public law specialist at Bevan Brittan, said: "There's no doubt that the bill has been proposed with the best intentions, but the actual measure is pretty breathtaking."
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Michael Smyth, head of Clifford Chance's public policy unit, told The Lawyer: "The concern here is that the parliamentary element of the law-making process is being dismissed, and that's why these proposals are generating a certain amount of attention." The Government has given assurances that it will not use the power to introduce controversial policies, but as one lawyer said: "Who decides what's controversial? Any succeeding government will not be held to this promise."

I am Alan Lodge, perhaps better known on Indymedia and the like, as 'Tash'. On saturday 18th March, on the way to do some shopping and visiting in town, I diverted to follow some police activity, that turned out to be an armed turnout. Helicopter overhead and the heavy mob tearing about near Huntingdon Street and the Mansfield Road, with many guns, here in the centre of Nottingham. I tried to tell the armed policeman 'look, I'm just trying to do my job' Now, I have photographed armed incidents before. and have not been so obstructed. But this time, I ended up being arrested for doing what I am legally allowed to do. Taking photographs in a public place. Being opposed in this activity by the police, is not so unusual for many of us. But this time, it is only weeks after the police issues some guidance to their officers, reminding them of their manners and that it is so permitted. As it further happens, I'm the chap that had been pressing for thier introduction, here in Nottinghamshire. As I am currently facing charges resulting from this incident, I am not allowed to tell you all about the ins-and-outs of the case, so I offer you this release and some background info on the guidelines, and tell you that you will be hearing more about it in time. And, so will they.......!

Commons leader Geoff Hoon has warned peers to stop blocking the government's plans for all passport applicants to be given identity cards. The House of Lords has repeatedly voted against the proposal, which is backed by MPs. Mr Hoon told Sky News the "constant battle" must end and that peers should accept the will of the Commons. Opposition peers say cards should be voluntary, as pledged in the Labour general election manifesto.

Anti-war protester Brian Haw, who won a court battle to maintain his Parliament Square vigil which began in 2001, has been arrested. The 56-year old father-of-seven, from Redditch, Worcestershire, was with a fellow campaigner when the arrest occurred, supporters said. Mr Haw was arrested on suspicion of obstructing police. Both Mr Haw and the other campaigner, Barbara Tucker, were taken into custody but were later released. A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said: "A man and a woman were arrested at 2pm in Parliament Square."

Sir - I am delighted that the Lords are sticking to their guns over the ID card issue, and defeated the Government for the fourth time over passport applications being linked to the National Identity Re gister. The Government is no longer trying to convince us that compulsory ID cards would stop terrorism, illegal immigration or identity fraud, but have nothing more than a dubiously worded manifesto statement to force this scheme on to us.

The injunction originally related to 12 people alleged to have taken part in a "concerted campaign" of harassment against EDO MBM Technology in Brighton. The firm settled with 10 of the protesters last month, but the remaining two refused the agreement. Mr Justice Walker removed the interim injunction which remained in force on them, accusing EDO of "woeful neglect" in its preparations towards obtaining a permanent injunction.

Sir - Many detractors of a police-controlled biometric database of the British population cite invasion of privacy and infraction of our civil liberties as reasons why it should not be created. However, the ethical argument for such a move is that while we rescind our right to biological anonymity, we provide the police service with a highly necessary tool to add to their investigative toolbox .

On Thursday 23rd March 2006 a High Court Judge handed down a damning judgement against an arms company. He struck out an interim injunction against remaining defendants in the controversial harassment injunction case brought against anti-war protesters in Brighton by arms manufacturers EDO MBM Technology Ltd. The case has been continuing in the High Court for nearly a year without reaching a full trial despite a court order that a speedy trial should be prepared for because of ‘human rights implications’. ‘The blame for loss of the trial date in my view undoubtedly lies with the claimants’ says Judge Walker.

The House of Lords is preparing itself for the next round of Parliamentary ping pong over the controversial Identity Cards Bill 2005. There is now an Amendment by Lord Armstrong of Ilminster, who sits on the Cross Benches. He is the former "Sir Humphrey Appleby" Cabinet Secretary and former head of the Civil Service, who coined the phrase "economical with the truth". His amendment would create an individual "Opt Out" from Compulsion to be registered on the centralised biometric database, via an application for a Designated Document, i.e. a Passport.

As Ms Snelgrove accurately stated the Government said in its manifesto that ID cards would be rolled out on a voluntary basis as people renewed their passports. We are now given to understand that this means one will have no choice about enrolling on the National Identity Register and paying for an ID card when one renews one passport. This sounds a little less than voluntary to me. It sounds like compulsion. Compulsion to have one's personal details entered on to a Government database.

I wrote to my MP asking if the providers of this technology would be the same firms (EDS, Capita, etc) that have so spectacularly failed in the provision of schemes for the Child Support Agency, Ministry of Defence, Register of Offenders and so on at a cost of billions of pounds. Unfortunately, Anne Snelgrove chose not to answer my questions.

Sir - So the detested ID Cards have been degraded from gold standard to bog standard. If you look carefully, every single argument that the Government has put forward for this Orwellian scheme has been utterly destroyed.

ID cards
MPs and peers are still locked in a parliamentary battle over introduction of identity cards with neither side willing to give way. The Commons overturned a Lords vote to keep the link between ID cards and passports voluntary until 2011 by 284 to 241 after the home secretary, Charles Clarke, condemned peers' move as an attempt to wreck the legislation. "That's unacceptable," Mr Clarke said. "It wouldn't be right to allow the Lords to delay the implementation of legislation that they disliked until five years have passed. It is a deliberate plan for delay and destruction of the process of the ID cards bill." But Edward Garnier, for the Tories, insisted the government's move did amount to compulsion by stealth.
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Legislative and regulatory reform bill
The government was challenged over when it would introduce changes to a controversial bill which would let ministers introduce orders to amend, repeal or replace all primary and secondary legislation. Opponents say this would let ministers change laws without parliamentary scrutiny. Oliver Heald, for the Tories, said ministers had long promised to amend the legislative and regulatory reform bill, which is currently passing through parliament and has whipped up a storm of controversy. Cabinet Office minister Jim Murphy told him that "specifics about vetoes and other matters" were being considered.

Today the CPS in Brighton dropped yet another controversial criminal case against an anti-arms trade protester in Brighton. A legal observer who was arrested for using a video camera at a demonstration outside EDO MBM in June last year in an alleged breach of the harassment act injunction then in force, has had all charges against him dropped . In February EDO dropped their interim injunction against all protesters after a long legal battle by protesters in the High Court.

The warning from Daphne Park, who served for 30 years as a senior controller for MI6, the Secret Intelligence Service, came as the parliamentary power struggle over the identity cards bill dragged on.
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Baroness Park, who was made a peer by Margaret Thatcher, passed a withering verdict on the proposed cards, ridiculing ministers' suggestions that the system will make people safer. In fact, she said, the complete opposite is true. "The very creation of such an enormous national identity register will be a present to terrorists; it will be a splendid thing for them to disrupt and blow up," she said. "It will also provide valuable information to organised crime and to the intelligence services of unfriendly countries. It will be accessible to all of these," she said.

The numbers opposing the occupation now are even larger, with fewer people believing what the government says but, sadly, fewer people believing they have any power to make a difference. If the millions marching on a single day around the world did not stop them, the thinking goes, what can I do? Yesterday, March 18th, thousands of people marched in London. The police, who always underestimate, claimed around 15,000. The organizers, who always overestimate, asserted 100,000. Though the marches are the most visible face of the anti-war movement in the United Kingdom, they are not its sole focus. As I said to Ahmed, they were our bombers. They were made by arms manufacturers in our towns. Companies in our cities are still gobbling up the financial spoils of war and occupation. If the millions marching on a single day around the world did not stop them, the thinking goes, what can I do?

