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

Video clips of the public meeting addressed by George Galloway on 7th June at the Broadgreen Centre are now online

Thousands of demonstrators planning to march on Parliament to call for the withdrawal of troops from Afrghanistan and Iraq have been told that their protest has been banned. The Metropolitan Police told organisers of the Stop the War Coalition that no march would now be allowed “within one mile of Parliament” while MPs were in session.

The actions of this terrorist have turned the spotlight on liberals, libertarians and all those others opposed to the ever expanding power of the state. It is time for them to make a choice. Will they renounce their dangerous opposition to ID Cards and the National Database? Will they publicly support the rapid expansion of the government's entirely secure DNA database? Will they wholeheartedly and sincerely endorse the government's national children's database? (And will they also support the perfectly sensible exclusion for the children of the people who made it compulsory for everyone else's children to be included?)

I too laughed when I read about Jonathan Jones, the 79-year-old Broadgreen resident, receiving an 18th birthday message from North Swindon MP Michael Wills (SA, Sept 25). However, although Mr Jones finds it a great joke and a bit flattering, the irony of this won't be lost on people who recognise that these little errors will be an everyday occurrence for thousands of people when the National Identity Register and Identity Cards scheme starts to encroach on every aspect of their day-to-day lives.

These days, data about people's whereabouts, purchases, behaviour and personal lives are gathered, stored and shared on a scale that no dictator of the old school ever thought possible. Most of the time, there is nothing obviously malign about this. Governments say they need to gather data to ward off terrorism or protect public health; corporations say they do it to deliver goods and services more efficiently. But the ubiquity of electronic data-gathering and processing—and above all, its acceptance by the public—is still astonishing, even compared with a decade ago. Nor is it confined to one region or political system.

Why does the government insist I pay for a plastic card just to grant complete strangers instant access to private information? Why does an English high court judge, a Lord Justice Sedley, believe it would be "fairer" if my genetic material, along with the DNA of everyone else who resides in or visits Britain, was held on a giant database?

I HAVE refrained from responding to the many vitriolic letters regarding my ID listening event as I believe your readers will make up their own minds on the increasingly hysterical nature of the correspondence. However, Alistair Flockhart's letter (SA, September 19) contains a number of inaccuracies which I would like to correct.

Anne Snelgrove has set her meeting for tonight at the Liden Community Centre, but we learn that the event is not to be public, rather restricted by invitation to 40 people to attend a Listening Panel. This is contrary to her declaration (SA, February 13) that she would hold a public meeting on the ID Card issue.

The Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference today backed measures to roll back the legislation that has turned Britain into a ‘surveillance society.’ The proposals include commitments for:

· The immediate repeal of the Identity Cards Act 2006
· The destruction of all DNA samples taken from those not charged or convicted of an offence
· Updating and amending the Data Protection Act
· The greater regulation of CCTV
· Review the role of the Information Commissioner

I AM happy to inform Mr Scott (SA, September 14) that the next Conservative Government will scrap ID cards and the National Identity Register. Although other EU and non- EU countries have ID cards, none have attempted to create an Identity Register, which begs this question why on earth are we doing it? The most effective way in which Swindon residents can vote to end the nonsense of ID cards will be to vote Conservative at the next election.

So, Mrs Snelgrove's meeting on the issue of Identity Cards and the National Identity Register (Liden Community Centre, September 20, 6.30pm) is almost upon us and as one of those lucky few to have received a coveted invitation I am very much looking forward to this meeting. However, it hasn't gone unnoticed by myself or many other people that the focus of this meeting has shifted to suit Mrs Snelgrove's agenda.

Companies interested in becoming suppliers to the government's controversial ID card scheme have been given the lowdown on what to expect if they are successful. The Identity and Passport Service (IPS) staged a bidders' conference last week for companies to learn how the procurement process for the National Identity Scheme (NIS) will work and what kinds of projects they could be involved in.

A flaw in the Government's ID scheme has been exposed by the article regarding Stewart Cruse (Advertiser Sept 13) who has had his personal information misdirected by a commercial organisation and now fears fraud.
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Unlike commercial customers, if the information on the NIR database is compromised we cannot move from the provider and the system remains intact with no real imperative to change, why should it? Politicians will try to tell us that the personnel and the system are secure. They can even quote misuse laws. These assurances can be tested by asking them if they will give assurance such that any recorded breach of the database will resolve in them resigning. If they cannot give that assurance then they are aware that the system cannot be 100 per cent secure.

REGARDING the meeting concerning the ID card scheme at Liden Community Centre on Thursday, MP Anne Snelgrove is holding what she describes as a listening panel' on ID cards to "share information and reaction to the scheme with a Government Minister". Are the hand-picked audience of 40 there as extras to a publicity stunt. One wonders what purpose is to be served by this palliative staged-event when the decision to proceed with the menacing National Identity Register was taken not only without reference to the public, but on such a covert basis as to raise an atavistic howl across the land.

The SOCPA case against five activists who took part in the No More Fallujahs Weekend of action last October collapsed today at Horseferry Road Magistrates Court when judge Quentin Purdy found no case to answer and dismissed all charges against the five at the end of a protracted and at times farcical hearing which lasted almost four hours.

IT was noticeable that Conservative Parliamentary candidate Robert Buckland wrote with feeling about the Labour Party and the ID card scheme. But what he did not say was what I believe most people would want to know. That is, what are the Tories going to do about ID cards if they regain power?

This idea of a database State cannot address this issue, in fact it can only make it far easier for people to lie, due to the phenomenal amount of information generated in the gather phase for the database creation. In essence the lies become buried under a mountain of truth. It is also widely acknowledged that a more significant danger is the inevitable increase of crime when this database is compromised.

At a time when our public services are under constant pressure to do more and where outsourcing of IT systems to far flung parts of the world is common place, his comments illustrate some stark examples of how this database could represent a danger to us all. The fact is, none of us know where our data will be accessible, who will be able to access it and for what purpose.

Last November's public meeting on the same subject, organised by volunteers, was held in the Pilgrim Centre, ensuring that nobody was turned away due to lack of space, it's curious that our MP was not able to secure a venue large enough to accommodate all those who want to attend her event.

Barrie Hudson's article, This whole thing is Idiotic, September 1, is mistaken in thinking that our MP, Anne Snelgrove is holding a public meeting about ID cards at Liden Community Centre on September 20. I telephoned to book a place and was told that, due to the restricted size of the venue, there are only 40 seats available and invitations for that number have already been sent out. I am now on the reserve list in case there are any cancellations.

A senior judge has called for the entire population and anyone visiting Britain to have their DNA placed on a national database. Lord Justice Sedley said that a nationwide bank of DNA profiles would help to tackle crime and correct an imbalance in profiles stored by police. His comments prompted condemnation from civil liberties groups, who said that it showed scant regard for the liberty of individuals.

Senior social workers have now warned of the dangers of ContactPoint, the £241 million new database intended to contain personal details of every child (and parent) in the country. The chairman of the Association of Directors of Children's Services (ACDS) Information Systems and Technology Policy Committee, Richard Stiff, has written to officials outlining "significant" concerns about ContactPoint [1]. Confusion over who is responsible for vetting the 330,000+ users and policing the system "may allow a situation where an abuser could be able to access ContactPoint for illegitimate purposes with limited fear of any repercussions."

Further to Alistair Flockhart's letter (Adver Aug 28) Anne Snelgrove's ID event is a response to the wider debate staged earlier this year Whose Identity Is It Anyway, which Mrs Snelgrove was too busy to attend. While we welcome any debate on the Government's plan to create a compulsory national register of all citizens, it would not be right to imply our problems begin and end with this vast white elephant. The Government is going to roll out an identity register for children next year - ContactPoint (formally known as the Children's Index).

The Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ACDS) has written to officials outlining its “significant” concerns about the new system, called ContactPoint, The Times has learnt. Confusion over who is responsible for vetting users and policing the system “may allow a situation where an abuser could be able to access ContactPoint for illegitimate purposes with limited fear of any repercussions”, Richard Stiff, the chairman of the ADCS Information Systems and Technology Policy Committee, said.

Liberal Democrat leaders are to mount an attack on Britain's "surveillance society'' that threatens to wreck Gordon Brown's hopes of a cross-party consensus on measures to tackle the threat of terrorism. In a strategic break with the Prime Minister, Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat leader, and his home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg will launch their offensive at their party conference next month.

yesterday's operation saw the greater london council use bye-laws to once again curb brian's protest. over recent weeks, some new tents had arrived in the square, and some of the people in them, not connected with the peace protest in any way, began to behave anti-socially. it is unclear why these people sudenly turned up, but it gave the ken livingston the excuse to put out press releases yesterday claiming that peace protestors were defecating in the flower-beds and causing other problems. most of the mainstream media dutifully spread these lies, and gave cover to another expensive operation as, yesterday morning, a seven foot high wire fence was erected to enclose the entire square.