Yesterday peers voted by 211 to 175, a majority of 36, to ensure that the scheme remained voluntary until 2011 - after the next general election - rather than rejecting the link to passports outright. But following the vote, the Home Office minister Andy Burnham accused the opposition of "playing politics" and said the new amendment was unworkable.
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"I accept that it has been suggested that Lord Phillips' amendment is a compromise. Can I say as clearly as I can that it is not," she [Baroness Scotland] said. The link between passports and ID cards had been fully discussed by MPs, and the Lords should give way to the Commons because its role was to "question and test, but not to overrule". Lord Stoddart of Swindon, an independent Labour peer, said that would reduce the Lords to little more than a debating chamber. "The role of this house is to consider legislation, amend it as necessary and if they [the Lords] believe in their amendments, to stick to them," he told Lady Scotland.

The Lords yesterday rejected Government plans to make it compulsory for people to acquire an ID card when they apply for a new passport. It is the second time that peers have voted against the proposal, and the fourth time they have blocked passage of the ID Cards Bill. Instead, peers backed a compromise proposal to keep the scheme voluntary until 2011 – after the next general election.

Sir - I would like to thank Labour and my local MP (Anne Snelgrove) for crystallising in my mind how the introduction of "voluntary" ID cards will infringe my civil liber ties. Either I "volunteer" to have an ID card, or I lose my right to travel abroad. No more foreign holidays, or business trips for work. Lose my job? Join the dole queue!

“We oppose the Iraq war and any attack on Iran. But we also support the struggle of the Iraqi and Iranian people against the imposition of an Islamist state and Sharia law. We stand in solidarity with Iraqi and Iranian democrats, leftists, trade unionists, feminists and gay activists. Their call for democracy, social justice and human rights has our backing,” said Peter Tatchell of the London-based LGBT human rights group OutRage! He was speaking as members of OutRage! joined the anti-war march in London today (18 March). The protest was called to coincide with the third anniversary of the Iraq war. The OutRage! contingent carried placards reading: “Islamists! Stop Killing Iraqi gays”, “Help Iranians topple Ayatollahs”, “Support Iraqi gays, women and trade unions”, and “Islamists! Stop killing women and leftists”. See photo links below.

We should all be reminding the government that the state is there at our behest, not the other way round. Once cards are compulsory, we will be required to carry them at all times, and as night follows day we will be expected to produce them on demand. This idea did not come about by asking for the solution to a problem. It was presented to the government by technology companies explaining what is possible. Because something is possible does not mean it should be done.

The GOVERNMENT of Her Majesty the Queen, the Holy Subjects of this Land and All Her Minions and Terriertories has hereby decreed that in recognition and humungous AWE of the Fools of This Land on APRIL FOOL’S DAY (This First Day of April of the Year of Our Lord 2006), a Special Day of Celebration shall be laid on.

The Queen, her Government, Parliament, the Police, the Clergy, the Armed Forces, the Law and Judges of the Courts Thereof, the Media, the Directors and Chairmen of Corporations and Banks and All Professionall SERVICES Therelike shall be brought LOW and All Those Who are Low, nay, UNDERGROUND, the Immigrants (which shall Include ALL THOSE whose Ancestors have come from OVERSEAS within the last One Hundred Years), Political Agitators, Protestors, Demonstrators, Queers, the Unemployed, the Poor, the Brown Skinned, Teenagers, Those With Beards, Weirdos and Hippies shall be brought HIGH for THIS ONE DAY and Crowned Lords and Ladies and Weirdos of MISRULE!

The innocuous-sounding “Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill” concerns what have become known as “Henry VIII” powers, after the 1539 Statute of Proclamations, under which the Tudor King’s proclamations “shall be obeyed, observed, and kept as though they were made by act of parliament.” In the present bill, a similar power is to be granted to ministers, who may reform, repeal and introduce legislation “by order,” i.e., without Parliament debating it in the House of Commons. By ministerial fiat, new criminal offences could be created, punishable by up to two years’ imprisonment. The Bill could also be used to “reform” itself, for example, removing such an upper limit on a prison term enacted under its provisions. With the sweep of a minister’s pen, fundamental democratic and legal rights could be struck down.

I wrote to my MP asking if the providers of the technology needed to run a system that will hold 51 items of information for everyone over the age of five would be EDS and Capita which have already cost us billions. Would we be able to call upon the experience gained in the mess of schemes for the Child Support Agency, Ministry of Defence, Register Of Offenders and so on? Unfortunately Ms Anne Snelgrove MP chose not to answer my questions.

The government has again been defeated on its plans to make identity cards compulsory after Lords voted to make the scheme voluntary until 2011. Ministers say anyone getting a passport from 2008 should have to get an ID card and have their biometric details added to the national identity database. This was the fourth time those plans have been rejected by peers. They backed a Lib Dem proposal to make ID cards voluntary until 2011, but compulsory from 2012.

This week the government overturned the Lords' amendment on 'creeping compulsion' twice! But peers are standing firm and the mood and strength of feeling in the Commons, with regards to compulsion, appears to have changed - yesterday MPs voted to reinstate compulsion by a narrower margin(51 majority) than 'glorification' of terrorism(59 majority).

An important point to note is that in the Lords the Crossbenchers, who constituted the significant part of the Government gain at the last Lords vote on Wednesday, are NOT actually supporting ID cards. They are supporting a particular notion of the Constitution / Parliament, i.e. the primacy of the elected House. They are absolutely within their rights to keep sending the bill back though and they are in the almost unique position that the very matter over which the two Houses are at loggerheads is the interpretation of the manifesto promise itself. Consequently the Salisbury convention, by which legislation meant to deliver a manifesto promise is traditionally unopposed by the House of Lords, can hardly be expected to apply.

For this reason, when you write to crossbench peers you need to bear in mind that their shift is probably not *towards* ID cards, but is tending to favour the Government's position / interpretation on constitutional matters. People have already noted the difference in the content of the debates in the two Houses - you can expect this to continue.

Thursday 16th March 2006: Milan Rai of the peace group Justice not Vengeance was on trial in Bow Street Magistrates Court for organising the two-person remembrance ceremony at which Maya Evans was arrested in October 2005. See rikki’s video of Milan & Maya’s arrest & a report of Thursday’s trial, as well as a video interview with Maya from Thursday.

The Crime: Milan was on trial for ‘organising an unauthorised demonstration in the vicinity of Parliament’. He notified the police of the demonstration over a week in advance, but he refused to ‘seek permission’ from them as required under a new law, the ‘Serious Organised Crime and Police Act’ , Milan and Maya’s lawyer’s are fighting the case by suggesting that SOCPA is incompatible with the European Convention of Human Rights' Article’s 10 & 11, which gives every person freedom to speech, and freedom to peacefully assemble with others.

In October 2005, there was a mass protest against the SOCPA Exclusion Zone by Critical Mass, and many people feel that free speech in Britain is being seriously undermined.

In a highly critical letter to the Prime Minister, a copy of which has been seen by this newspaper, Lord Grocott warns that it will be "exceptionally difficult" to get the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill through. It contains sweeping powers for ministers to amend, repeal or replace primary and secondary legislation without asking Parliament and has earned the nickname at Westminster of the Parliamentary Scrutiny (Abolition) Bill. Some MPs claim it gives Labour powers in excess of those afforded to Henry VIII.

Reading the Identity Cards Bill, as it pinged between the House of Commons and the Lords last week, I wondered about the type of campaign that will be used to persuade us to comply with the new ID card law. Clearly, it would be orchestrated by some efficient martinet like the Minister of State at the Home Office, Hazel Blears. Her task will be to put the fear of God into the public at the same time as reassuring us that the £90 cost of each card will protect everyone from identity theft, terrorism and benefit fraud. The ads might imagine any number of scenarios. Here is one. 'Your elderly mother has fallen ill,' starts the commentary gravely. 'You travel from your home to look after her. She has a chronic condition but this time, it's a bit of a crisis and you need to pick up a prescription at the only late-night chemist in town. Trouble is, she has mislaid her identity card and you never thought to get one. Under the new law, the pharmacist will not be able to give you that medicine without proper ID. So, get your card. It's for your own good - and Mum's.'