There was no eviction notice, or no warning - they just came here this morning and said they were taking the tents down, and then the fence went up,' says an exasperated Maria Gallastegui. Maria, a Londoner, has been camping in Parliament Square for about a year. She joined the camp to support Brian Haw - 'he wasn't allowed to leave the site unattended (the site being Brian's pavement protest with his anti-war billboards and signs), so we joined the camp to help him and look after the site when he wasn't there.' She says the police have 'never said anything about the tents before. They can't do this. There was no warning for us at all.'

when brown seized power he promised a lifting of socpa conditions on the right to protest near parliament. today, in preparation for the visit of nelson mandela, his henchmen helped ken livingston's henchmen to crack down even more on brian haw's protest, forcing their support tents into an impossibly small area in another expensive police operation.

The government has issued a tender to run a procurement framework for the National Identity Register and the related national ID card and biometric passport, known collectively as the National Identity Scheme (NIS). Initial bids to manage the procurement programme are expected to come in at up to £500m.

The card system will use an existing NI database to log details, potentially making it easier for tax inspectors to keep tabs. Officials had hoped to base ID cards on a National Identity Register but will instead use the Customer Information System run by the Department of Work and Pensions.

The government has finally launched the delayed procurement process for its controversial £5.3bn ID cards scheme in a move likely to inflame opposition because it comes during the parliamentary recess.

Restrictions placed on anti-Iraq war protestor Brian Haw by police over his six-year peace vigil have been ruled unlawful in a High Court judgement.

Flaws in the controversial identity cards scheme could lead to thousands in Britain being wrongly matched with other people's details, an academic has predicted. Professor John Daugman said using fingerprints to identify individuals will result in one in 1,000 "false matches" by the time there are six million people in the system.

A File on Four radio programme has shown the UK government's proposed identity card scheme to be badly co-ordinated and lacking in accountability. The programme, broadcast on 31 July 2007, included an interview with Computer Weekly's news editor and several experts from the identity-management and IT community. It was apparent from the interviews that civil servants are struggling with the vagueness of the project.

Gordon Brown is subtler than Tony Blair. He does not present this as a test of his will. There was not a trace of vanity nor hysteria in the statement to the House of Commons last Wednesday, merely a sense of duty. Brown is also much, much more powerful than Blair was when he tried to get 90 days without charge through the Commons. The Prime Minister has no opposition on anything in cabinet, the Parliamentary Labour Party will be reluctant to challenge him ahead of what may be an early election called because of the favourable opinion polls, and he has Rupert Murdoch and the Daily Mail on his side.

Under Mr Blair, the State recaptured territory that it must have thought had been buried forever under a mountain of human rights laws and beneath all the freedoms that would normally make it more difficult to control the individual, such as ease of communication and of movement. But the technology that has made us feel freer has also given the State the wherewithal to keep control over us and to say that it does so for our own good.

mainstream media has recently been consistently reporting that gordon brown has lifted the restrictions on demonstrating near parliament. this is a lie. socpa has not been repealed, and if anything the police appear to have been given orders to crack down harder than ever on the handful of peaceful campaigners who daily dare to point out that our government is still committing genocide in iraq

In his report late last month, Mr Marty presented evidence of a secret programme to transfer terror suspects to a network of detention centres where they could be interrogated without the protection of US or international law. Some of these prisons were on European soil, specifically in Poland and Romania, and were used from 2002 to 2005.

In the aftermath of the discovery of "potentially viable devices" in London on Friday 29th June, 2007, the Metropolitian Polices' Forward Intelligence Team (FIT), under the command of the Commisioner's Office, utilised its resources to cope with what the new Home Secretary described as "the most serious and sustained threat to our security from international terrorism", by sending out teams of cops to photograph attendees at publicly advertised open meetings. In the aftermath of the Glasgow incident which involved a burning doctor and his SUV, COBRA raised the UK's security alert to critical, the highest level. The Met celebrated this by sending the FIT team to photograph a picnic in Cambridge.

Parliament Square peace campaigner Brian Haw is now in the seventh year of his protest. He started on June 2nd 2001 and despite numerous attempts to evict him including specially enacted legislation – SOCPA – he is still here. A selection of photos is attached – including some of Brian in 2005 before most of his display was removed by the Met. The number of tents in the Square was 9 at the time of his 6th anniversary party on June 2nd but it had risen to 11 on July 8th and Brian has his megaphone back – so he can continue to remind those in the `Mother of all Parliaments` of the lies that were used to justify the war.

Government needs to make privacy and data protection principles a core component of its IT specifications, according to the assistant information commissioner.

Military and North Yorkshire Police took lots of photos and video of peacefull protestors at the 4th July Independence From America demonstration at NSA Menwith Hill.

The FIT Team, the part of the Metropolitan police who spy on activists, arrived about 30 minutes before the meeting was due to start. This time though, as well as being faced with the June rain, they came face to face with two large banners and a few smaller ones making it impossible to take photos of people attending the meeting. The stand off was fairly good natured. The police seemed a bit annoyed at not being able to take photos unhindered, and even more annoyed that people were filming and photographing them for a change.

Police and securocrats know that there aren't enough real terrorists in the world, which is why they have to keep manufacturing them. This is because citizens tire of being watched by cameras, frisked and x-rayed, having their belongings searched, giving fingerprints to so-called friendly nations on entry, contemplating the myriad government databases where their details and activities are preserved, and wondering if some dour little bureaucrat is reading their email or listening to them on the phone.

Sir Menzies Campbell will today warn the incoming prime minister not to attempt to woo the Liberal Democrats. The Liberal Democrat leader will distance himself from Gordon Brown's government, claiming fundamental disagreements on issues such as ID cards, Trident and foreign policy make an alliance impossible.

a story has hit the weekend newspapers that brown will announce the repeal of socpa restrictions on the right to protest outside parliament. but the stories also hint that the repeal may be accompanied by new regulations on the style of protests. the socpa law did not succeed in its main target, to rid brian haw from the square. is brown trying something else in the guise of libertarianism.

Immigration Minister Liam Byrne this week unveiled - to a certain amount of derision - his vision of the ID Card scheme as some sort of 21st Century equivalent of the 19th Century railway network or the 20th Century national electricity grid. It will be pervasive, and in 20 years time it will be a great British institution, "part of the fabric of British life."

How did all this happen? Who allowed it? To try to answer these questions, I have made a film, Talking Liberties, about the attack on our freedoms. I uncovered a disturbing roll call of ancient basic rights which have been systematically destroyed in the self- serving climate of fear this government has perpetuated since the 9/11 attack.

An inquiry has found no evidence that British airports were used by the CIA flying terrorist suspects for torture in other countries. The investigation by the Association of Chief Police Officers followed claims by campaign group Liberty concerning "extraordinary rendition" flights. But aviation expert Chris Yates said he believed evidence to prove the planes came to the UK was "out there".

TAKING LIBERTIES - at a cinema near YOU. On June 8th, a new film charting the erosion of basic rights and freedoms since 1997 will hit cinemas across the country. NO2ID were involved in this thought-provoking feature-length examination of this government's attack on civil liberties from early in its production, and our briefings on the ID scheme have been used as the basis for some stunning animation sequences and a hard-hitting section on ID cards*. Viewers are encouraged to join the NO2ID campaign at the end of the film.

The CIA ran secret prisons in Poland and Romania from 2003 to 2005 where terrorism suspects could be interrogated free of US legal restraints, a Council of Europe investigation concluded today. It revealed that Abu Zubaydah, believed to be a senior al-Qaida member, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a suspected mastermind of the September 11 attacks, were held and interrogated in Poland. None of the prisoners had access to the Red Cross and many were subjected to what George Bush has called the CIA's "enhanced" interrogation, which critics have condemned as torture.

No doubt many readers will have seen the banners and trailers for the film Taking Liberties on numerous blogs of differing political persuasions. We want to encourage anyone who can to go and see this film and, just as importantly, to persuade others perhaps less familiar with the decade-long assault on our civil liberties to go and see it also. Taking Liberties opens Tomorrow (Friday June 8) at selected cinemas. If enough people go and see it on the opening weekend then the distributors will push the film out wider and there is a chance of it reaching more people than just those who are already familiar with what Blair has done to our cherished freedoms.

IN reply to Mrs Snelgrove, on February 13, you told us via the Swindon Advertiser, as well as in person, that you would arrange a meeting to debate the ID Card Act 2006. This kind offer of yours was prompted, I believe, because you were unable to accept our invitation to debate the Act at the public meeting we arranged in February.
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Now the elections are over it is timely to make good your commitment to us and allow us to debate the Identity Register with you fully.

Four Christian pacifists face charges under a previously-unused law for entering the top secret US-Australian spy satellite base at Pine Gap, some 20 kilometres from Alice Springs. The government is so sensitive to the base’s involvement in the Iraq war that Attorney-General Philip Ruddock personally authorised the prosecution under the 1952 Defence (Special Undertaking) Act.

Brian has lived in London’s Parliament Square for 6 years – nearly 2,200 days and nights of eating, sleeping, and talking to passers-by opposite the so-called `Mother of all Parliaments`. Here are 20 photos of the day on which he clocked up 6 years of his magnificent protest.