A bill giving ministers powers to repeal any previous legislation was denounced by MPs yesterday as too widely drawn and open to abuse. The Commons procedure committee said the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill "tips the balance between the executive and Parliament too far in the Government's favour".

Re the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill No 111. As I understand the provisions of this proposed piece of pernicious legislation, it is effectively an "Enabling Bill" that if passed will have far reaching constitutional consequences. It appears to be a way of allowing laws to be amended and/or created by ministers, not Parliament, making MPs effectively redundant. The most prominent user of such legislation in the past was Adolf Hitler. He made use of similar laws, enacted by predecessors, to sweep away democracy completely.

In relation to Friday, I welcome this opportunity to set the record straight. Of course I do agree that it was entirely appropriate for you to ask a direct question to me as both your Member of Parliament and Home Secretary. I do spend a lot of my time taking questions on all aspects of Government business, but in particular those matters which are my responsibility as Home Secretary and it is right that this should be the case. I am sorry you found the format of Friday's event frustrating - this was not something for which I had responsibility, although I was happy with the arrangements.

New laws on red tape would give ministers free rein to change laws without consulting Parliament, opponents have claimed. Critics of the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill want new safeguards to prevent abuse. The bill aims to speed up the process by which redundant laws are changed and allows them to be amended on ministers' orders, without parliamentary scrutiny.

on Thursday, Milan from Justice Not Vengeance was on trial in Bow Street Magistrates Court for organising the two person remembrance ceremony at which Maya Evans was arrested in October 2005. Video interview with Maya Evans about the case.

today, milan rai appeared at bow street magistrates court to argue his case against being found guilty as an 'organiser' of an unauthorised demonstration in the designated zone 1km around parliament. the court adjourned until 12th april for the magistrate, judge nicholas evans, to consider the human rights legal arguments put forward by barrister maya sikand, who was working for 'liberty' solicitors on this case.

Members of Palestine Solidarity Campaign, playwright Alistair Beaton and Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn all breached the SOCPA exclusion zone in protest of the UK and US governments alleged complicity to the attack by Israeli troops on Jericho prison. The UK and US both pulled out their prison monitor staff just hours before the raid which saw two Palestinian police killed and 26 injured in the largest Israeli assault into Palestine for months, if not years. The demonstration was small, the police presence heavy, especially on independent media cameramen. But that is just becoming the normal routine of things in these strange and unnerving days.

As the Minister for Incipient Totalitarianism and sponsor of the bill, Jim Murphy says:

The real danger is what happens if we don't introduce a bill of this sort. We are trying to do all we can to maintain UK competitiveness, business competitiveness, economic growth, employment levels in a global economy where we face challenges from the emerging economies.

That being the case, take a look at this list of Acts or Parliament that will not be exempt from part one of the LARR Bill - the part that allows government ministers to change whatever law they like without arguing their case and putting it to a vote in Parliament. Doesn't look good, does it? The Identity Cards Act 2006 isn't even law yet. If the Government don't want it to be a burden on business, why not draft it properly right now? You know, to save on all the fannying about later. And the Habeas Corpus Acts 1679 to 1862 is a real hindrance to business is it? The Succession to the Crown Act 1707? Magna Carta 1215? What about the Official Secrets Acts 1911 to 1989? "Well, profits wouldn't be down by 50% if it wasn't for that meddling Official Secrets Act".

Sir - The letter from R Norton (Your Say, March 1), entitled "Our police need a modern hi-tech database urgently", presents a bleak picture of totalitarianism for our freedomloving people. He says the arguments against biometric databases are weak, yet ignores the strong mood among the population against the introduction of any such measures. The fact that any tin-pot member of any authority, whether elected or not, should have access to our personal data is anti-democratic.

MPs are locked in a twin stand-off with the House of Lords over identity cards and anti-terrorism laws. Peers have three times defeated the government over proposals to force all passport applicants to get ID cards. But MPs have again reversed the defeats as Home Secretary Charles Clarke told opponents to stop "frustrating the will of the people".

The new national identity card may come with a password or a PIN number like existing bank cards, it was revealed yesterday. Home Office Minister Andy Burnham said a "chip and pin" style code number could be used to verify cardholders' identities in some cases.

Back in February, I wrote about the Legislative & Regulatory Reform Bill. It is something I think everyone should be concerned about, never mind the deliberately boring title, this is A Very Bad Thing. Do you want Ministers to be able to...

create a new offence of incitement to religious hatred, punishable with two years’ imprisonment;
curtail or abolish jury trial; permit the Home Secretary to place citizens under house arrest; allow the Prime Minister to sack judges; rewrite the law on nationality and immigration; “reform” Magna Carta (or what remains of it)...

...by Ministerial order, without involving Parliament? No debate, just because the Executive say so? No representatives of your views to challenge the above? No, nor do I.

Shadow Secretary for the Cabinet Office Oliver Heald warned that democracy could be undermined if the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill is rushed through in its present form, giving senior ministers a wide ranging ability to amend, repeal, and even introduce primary legislation though a special fast-track Order in Council procedure. And he cited research published by the Centre for Policy Studies, highlighting growing constitutional concerns and underlining the case for safeguards to protect Parliament and shield Britain's traditional democratic procedures.

Government plans to force all passport applicants to have an ID card have been defeated in the Lords for a third time. Peers voted by a majority of 35 to overturn the proposal, which was backed by MPs earlier this week. Opposition peers say the plans break the government's promise that ID cards will initially be voluntary.

Government plans to force all passport applicants to get an identity card have been backed by MPs, overturning an earlier defeat in the House of Lords. Peers have twice defeated the plans, which they say break Labour's election promise that the initial ID scheme would be voluntary. But Home Secretary Charles Clarke said passports were "voluntary documents" that no-one was forced to renew.

You have to admire the brass neck of this Government. After introducing more laws and regulations than you could shake a stick at, it is now trying to undo all the damage it has caused by foisting the legal equivalent of the Doomsday Machine upon Parliament and the country. The Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill completed its committee stages in the Commons last Thursday and, despite a spirited counter-offensive by Opposition MPs, remains largely intact as one of the most pernicious measures to have come before a British parliament. The Bill would empower any minister by order to make provisions amending, repealing or replacing any legislation, primary or secondary, for any purpose, and to reform the common law to implement Law Commission recommendations.

You have to admire the brass neck of this Government. After introducing more laws and regulations than you could shake a stick at, it is now trying to undo all the damage it has caused by foisting the legal equivalent of the Doomsday Machine upon Parliament and the country.

The Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill completed its committee stages in the Commons last Thursday and, despite a spirited counter-offensive by Opposition MPs, remains largely intact as one of the most pernicious measures to have come before a British parliament.

The Bill would empower any minister by order to make provisions amending, repealing or replacing any legislation, primary or secondary, for any purpose, and to reform the common law to implement Law Commission recommendations.

I WOULD be interested to know how much trust supporters of Identity Cards have in the technology. For example, scanning the iris of your eye is the best biometric measurement available, but sometimes the check is wrong, especially for people with brown eyes. The only people who will gain will be terrorists and criminals who will find it so much easier to gain a false identity by buying a single fake card.

SKATEBOARDERS from across Swindon who descended on the town centre had only one thing to say skating is not a crime. Dozens of skaters of all ages met at the Millennium clock on Saturday to hold a peaceful protest and prove they were not troublemakers. As reported in the Adver last month, police are planning to outlaw skateboarding from the town centre in a bid to curb anti-social behaviour, particularly around the Wyvern Theatre.