Brown's speech is being widely reported as being 'tough on terrorism' in today's headlines; the timing is, of course, politically expedient. It is a thumbed nose to Peter Hain, running for deputy Labour leader, and a display of teeth at the Labour left. It is also pouring salt into the wounds of the Tories, struggling for over a month now with the fallout over grammar schools, and Cameron now being called ''delusional'' and ''an absolute prat'' by Council leaders. A new Sunday Telegraph poll has Mr Brown seen as ''more experienced, strong and competent'', and he is marginally favoured to be prime minister. Making hay of the disarray, Brown is hardly likely to do anything that could be interpreted as being ''soft on terrorism'', but it is interesting that this speech does nod to civil liberties and checks and balances: he has clearly learned from the opprobrium being heaped on his outgoing nemesis, Blair.

New byelaws for Britain''s nuclear weapons factory - AWE Aldermaston - came into force yesterday. This brief article reflects on the implications for campaigners and challenges being mounted to yet another criminalisation of protest ... and invites women to join the peace camp for a fabulous camp birthday cocktail party on 9 June.

The 2003 Extradition Act has cleared the way for you to be extradited to the USA without much, or even any, evidence. You can be placed under house arrest based only on ‘reasonable suspicion’ (2005 Prevention of Terrorism Act). You can be held for 28 days without charge by our increasingly paramilitary style police (2006 Terrorism Act). An increase to this is being sought. For a so-called ‘Labour’ government to be responsible for the destruction of so many of our nation’s long-held liberties is an outrage.

At least 12 activists have now been charged under SOCPA in connection with the No More Fallujahs Peace Camp and Naming the Dead actions in Parliament Square and Whitehall on 29-30 October 2006. In a planned act of civil disobedience against the occupation of Iraq, campaigners set up an unauthorised camp in Parliament Square for 24 hours last October. In all, over 100 people took part in workshops and discussions and held 'Naming the Dead' remembrance ceremonies in Parliament Square and Whitehall during the action.

WHAT a state of disgrace the democracy of our country has now reached when MPs vote to exclude themselves from the freedom of information laws, which they introduced in 2005, and which applies to every other public establishment.

The NO2ID petition forms are our way of expanding our supporter base. Every person's name that is collected can be added to our mailing list so that they can be kept informed of campaign developments. This is in contrast to the electronic petitions on the Number 10 website, which whilst well intentioned do not help us to reach new supporters. Petition forms can be downloaded from the NO2ID website. Please spare some time to collect as many names as you can and send the completed forms to NO2ID, Box 412, 19-21 Crawford Street, London W1H 1PJ as soon as possible. Everyone who gives their name and address will get a pack with information about the identity card scheme and the campaign.

Thursday 24th May 2007 saw two demonstrations to urge the Scottish Parliament to take action to stop torture flights. The first was at 8.00 am with the second at 12.00 noon. There was a small piece announcing the demonstration on page 9 of the Edinburgh Evening News of Wednesday 23rd May. The small demonstration attracted about a dozen activists who dressed up in orange jump suits and afterwards there was a discussion in a room in the Scottish Parliament, attended by three Scottish Nationalist Party MSPs, Sandra White, Aileen Campbell and Jamie Hepburn.

The procurement framework for the national ID card scheme will be in place by the end of the year, with the first contract awards scheduled for the second quarter of 2008, according to the latest timetable. Sources say formal bidding for inclusion on the framework list is expected to start before the end of June.

yesterday at horseferry road, district judge snow found steve jago and barbara tucker both guilty of obstructing a police officer in the course of their duty. the offence is alleged to have been carried out at charing cross police station (which is outside the socpa designated area). but he passed a community service order sentence excluding them both from the designated area for one year. can this be seen as anything other than a political act?

Last night I saw the film Taking Liberties on the big screen for the first time, ( it was the cast and crew screening) and it was excellent. Funny, moving, infuritating, and best of all, it gives people things to do at the end of it. The film , which is released on June 8th, tells the stories of dozens of ordinary people. Grandmothers, teenagers, war veterans, writers, chefs, comedians, protesters, ordinary people from across the political spectrum - all caught up in the storm. There are contributions from Tony Benn, Henry Porter, Boris Johnson, Shami Chakrabarti, Walter Wolfgang, and many more.

A Channel 4 report that personal data of Indian citizens applying for British visa in India may have been compromised due to flaws in the online application system there has prompted an investigation here. The report, broadcast Thursday evening, said that a security flaw in internet visa applications to the British High Commission in India meant the details of 50,000 people may have been freely available online. It was a potential treasure trove for identity thieves and terrorists, the report said.