Rasner then placed the FBI’s Central Texas “Terrorist Watch List” on the screen. On a list of approximately ten groups, Food Not Bombs was listed seventh. Indymedia was listed tenth, with a reference specifically to IndyConference 2005. The Communist Party of Texas also made the list. Rasner explained that these groups could have links to terrorist activity. He noted that peaceful-sounding group names could cover more violent extremist tactics. Food Not Bombs is an all-volunteer organization that recovers food that would otherwise be thrown out and serves vegetarian meals to the public at no cost. Austin Indymedia is an open newswire in which readers may publish news, events, and commentary.

Following a proposal by police to outlaw skateboarding in Swindon town centre, a group of teenagers today held a protest to show their objection to the ban. The proposed ban, which was announced in the Swindon Advertiser on the 22nd February, comes in the wake of a series of police measures to counter a perceived problem of groups of youths intimidating people by congregating in groups. Other such measures over the past year have included the ability to forcibly escort home any minors found in the West Swindon Centre and Shaw Ridge Leisure Park after 9pm, and the ability to remove from Theatre Square any group of two or more teenagers who “harass, intimidate, alarm or distress” a member of the public.

A correspondent advocates the introduction of ID cards, a national DNA database and the abolition of trial by jury. And others disagree.

Sweeping powers for ministers to change primary legislation without parliamentary debate are to be opposed by the Conservatives, who have warned that a bill designed to cut red tape on business could set a dangerous constitutional precedent. In amendments to the legislative and regulatory re-form bill, the Tories have demanded safeguards be in-cluded so governments cannot abuse the new powers. The bill's critics, who include constitutional lawyers, have warned that it contains frightening proposals that would allow ministers to bypass parliament when changing the law.

SO, biometric passports are to be issued while the Identity Cards Bill still bounces around in Westminster. This gives the lie to Government statements that the bulk of the costs of compulsory ID cards would be incurred anyway because of international regulations for new passports.

Charges against eight activists (charged with a range of public order offences) were dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service yesterday afternoon (THURS 10th Mar). The eight were arrested on May 31st during a demonstration outside Brighton arms dealers EDO MBM. Three, including a solicitor, were charged with ‘assault PC’, which regularly carries a prison sentence. The others, including an eighty-year-old man were charged with resist/obstruct PC and obstruction of the highway. The CPS explained that prosecution ‘was not in the public interest’.

Two new SchMOVIES are available to download free. Covering the recents demos at EDO/MBM since the injunction has come down and the anti-TESCO site at Shepton Mallet. You can download the new SchMOVIES from http://schnews.org.uk/schmovies

The new 2005 DVD collection is out now. Details on the web site. Buy it and help keep SchNEWS free. No, really. We are struggling.

Unless privacy or security or constitutional safeguards are explicitly written into an "enabling Bill", such as the dreadful Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill 2006, they are worthless. Judges and Courts can only make Common Law precedent within the constraints made by the Primary Legislation. If, as in this case, there are infinite "Henry VIII" powers, then our democracy is at risk, due to the unconstrained power of incompetent or corrupt or fanatical politicians.

This Bill has been going through the rubber stamp process which is laughingly referred to as Standing Committee A of the House of Commons.

The Conservative and Liberal Democrat Opposition front benches have tried to highlight some of the immense constitutional dangers inherent in this Bill, but they have been as totally ineffective as when the Government had a much larger majority. All opposition amendments have been withdrawn or have been lost when it came to a vote.

Ministers are seeking powers in "excess of those afforded to Henry VIII or the national government in time of war", David Heath, for Liberal Democrats, warned. He attacked the legislative and regulatory reform bill, saying it was known colloquially as the parliamentary scrutiny (abolition) bill. Mr Heath demanded at least two days debate on the "enormously important" bill's report stage. Mr Hoon said: "There has been a programme motion as you well know on this issue and the house has already resolved these matters but I am sure that can always be looked at afresh if there is a strong feeling if that is necessary."

Habeas corpus is under attack, say critics of the government's anti-terror bill. But what is it and why is it so cherished? Habeas corpus (ad subjiciendum) is Latin for "you may have the body" (subject to examination). It is a writ which requires a person detained by the authorities be brought before a court of law so that the legality of the detention may be examined. The name is taken from the opening words of the writ in medieval times. Although rarely used nowadays, it can theoretically be demanded by anyone who believes they are unlawfully detained and it is issued by a judge.

The Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill is currently being passed quietly through parliament, with hardly any mention in the national media. This bill allows individual ministers to 'amend repeal or replace' any legislation without consulting parliament. The potential consequences if this bill gets through parliament are disastrous and an affront to the values of democracy, yet most people know absolutely nothing about it.

I WAS helping to collect signatures in Swindon town centre on Saturday for a national petition opposing the Government's proposal to introduce ID cards when I met about six or seven young people who had organised their own petition opposing a blanket ban on skateboarding in the centre of Swindon. What a polite, articulate and persuasive group they were.

Boring bill title, but a massive change to the so-called democracy in this country. The Bill would allow the government to introduce, amend, or replace any legislation it likes, on the say so of a single government minister. Things like creating new offences punishable by up to 2yrs imprisonment, abolising local government, introducing house arrest, and giving the police greater powers of arrest and interrogation. It could also be used to set up new courts, and in effect re-write the rules on immigration, nationality, divorce, inheritance and the appointment of judges – all without any parliamentary scrutiny...

Sir - One of your correspondents, Mr Greenhalgh, asks why would he want yet another card to verify his ID, and one that he would have to pay for (Your Say, March 6). Hear, hear! Unfortunately, our MP Anne Snelgrove doesn't seem to agree. I have written to her several times about this subject, but she remains unswervingly loyal to her party, as always.

I WAS highly disappointed to read Anne Snelgrove's glib comment on the subject of ID cards the other week "International terrorism does not respect civil liberties. What I want is the maximum protection and security of identity for residents of Swindon." (SA Feb 14). Interesting that she appears to be conceding that the ID card bill does affect civil liberties (even if she remains unable to explain how it would help our security against home-grown suicide bombers, in Swindon, or anywhere else).

The Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill going through its stages is a New Labour masterpiece. It was conceived to "remove burdens" from over-regulated citizens. Towards the end of the drafting process, some brilliant Whitehall Olly reasoned thus: "Why should ministers have fewer rights than ordinary citizens? Don't ministers deserve to have their burdens relieved too?" No contrary argument could be found. As a result, ministers are now being given powers to amend any laws they like without the burden of parliamentary approval.

In the most perverse of consequences, the Bill to remove regulations has made it infinitely easier for ministers to pass them. I've been along to three of these committee meetings over the past week and am more and more surprised at each outing. Jim Murphy offers long and detailed assurances about how the Act will and won't be used. When asked to put these assurances into the Bill, he refuses. Ministerial assurances at the despatch box have the legal status of intestinal afflatus so you would be wrong to be reassured.

Peers voted by 227 to 166 against the government to insist that people should be able to opt out of the ID card scheme when they get a new passport. Conservative shadow minister Baroness Anelay of St Johns called the government's plan "compulsion by stealth". Liberal Democrat Lord Phillips of Sudbury said: "It's not often it's left to the opposition to make sure the government honours its manifesto pledges." He said the description of ID card plans as voluntary "stretches the English language to breaking point". Lord Phillips added: "It's not clear to me what benefits the compulsory scheme will bestow, just as it's never been clear what it will cost."

Sir - I already have enough cards verifying my ID - why would I want another that I have to pay for? Why, also, would I want the Government to create a new database holding my information when they already have all the data they need via the Inland Revenue, NHS, DVLA etc?

Government plans to make all passport applicants also have an ID card have been defeated in the Lords. Peers voted by a majority of 61 to overturn the proposal - backed by MPs last month - for a second time. Opposition peers say the plans break the government's promise that ID cards will initially be voluntary.