Milan Rai and Maya Evans were convicted today under SOCPA for organising and participating in last October's "No More Fallujahs" action. They were fined just £100 each, and the pair do not intend to pay the fines.

HERE'S a suggestion for Gordon Brown, and it won't cost him a penny. More than that, it could save him untold millions, which should appeal to his famed prudence. While he trundles about the country, trying to win over voters before grasping Tony Blair's tarnished crown, he should announce that he plans to drop ID cards.

Our local elections ID questionnaire was a great success. Supporters up and down the country made sure that the ID scheme was a local issue for candidates. Thanks to everybody that took part in the fantastic lobbying efforts, for example campaigners in Swindon sent out questionnaires to over 90 prospective candidates! Now it's time to get our message out to the wider public again. The best way to help us get more supporters is by getting people to sign our petition forms. Petition forms can be downloaded from the NO2ID website

One of the country's top police officers has criticised the Government's identity cards scheme, saying it will become a prime target for hackers. Colin Langham-Fitt, acting chief constable of Suffolk Constabulary, slammed the proposed National Identity Register as creating a massive security threat.

The Dobson report, the regular update to Parliament on the progress of the ID card scheme, was released yesterday - at the same time that Tony Blair was announcing his resignation as Prime Minister. Privacy and civil liberty campaigners NO2ID blasted Home Office figures which show an increase of £640 million in the last 6 months while attempting to discount a further £510 million from future calculations.

Jack Straw, widely expected to replace John Reid as the home secretary, today clearly signalled that the future of the national identity card scheme would be in the melting pot when Gordon Brown becomes prime minister next month. Mr Straw - who is Mr Brown's leadership campaign manager and has a long record of cabinet opposition to a compulsory ID card system - indicated that the future of the £5.75bn project would be under review in the new government.

Opposition parties accused the Government of burying bad news and breaking the law today, after new figures revealed the rocketing cost of the ID cards project. The projected cost of the controversial identity scheme has risen by at least £400 million in the last six months. Conservatives and Liberal Democrats said the true rise was actually £640 million - to a staggering £5.55 billion over 10 years.

G SCOTT implies that the NO2ID campaign group is wasting its time working with the two Labour MPs. I grant Mr Scott that both Anne Snelgrove and Michael Wills followed their Party into the database abyss, voting every time for one of the most sinister Bills we have witnessed.

The government's cost estimate for its identity card scheme has risen at least £600m in the six months since its last disclosure. According to the May 2007 Identity Cards Scheme Cost report, at last count the project was going to cost £4.9bn between October 2006 and October 2016 (although we reported the estimate was £5.4bn). But the Identity and Passport Service said it would have to spend more money than anticipated on people to implement the scheme, people to vet passport and identity card applications, and counter fraud measures. The total cost is now expected to be £5.5bn.

Having just seen this article, I was wondering about cost. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6642339.stm

At what point is the money better spent on other measures to reduce whatever it is supposed to help? In other words some basic cost benefit analysis. Given that it seems to have increased by more than 30% today, and we are some time away from it being implemented, at what projected cost level should we stop, simply because it is too much for the defined benefit?

Both Mrs Snelgrove and Mr Wills can only do what they are told by the Labour leadership who in turn are instructed by Brussels. The same would apply under a Tory of Lib Dem Government so I repeat my letter of a few months ago. The only way to defeat ID cards is to elect a party which is against them and the longest moderate party to hold that opinion is UKIP.

stephen jago appeared at horseferry road magistrates court on monday and friday this week, and judge purdy found him guilty of demonstrating without authorisation but acquitted him of assaulting a police officer. he intends to appeal against the conviction for which he received £100 fine and £100 costs.

All the allegations involved Marcus making public political statements at demonstrations (through a megaphone) to numerous witnesses, often expressed with biting satirical wit. These statements were either critical of the EDO MBM bomb building factory, which has been the subject of anti-war protests for over three years, or a certain police officer who guards the factory on regular occasions, or Sussex Police in general for their collusion with the corporation in bringing an abusive high court harassment injunction against protesters in 2005-6, which later collapsed.

I will start by providing you a resource to use in online communications that provides a very accurate expression of what happens in a database state. The example is a website from the US where the level of information storage and availability to everyone is clearly expressed : http://government-records.com/index.php providing the following list of information that is available to all:

Stand-up Bennett Arron was arrested in a dawn raid after stealing the identity of former Home Secretary Charles Clarke. The Welsh comic spent 12 hours in the cells after obtaining the Minister’s birth certificate and then using that to get a driving licence in his name as part of a documentary for Channel 4. He faced a High Court trial and, had he been convicted, could have been jailed for up to two years for the deception. However, with the aid of his lawyers, he received only an official caution.