Less well-known, however, is the latest assault on our freedoms. Uninspiringly named the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill, a new law is being proposed that would effectively abolish the most important functions of parliament and democracy in Britain. This dangerous law would grant ministers the power to change laws with no assessment or debate by MPs after they have been passed by Parliament and even to introduce new crimes with punishments of up to two years’ imprisonment without asking our elected representatives.

The Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill is hardly an aerodynamic title; it doesn't fly from the lips. People have difficulty remembering the order of the words and what exactly will be the effect of this apparently dull piece of lawmaking.
...
The reality is that the beneficiaries of this bill will not be industry and business, but ministers and the executive, who will enjoy a huge increase in their unscrutinised power. As with the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, which was presented as modernising local and national emergency measures but which went much further to give ministers arbitrary powers, this bill takes another chunk out of our centuries- old democracy.

f the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill, which is currently before the Commons, is passed, then the Scottish parliament could be history without even the need for the Westminster government to pass a further act of parliament. The whole thing could be done by regulation. The Abolition of Parliament Bill, as it has already been dubbed by constitutional and legal experts, would allow the government to alter any law passed by the Scottish parliament . The Scotland Act is but one example. It is a government minister’s dream and a democrat’s worst nightmare.

Blair says 'The question is not one of individual liberty vs the state but of which approach best guarantees most liberty for the largest number of people.' My government now says the most important freedom is the freedom not to be blown up on the way to work. No it isn't. What a stupid, contemptible thing to say.

Hell's bells. Can't you see? Do I, a person who was blown up on the way to work, have to spell it out to you?

You need to protect liberty itself, not the liberties of those you favour, those whose votes you want. Liberty is not a pie to be sliced up: it is the oxygen of society, it belongs to us all and must be cherished by us all.

Lynda Warren of No2ID said: "It is crucial that the Lords keep heart and insist the government keeps to its manifesto promise, which was that ID Cards would be voluntary. Many Peers have argued robustly in defence of our civil liberty." The ID card Bill returns to the House of Lords on Monday.

Heard about the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill? Tedium personified by the sound of it. In fact concealed under this yawn inducing title is possibly the biggest goosestep towards a totally authoritarian society the Blair oligarchy has yet dared to take. It’s been dubbed the “Abolition of Parliament Act” by radical firebrands The Times.

As if the general duplicity and untrustworthiness of political charlatans is not enough to put voters off, we now have a very low-key Bill going through Parliament that is guaranteed to devalue the effectiveness of our parliaments and therefore the value in voting at all. You probably have never heard of it - I hadn't until this week - it's called the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill. It has been dubbed the abolition of democracy Bill or, rather cleverly, the Bill to end all Bills. So what does this Bill mean? Essentially it gives Westminster ministers power to alter any law passed by Parliament - without the approval of Parliament.

The proposed ID Card will be different from any card you now hold. It will be connected to a database called the NIR, (National Identity Register)., where all of your personal details will be stored. This will include the unique number that will be issued to you, your fingerprints, a scan of the back of your eye, and your photograph. Your name, address and date of birth will also obviously be stored there. There will be spaces on this database for your religion, residence status, and many other private and personal facts about you. There is unlimited space for every other details of your life on the NIR database, which can be expanded by the Government with or without further Acts of Parliament.

I have committed no crime. I have compromised no police operations. I have received no payment for anything published on this blog. All opinions expressed are my own. It is therefore with deep regret and great sadness that I must announce that I will no longer be submitting posts to this blog. I cannot challenge New Scotland Yard. I am weary indeed and cowardice is my bedmate. The protection of my family must take precedence.

NO-ONE wants them, they were proved no help in Spain and elsewhere, the cost is beyond extortion, they are un-British, an insult to our civil liberties and have been defeated in the House of Lords yet still the Government insist on us having ID cards.

Sir - I see nothing wrong with ID cards, but object strongly to having to pay for them. If the Government wants us to have cards, then it must cover the costs.

Examination of the government's continued press ahead with it's universally discredited ID Cards Bill, particularly in light of the "Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill", which seeks to give ministers the power to amend acts of Parliament without calling a vote.

There are no valid arguments for the introduction of ID cards. That is the only valid argument in this debate. By security, I assume that Blair means the ever present 'terrorist threat'. The government cannot seem to agree to use this threat to support the introduction of ID cards or not. The use of the word 'security' suggests that Blair cannot quite decide. Nobody in government, or the police, has satisfactorily elaborated on how ID cards will prevent terror attacks. Maybe the following scenario may assist.

While the public eye was fixed on the heroic band of MPs frustrating the government over the Terrorism and ID cards bills, just a week earlier a grey-sounding "Legislative & Regulatory Reform Bill" received its second hearing in parliament to a muted reception. Created for the apparent purpose of cutting regulation for businesses, the bill represents, for many constitutional experts, the greatest threat to face British democracy in many years — since it effectively enables ministers to amend or replace any major law without needing parliament's consent.
...
The government however is said to have claimed that the bill is merely for tidying up existing legislation rather than for bringing in controversial new laws. However Mr Howarth claimed that this "tidying up" could take the form of making ID cards compulsory, banning smoking in one's own home, and "the definition of terrorism altered to make ordinary political protest punishable by life imprisonment".

NORTH Wiltshire District Council has voted against the use of Government ID Cards for access to local services. A motion which was designed to buffer North Wiltshire residents from the effects of the ID Card Bill and National Identity Register was passed with a cross-party majority at a meeting on Wednesday.

No one likes red tape and parliamentary debates can be very boring, which makes the government's current attempt to cut them both seductive and dangerous. A bill that aims to make regulation fast, flexible and simple can have few natural enemies, and only an obsessive would spend time worrying about it when there are more exciting issues about. But the obsessives often have a point, as they do in the case of the legislative and regulatory reform bill, which is quietly making its way through parliament while MPs rebel on other things. Given its second reading earlier this month and now awaiting its committee stage, the bill extends ministerial powers to rewrite laws and make new ones without the troublesome business of securing parliamentary approval.

It seems that when New Labour uses the word terrorism we are supposed to believe whatever they say. They seem to treat civil liberties issues as if it was a game of Simon Says.

THE tidal wave of draconian suppressive legislation being rushed in by the Government is a sign that they are losing control. That was the positive message to emerge from a meeting on civil rights held in Brighton on the evening of Thursday February 23.

Tony Blar's article about how important it is to take away our rights in order to protect our freedom, thoroughly debunked.

Adver readers are against proposals to ban skateboarding from the town centre, a poll shows. More than 500 people have voted in the debate that has been raging since the Adver first revealed the police plans on Wednesday. Sixty one per cent of those who took part in the internet and phone poll were against the ban, which would see youngsters fined if they were caught skateboarding in town.

PROTESTERS claimed a victory against an "invasion of privacy" at North Wiltshire District Council on Tuesday night. The protest group, NO2ID gathered outside the council's Monkton Park headquarters to campaign against the controversial Home Office scheme.
...
At the district council meeting on Tuesday, members voted for a motion put forward by leader Carol O'Gorman, proposing the council reject the use of ID cards for access to local services.

This Bill would enable Ministers to pass laws with virtually no parliamentary scrutiny. It gives enormous unchecked power to the executive and fundamentally changes the way we make laws. Under this Bill almost any law could be changed: the powers of the House of Lords could be changed; local government could be reorganized or even abolished. All this could potentially take place without a debate in Parliament. (PDF file)

The UK Government was too slow to start investigating claims that the US has secretly flown terror suspects through the UK, says a powerful group of MPs. The Commons foreign affairs committee says ministers must tell the US it is "completely unacceptable" to fly suspects abroad to be tortured.

Don’t feel ashamed if you’ve never heard of the ‘Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill’ currently traversing the Commons. A newspaper database search reveals only 46 mentions of the Bill’s title for the past twelve months – several of which were in such popular journals as Cabinet Maker and Building Design. None of these 46 mentions, incidentally, is earlier than January of this year. The Bill was formerly known as the ‘Bill for Better Regulation’, the title under which it was announced in the Queen’s Speech of May 2005 (there are four additional mentions under this title). It is only in the last few weeks that the bill has had even scant attention in the press. This is something of a shame since, arguably, the Bill is the first step to abolishing the last remnants of parliamentary democracy in Great Britain.

Human Rights First’s new report, “Command's Responsibility: Deaths in U.S. Custody in Iraq and Afghanistan,” provides the first comprehensive accounting of the U.S. government’s handling of the nearly 100 cases of detainees who have died in U.S. custody since 2002.

“Looking closely at these cases, we found time and again badly flawed investigations, and a lack of command responsibility for what’s gone wrong – especially in cases where victims were tortured to death. The result across the board has been to create a culture of impunity, where no one, especially not command, is held fully accountable for detainee deaths,” said Deborah Pearlstein, Director of the U.S. Law and Security Program at Human Rights First. “If the United States is serious about preventing torture going forward, there must be accountability up and down the chain of command.”

The Conservatives and senior legal experts today joined forces to attack a new government bill they fear will give ministers sweeping powers to amend or even introduce new laws without sufficient scrutiny from MPs. The seemingly arcane legislative and regulatory reform bill - which is currently going through parliament - was billed by the government as aiding business by cutting red tape from existing legislation. But the Tory MP Ken Clarke, currently leading the party's "democracy taskforce", said it would give ministers scope to amend laws whilst "sweeping away parliamentary procedure and debate on an astonishing scale".

Skateboarding could soon be outlawed from the middle of Swindon as police clamp down on trouble around the Wyvern Theatre. The ban, which would cover the entire town centre, is one option open to officers as they look at ways to reduce antisocial behaviour. Skaters say the tactic is heavy-handed and unnecessary.

ANNE Snelgrove said: "International terrorism does not respect civil liberties. What I want is the maximum protection and security of identity for residents of Swindon," (Adver, Feb 14). Does she know that international terrorism does not respect ID cards either?

Almost 100 prisoners have died in US custody in Iraq and Afghanistan since August 2002, according to US group Human Rights First.
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Of the 98 deaths, at least 34 were suspected or confirmed homicides, the programme said.
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UK MP Bob Marshall-Andrews told the Press Association that the report confirmed "in statistical terms the appalling evidence already available in footage. If it is indeed systemic, then the responsibility for it must go right to the top, and that would apply to both British and American governments," he said.

LAST WEEK all eyes were on the House of Commons as it debated identity cards, smoking and terrorism. The media reported both what MPs said and how they voted. For one week at least, the Commons mattered. All the more peculiar then that the previous Thursday, in an almost deserted chamber, the Government proposed an extraordinary Bill that will drastically reduce parliamentary discussion of future laws, a Bill some constitutional experts are already calling “the Abolition of Parliament Bill”.

Michael Winterbottom’s forthcoming docu-drama, ‘The Road to Guantanamo’ tells the story of Asif Iqbal, Ruhel Ahmed and Shafiq Rasul – otherwise known as ‘The Tipton Three’, innocent men illegally detained in Guantanamo Bay. rizIn the TV film, produced in association with Channel Four, 23 year old actor, Riz Ahmed plays Shafiq. The film, which is the first British production to premiere simultaneously on DVD, internet and television, has just received its World Premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival this weekend, where it received an overwhelming response. The three innocent men who inspired and helped develop the film accompanied acclaimed director Winterbottom and the crew to the Festival Riz tells the LIP of his unwelcome treatment on arriving back in the UK.

This is a sorry tale of the government’s ID card Bill, a misquote in the local press and an MP who doesn’t answer questions. This tale starts with a feature on ID cards, published in the Swindon Advertiser in November 2005. Alongside an article by the founder of the Swindon no2id group, there was an interview with South Swindon’s Blairite MP, and supporter of the ID card scheme, Anne Snelgrove. The confusion started when the Adver misquoted Anne Snelgrove as saying that she had received thousands of letters in support of ID cards.

Citing the "Prevention of Terrorism" act, British Police have arrested and interrogated three of the stars of the award-winning film "The Road to Guantanamo", together with the three ex-Guantanomo detainees on whose story the film is based.
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Last week the three ex-detainees travelled to the Berlin Festival with the Winterbottom party, and were arrested yesterday under the Prevention of Terrorism Act as they returned with the Winterbottom Party. They were held by Special Branch and questioned for several hours about where they had been and who they had met. They were also questioned on Michael Winterbottom's politics. Even more worrying, the three actors who portrayed them in the film were also arrested and questioned. The actors have no particular political or religious affiliation and were also arrested apparently purely on the basis that they were Asian. None of the white members of the group were arrested.

She has brought up two daughters, dabbled in jobs which have taken her from the aviation industry to creating crop mazes and admits that when it comes to politics she has always been "wishy washy". But like hundreds of others across Britain's social spectrum, Lynda Warren has vowed to go to prison rather than participate in the Government's compulsory ID card scheme.

MPs in the House of Commons voted in favour of compulsory ID cards yesterday, rejecting a House of Lords amendment to make the card voluntary. But local civil liberties figures are angry at what they claim were strong-arm tactics from the Government. Lynda Warren of civil liberty group NO2ID has pledged to refuse to carry a card. She said: "The whips did a good job last night forcing party members to vote with the Government.

On Monday 13th February 2006 the High Court will be the scene of a long overdue victory for Brighton anti-war protesters as hearings resume of the controversial EDO harassment injunction case (EDO MBM Technology Ltd v. Axworthy, and ors.) EDO will make major concessions to try and extricate themselves from a long and hard fought legal battle over the right to protest on the streets of Brighton.

In the on going struggle in Oxford against the animal lab the police and press have been yet again whipping up hysteria to justify their draconian actions and accusations. This is a tactic that animal rights people are well familiar with over the years as the words and actions of a few are spun into stories alleged against everyone and their dog. However, Thames Valley police caught even these experienced protesters by surprise with their latest pronouncements. At yesterday's regular weekly demo outside the notorious half-built lab, as permitted by the High Court injunction in a designated protest area, the police declared chanting on megaphones illegal.

THE Swindon branch of a group campaigning against ID cards has called on local MPs to query figures on identity fraud. The House of Commons is due to vote on the ID Card Bill on Monday, following amendments to the bill in the House of Lords. Lynda Warren, of the NO2ID group, believes the Government has exaggerated the cost of identity fraud to give weight to the argument in favour. She said: "The Home Office claims that identity fraud costs £1.7billion per year but the true figure is well less than one third of that amount.

Brighton arms manufacturer EDO MBM have dropped their claim to a blanket anti-protestor injunction under the Protection from Harassment Act, in an out of court settlement on Friday 3rd February. The decision is expected to be finalised in the High Court on Monday 13th. This means that the controversial high court interim injunction restricting the right to protest outside the factory will no longer apply. EDO MBM have also agreed to pay the costs of those defendants who have settled, estimated at £200 000.

The future of the injunction proceedings against named protesters will be decided on Monday 13th - 15th February at the Royal Courts of Justice when EDO’s lawyer Timothy Lawson Cruttenden will face allegations of professional misconduct for illegally obtaining evidence and disobeying a court order to reveal correspondence between himself, EDO MBM and the police.

Another blow struck for free speech in Sussex. The nasty little stitch up between Sussex Police, arms dealers EDO MBM and protest bashing lawyer Timothy Lawson Cruttenden (see SchNEWS 492, 471) to crush dissent has started to unravel. EDO MBM, who manufacture parts for the Paveway bomb system and are involved in the manufacture of unmanned combat air vehicles, much loved by the US and Israeli militaries for targeted assassinations, are now ducking for cover as the legal bombshells go off in their own faces.

Cabinet Office Minister Jim Murphy has published the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill 2006 looks to be another sneaky attempt by the Executive branch of Government to further weaken the role of Parliament. Why does the NuLabour Government hate the idea of full public consultation and of detailed scrutiny by Parliament so much ?