Unexpected support for ID cards has come from Electoral Commission chairman Sam Younger, who has told the Times that photo ID should be required at polling stations, and that if (or, in the view of the current Government, when) ID cards become compulsory they would "undoubtedly" be applied in elections. "I think there’s a very strong case for making sure we go down the road of tightening up the identification of polling station voting as well [as postal ballots]" he said. Younger's statements are somewhat eccentric, even bizarre, given that ID cards could most readily be used to prove identity in the part of the ballot system where it's least necessary - i.e. at the polling station, where there is no evidence of widespread fraud.

Anne Snelgrove said ( BBC politics show Sunday April 22) that people she speaks to say of ID Cards ‘ if it stops illegal activity, stops crime and identity theft they’re all for it’. I can’t blame them for their views – I may re-consider my opposition the National register too if it were possible for a piece of plastic to eradicate such crime.

Section 37 of the Identity Cards Act 2006 requires the Home Secretary to publish his estimate of the ten-year cost of the ID scheme "before the end of every six months". The first Dobson report [1] was published on 9th October 2006. The next report is now more than two weeks overdue.

Saturday the 21st saw a beautiful spring day greet the 300 odd protestors (each having applied to demonstrate in 10-20 different places around the SOCPA zone) as they gathered in Parliament Square. We made for an eclectic collective, comprised as we were of lawyers, punk rockers, students, artists, activists and the plain old disgruntled folk from Middle England. Some carried bundles of banners and placards, with wooden poles and cardboard protruding from them at odd angles. Some had hand held easy to wipe white boards, so as to write a new slogan at each protest. One person had even brought a roll of wallpaper which had her 20 odd slogans written out and carefully ordered to be unrolled at the appropriate moment.

Anne Snelgrove appeared on last Sundays edition of BBC Televisions 'Politics Show'. The show was filmed live in Sussex Square, Walcot, and was billed as a discussion of cctv. Anne couldn't resist the televisual opportunity to dismiss the NO2ID campaign as 'making a lot of noise' and went on to claim wide support for identity cards, (although she didn't claim support for the National Identity Register), from the doorsteps of Swindon. We have termed Annes constant denials that a rising tide of anti-identity card sentiment exists, 'The Canute Defence'.

Well it was a bit of fun all round with participants arriving from all over the country, converging on Parliament Square for a 10.30 start and a 5.20 finale. Their protests were diverse, ranging from less packaging in Tesco's to abolishing the monarchy to equal rights for Welsh dragons. But the real purpose was to highlight the absurdity of an act that only allows state sanctioned protest. Every one protesting today was legal because 2294 individual applications had been processed by the police. To protest without this permission would incur criminal prosecution leading to a penalty - if you were "the organiser" - of up to 51 weeks in jail.

Gordon Brown has left open the option of scrapping the identity card scheme if he becomes Prime Minister. The Chancellor has refused to approve the multimillion-pound budget for the whole scheme and has given the Home Office permission to spend only a set amount of money towards developing it, it was disclosed yesterday. The overall cost, set at £5.4 billion by the Home Office, will exceed the spending limit set by the Treasury.

In 2004 Mark Oaten, the then Liberal Democrat spokesman on home affairs, asked for figures to be published on the assumptions being made by Government about ID cards' use. The Government refused. Oaten's request was backed by the Information Commissioner and an Information Tribunal and the figures have now been released. The figures show that 30% of people were predicted by the Government to refuse to co-operate with ID card checks. The papers, published by the Department for Work and Pensions, show that officials expected that 60% of people would carry an ID card even if it became compulsory to own but not carry one.

DOCUMENTS released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal predictions by New Labour that around 15 million people will resist ID cards. Included too are facts that contradict New Labour's premise that ID cards will reduce fraud. They also lay bare the claim by New Labour that ID cards compulsion had yet to be discussed, as the documents state plans to make ID cards compulsory from 2014, even in the face of the expected revolt.

peace activists milan rai and maya evans were at westminster magistrate's court this afternoon to answer charges of organising an 'unauthorised' demonstration in parliament square last october. for failing to give their dates of birth at the start of the trial, they were both held on 'contempt of court', and now a new hearing will happen on friday 20th april at 9.30am.

Orwell's book depicted a world where free speech was illegal, subversive thoughts got you killed and everyone was under constant surveillance from the all-seeing Big Brother. Here, with quotes from the novel, we look at other ways in which his fears have become daily reality...