OPPOSITION was mounting to the government's case for identity cards last night, despite the Home Office's bid to highlight the supposedly rocketing rise in identity fraud. Ministers estimated the cost of the crime was £1.7 billion a year - which they said was a rise of £400 million since the last study in 2002. The Home Office study was published just days before the controversial Identity Cards Bill is due to come back to the Commons.

I had just sat down and I was warm from climbing 3 flights of stairs back up from the bathroom so I unzipped my jacket. I turned to the right to take my left arm out, when the same officer saw my shirt and yelled; "Protester." He then ran over to me, hauled me out of my seat and roughly (with my hands behind my back) shoved me up the stairs. I said something like "I'm going, do you have to be so rough?" By the way, his name is Mike Weight.

The officer ran with me to the elevators yelling at everyone to move out of the way. When we got to the elevators, he cuffed me and took me outside to await a squad car. On the way out, someone behind me said, "That's Cindy Sheehan." At which point the officer who arrested me said: "Take these steps slowly." I said, "You didn't care about being careful when you were dragging me up the other steps." He said, "That's because you were protesting." Wow, I get hauled out of the People's House because I was, "Protesting."

I am sure we Swindonians are appreciative of Tony Blair's recent visit to show us how to wash a wall. However, I would like to add my concerns to those expressed by Shirley Mathias and solicitor Martin Guyll-Wiggins. It is said householders who act anti-socially may be thrown out of their homes for three months under the Respect measures. So who will protect the empty properties in their absence? They will become targets for burglars and vandals. It is equally likely that families returning to their homes will be subjected to vengeful anti-social behaviour the very thing Mr Blair wants to stamp out.

ID cards would be of "limited value" against terror and would not have prevented the London attacks in July, says the reviewer of anti-terror laws. Liberal Democrat peer Lord Carlile said he had changed his mind on identity cards, which he had previously backed.

Eventually, item ten came around and the councillors turned their attention to the ID card scheme. Peter Greenhalgh (Con, Freshbrook and Grange Park), proposing the motion, highlighted the cost of the scheme. £570 million according to home office figures or more like £14 to £20 billion if you prefer to believe the London School of Economics. He pointed out that councils will bear the cost of making their systems and processes compatible with the proposed ID cards. He also spoke of the security aspect of the huge database which would underlie the scheme. Speaking from a position of authority as an IT professional working with enterprise-scale databases, he pointed out that there is no such thing as a completely secure system, just a system which has not been compromised yet. He also cast doubt on the government’s ability to implement a system as vast and complex as this on time, within budget, and working first time – a reasonable doubt, considering past experience of systems such as Tax Credits and the Child Support Agency.

SWINDON Councillors have voted against the Government's proposals to introduce identity cards. The opposition to the scheme came after Coun Peter Greenhalgh (Con, Freshbrook and Grange Park) tabled a motion against the plans for identity cards at last night's full council meeting. "I think this government is talking about wasting unbelievable sums of money," said Coun Greenhalgh. "We can spend money in a much more useful fashion. The government wants to introduce ID cards because it has been unable to deal with illegal immigrants, benefit fraud and crime."

“A national ID card for the UK is overly ambitious, extremely expensive and will not be a panacea against terrorism or fraud, although it will make a company like mine very happy.” - Roberto Tavano, biometrics specialist for Unisys.

The rebel clowns - and many others - had spent the day at Bow Street Magistrates court expressing solidarity with five defendants who had been charged under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 132 (SOCPA 2005). The bill outlaws all "demonstration without authorisation" within 1Km of parliament.
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But the arrest policy is inconsistent and confusing. Make some sense of this if you can:

Barbara Tucker was arrested for wearing a sign reading "I am not the serious, organised criminal".
Maya Evans was famously convicted last month for ringing a bell in the exclusion area (Even the Daily Mail was incensed over this! )
Yet on 7th January anti-socpa activists and others "held a similar ceremony in the same spot, did not apply for police permission under the socpa law but stayed free".

SWINDON councillors arriving for a meeting tonight will be greeted by Charles Clarke. The real Home Secretary may be busy at Westminster but one campaigner from the Swindon No2ID group will be dressed up as his alter ego in a bid to persuade councillors to oppose the cards. A conservative councillor will be bidding to put the council on a collision course with the Labour Government by calling on colleagues to oppose the cards.

As I wandered about in Nottingham this afternoon, my eye was attacted to the stenciled graffiti near the shops in Bottle Lane of Briddlesmith Gate. It appears that a pixie, with a political stance on the subject of ID cards, had put this up while no-one was looking.

Swindon Borough Council tonight passed a motion opposing the government's ID cards bill. It was supported by most of the majority conservative group and the lib dems, and opposed by about half of the dwindling labour group. Full report to follow....

On Saturday, January 14 I took part in a march and rally against a proposed vivisection laboratory in Oxford. We have held a number of these in the last couple of years and all have passed off peacefully. This time, despite previous assurances, the police reneged on the agreement and refused access to the site. To do this they deployed hundreds of police, from different forces, and used horses to block our way.

The rebel clowns and many others had spent the day at Bow Street Magistrates court expressing solidarity with five defendants who had been charged under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 132 (SOCPA 2005). The bill, for those who don't know, outlaws all "demonstration without authorisation" within 1Km of parliament. These five defendants had had the audacity to hold signs reading “We have the Right To Protest.” The magistrate must have thought they were very clearly Serious Organised Criminals indeed - because she found them all GUILTY.

We Rebel Clowns grew up on a diet of gangster movies and had always thought that in order to be considered a Serious Organised Criminal we’d have to get into the UK Government - a prospect that was way too scary, even for us! But then after witnessing the court hearing, it dawned on us that it was actually a lot easier (and a lot more fun) to become a Serious Organised Criminal than we had previously realised.

IF Labour is the party of Britishness, I'm a flying cactus. If they value liberty, why do they want ID cards and to lock us up for 90 days without charge? Why do they want the police force under central control?

News that David Jones - EDO MBM's Mr Burns-a-like managing director – had resigned spread up and down the picket line on January 18th's Drums not Bombs demo. Bomb-builder Davey Jones – who handed his notice in on December 31st ( ..and a Happy New Year!) - has been coy about his reasons for going and EDO have made no public statement.
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As the managing director, Jones was responsible for the disastrous strategy of taking out an injunction against protesters – and in fact the injunction was taken out in his name not the company's! But not only has the injunction totally failed to prevent protests outside the factory but it's swelled numbers and brought the campaign a lot of national and untold local press coverage.

Government suffered further defeats on ID Cards last night, as the House of Lords voted to make the scheme voluntary, and to require a further Act of Parliament before ID cards can be made compulsory. The Government has already stated that it intends to reverse the Lords' amendments in the Commons, but as it now has to deal with several substantial changes, and the Dear Leader has several other controversial pieces of legislation on his plate, it may have a difficult time of it.

The video was filmed at parliament square as people demonstrated various things but obviously didn't demonstrate in a political way because that would be naughty too close to the heart of the nations parliament where politricks are the order of the day... It is about 4 minutes long and was edited within two hours then shown public screening the evening after the demo. This version has been tweaked a little more. A screening quality version will be found on video.indymedia.org and also available in DVD quality on the next Real2Reel compilation.

Demonstrations took place in Parliament Square on Sunday, within the draconian SOCPA Exclusion Zone. Shown on video are demonstrations of Juggling, Lying Down, the Counter Balance Stretch, the Forward Roll, and Flower Arranging. One person demonstrated how to hold up a political placard, a very arm tiring exercise, and was told by police that this is perfectly OK as long as he keeps moving, which of course makes the exercise even healthier. None were arrested.

The government has been defeated twice in the Lords over its Identity Cards Bill, as opposition peers attempt to make the scheme entirely voluntary. Ministers want applicants for passports and driving licences to be obliged to go on the ID card register.

Six months after the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes 2-300 people gathered at Stockwell Tube station (the scene of the crime) to remember Jean and support his cousins. For the family it has been a very difficult time made worse by endless lies peddled by the British State and its filth…whoops… I mean Police.

If we want to preserve our civil liberties in the networked world, then we have to assert them, argues technology commentator Bill Thompson.

So how come he could decide that Gary was not committing an offence, but he'd have to get a senior officer to declare that he was?

"Look, there's a lot of CCTVs pointing at this square. and there's a lot of senior officers looking at them right now. We're being asked to make political decisions, and I just don't want to do that. I'm leaving that to someone else."

Clearly SOCPA Section 132 is becoming an embarrassment all round. Designed to get rid of peace campaigner Brian Haw, it was famously mis-written allowing him to become the only person in the world legally able to demonstrate without permission.

But what does "demonstrate" mean? The scarcity of visible police in Parliament Square today was a refusal to pick up the semantic gauntlet thrown down by activists there in force to demonstrate activities as diverse as cake decorating, puppetry and taking a nap.

The controversial plans for ID cards and a national identity register were hit this week by a rebellion in the House of Lords, led by Lord Stoddart of Swindon. LYNDA WARREN, of the civil liberty group Swindon NO2ID, says it is time to call the Government to account over this, the ultimate in Big Brother ideas

the trial at bow street magistrates court today of mark barrett was adjourned to the end of march amidst some confusion. he was in court for taking part in an unauthorised demonstration outside parliament on 28th august last year.

Controversial plans for new so-called 'anti' terrorism laws have suffered two defeats in the House of Lords as the Peers voted to dump plans the proposed new offence of "glorifying" terror. Additionally they insisted on new safeguards on laws alleged to be intended to stop the distribution of 'terrorist' publications. The defeats are the second time the governments plans have be thwarted by the lords in the last two days. On Monday peers moved to block the proposed nation ID and database scheme although again ministers say they will continue with the project.

THE Swindon branch of a campaign against the introduction of ID cards is moving up a gear. Swindon No2ID has enlisted the support of former Swindon MP Lord Stoddart. Lynda Warren, of Broad Hinton, who is the local contact for the group, said: "Lord Stoddart has remained true to his principles of freedom and civil liberty.
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On Thursday, January 26 the issue is due to be discussed by Swindon Council and a motion that day calls for the council to oppose the use of ID cards for access for public services.
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During the debate this week Lord Stoddart said: "If we are not careful, we may be throwing money away. "We may spend billions of pounds in starting a scheme that has been agreed to by only one political party, which may not be in government for much longer than a few years. We know all about cost overruns. The NHS computer programme was estimated to cost £1bn and is now estimated to cost £30bn. We are also made aware virtually every day of the costs of the Child Support Agency. It now costs the Treasury hundreds of millions of pounds every year to run."

The proposals for a national ID card and database are in crisis yet again after peers inflicted a treble blow to the government's big brother scheme. Conservatives and Liberal Democrats attacked the massive costs likely to be involved and demanded a full costing. Additionally they demanded that MPs to be given an unprecedented vote on the scheme's budget.

The first major setback for the ID Cards Bill came last night as peers voted by 237 votes to 156 for an amendment demanding that the National Audit Office draw up a report on the estimated cost. Ministers have claimed that the scheme will cost a mere £584 million a year, along with a combined ID card and passport costing no more than £93. But research by the LSE suggests the real cost is likely to be between £10bn and £19bn over three years.

The government's ID cards scheme has suffered three defeats in the Lords. Peers voted to block the scheme until full costs were known, but ministers say its cost cannot be revealed as it will make it hard to get a good deal.

Bush wants to create the new criminal of "disruptor" who can be jailed for the crime of "disruptive behavior." A "little-noticed provision" in the latest version of the Patriot Act will empower Secret Service to charge protesters with a new crime of "disrupting major events including political conventions and the Olympics." Secret Service would also be empowered to charge persons with "breaching security" and to charge for "entering a restricted area" which is "where the President or other person protected by the Secret Service is or will be temporarily visiting." In short, be sure to stay in those wired, fenced containments or free speech zones.

He was there to announce nuclear policy, [or perhaps the wrong policy]. Hence a number of concerned citizens turned out to protest. There was an intensive surveillance operation. This is of course normal these days, but it is indicative that the concept of protest is thought of by the authorities as a potential crime. A shame really, me thinks

Tony Blair set out new plans today for a nuclear power policy, as him and other cabinet ministers attended a Labour Party forum, at the East Midlands Conference Centre in Nottingham. The conference centre is based at Nottingham University, where students jumped into action after it was leaked to Nottinghamshire Indymedia that Tony Blair was to visit the Uni. A call out for a demonstration, meeting at 10am at the Portland Building (on Notts Uni campus) was supported by a number of local campaign groups including the Students Union, Nottingham Stop the War, Nottingham Student Peace Movement, Lenton Anarchist Forum and the arts activism collective the Mischief Makers.

at bow street magistrate's court today, after three days of evidence and deliberation, magistrate nicholas evans found the four defendants guilty. they were charged with participating in an unauthorised demonstration within the designated area around parliament on the day the act came into force, the 1st august last year. one defendant was additionally found guilty of willfully obstructing police in the course of their duty.

The Department of Constitutional Affairs has now recommended giving local authorities powers to impose fines of £2,500 if you do not have an ID card. This is despite the Government saying that the cards would be voluntary.

There was a good turn out in front of Sheffield Town Hall from 4pm on 11th January 2005 to oppose the threatened deportation of Mohammad Arrian.

today, bow street magistrates court started hearing evidence against four of the five people arrested in parliament square on the day the new socpa legislation came into force on the 1st august last year. but it is now clear that seven people were arrested that day, but two mysteriously avoided charges. WHY?

Dear Mr........

Thank you for your letter regarding detainees in Guantanamo Bay. I have been asked to reply. I am sorry you have not received an ealier reply. You and other correspondents have expressed concern on a number of issues. I hope the following information is of help.

today, anti-socpa activists and others held a remembrance ceremony for those who lost their lives six months ago in the london bombings. they did not apply for police permission under the socpa law. maya evans was arrested and found guilty for doing much the same last year. today, police ignored the event.

I write in connection with your request for information dated 13 December concerning policing costs and numbers for a recent protest about EDO. The request was contained in your email addressed to Supt Moore raising other issues which I understand have been replied to separately.

Your request for information has now been considered and I am not obliged to supply the information you have requested on costs and numbers under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

When more than four years ago police detained a woman protesting against transportation of nuclear waste for more than 22 hours, they were breaking the law, Germany’s supreme court has ruled. The Federal Constitutional Court was passing judgment on a complaint by Martina Lammers, chair of The Greens organisation in the north German county of Lüchow-Dannenberg where a nuclear waste storage hall is located at Gorleben.

In line with other repression by president Kaczynski, a local school in Lublin, Poland, is likely to expel student Krzysztof Kowalik for sporting a radical hairstyle. Your fax/email support in a few quick, polite sentences would greatly be appreciated by young activists in Poland.

The Arrian Family and supporters met MP Richard Caborn on Tuesday 3 January. It was not the case that the Immigration Department had refused a meeting with Mr Caborn, to be more accurate they did not see any grounds for the meeting. Mr Caborn believes, on the contrary, that there are grounds for him to discuss the case with Tony McNulty and until that time Mohammed will not be deported. The campaign to stop the deportation of Mohammad will continue both to support Mohammad, his family and Mr Caborn. Thank you for everyone who is helping in however large or small a way.

Mohammed Arrian is to be deported to Afghanistan in two weeks time. This is despite the fact that all the rest of his family are happily settled in Sheffield and all have indefinate leave to remain in this country. The Home Office are even refusing to talk to Richard Caborn, his MP about the situation. Mohammed fears for his life if he is sent back to Afghanistan.