What possible use would such a "service" be? Ms Ryan asserts that checks will be by consent - but, if an ID check is required for something, "consent" is effectively mandatory. For if checks can be avoided by merely refusing consent, then what is the point of an ID card at all?

Whitehall papers, which the Government has fought for two years to suppress, disclose that Labour intended to force the public to sign up to the programme. They appear to contradict commitments given by Labour in its 2005 Election manifesto, which pledged that the cards, and the national identity register containing people's names, addresses, fingerprints and other information, would be 'on a voluntary basis'.

On the 5th of April Mark Thomas and a group of regulars at the Mass Lone Demos arrived at Charing Cross police station armed with 1,184 requests for demonstrations in the SOCPA zone. The demos will take place on the 21st of April. The aim is for people to carry out 20 demos each in the SOCPA zone in one day and to get as many people as possible to do so.

Oscar Beard returns to Horseferry Court with the Parliament Square peace campaigners for round 2000 of the twisted and debauched circus known as UK democracy.

ID-Day was a graphic demonstration that it's not only high-profile or London/Westminster-focussed events that get our message across - it is essential that we engage the public directly and through local media, reaching people where they live. Even one or two people can make a difference if they're willing to stand up and tell it like it is.

You may have already seen signs of Home Office spin in response - stories planted in the local press to try to defuse local dissent. A transparent attempt to justify interrogations by admitting to issuing an estimated 10,000 dodgy passports last year seriously backfired, leading to further condemnation and ridicule.

Seeing is believing... for those who would question the veracity of events, a journey down Horseshit Road to Westminster Magistrates Courts is most illuminating when trying to understand why Tony has not yet been sent to the Hague.

district judge wickham had clearly decided on a course of action before hearing any evidence in an 'inquisorial' hearing at horseferry road today. she found barbara tucker and brian haw in contempt of court and she set fines rather than imprisonment for explicitly stated political reasons.

Chris Osmond, campaigner against Brighton arms manufacturer EDO MBM, was found not guilty of 'inciting another to breach a police order' at Brighton Magistrates today. The case related to a demonstration on August 13th 2005, when forty peace protestors were prevented from marching down Brighton's North St by over 100 police.Although four people were arrested on the day only Mr Osmond was charged under Section 12 of the Public Order Act.

One of the things about British society that is very hard to understand is the almost complete lack of popular concern about the imminence of the surveillance society. Perhaps it is part of the disengagement with politics - the general checking-out from issues that seem not to impinge on our immediate comfort and wellbeing.

David Blunkett has taken a job advising a company interested in bidding to run Britain's controversial identity cards programme, a policy he was the architect of and championed in government.

A police force will be set up to issue £1,000 fines to anyone who fails to update their personal details on the Government's new database, it has emerged. The unit, part of the Identity and Passport Service, is expected to send the penalties by post, after snooping through computer records.

White-suited, barcoded robots are planning to make a silent anti-ID card protest outside government buildings in Edinburgh. Campaign group, No2ID, will congregate at the Edinburgh Passport Interview Centre in Haymarket Terrace on Monday.

Government plans for identity cards will be re-examined by MPs as part of a wide-ranging inquiry into the surveillance society due to be announced by the House of Commons Select Committee next Tuesday.

at around 2pm yesterday, a plucky female activist, caroline, drove her blue rover car straight through the entrance gates at parliament. normally cars are stopped and id badges are checked, but as it was budget day, there was quite a lot of volume of traffic going into parliament and police were more preoccupied with stopping pedestrians getting in the way of the great and mighty than with checking identities. once inside the compound, she was approached by police who realised their mistake, and she was led off for questioning while her car was checked and searched.

Naturally New Labour turn towards their authoritarian tendancies and announce that new applicants for passports will have to attend a personal interview and answer 200 questions, about themselves, who they live with, their finances and credit history and other questions to establish their 'social footprint'. In a nod to Stalininsm, these interviews will be recorded and kept for... well, they're not saying.

The National identity register will link all our information together, we will be charged to participate in this scheme and now the Government declares it will provide access to our record for a small consideration which incidentally goes into Government coffers. This is just another feature of the Government's plans to manage our identity, which to date we have managed to do perfectly well ourselves.

SO, unless I pay the Government approximately my week's wages to have my personal details put on to a single central database (no database is secure) - and they will fine me yet more loads of money if I don't keep this data up to date within their time limits as my circumstances change - I am not allowed to have a passport and go abroad ever again whether for work or family emergencies. And this is a free country?

On ID-Day, Monday 26th March 2007, and in the days leading up to it, NO2ID groups will be holding actions and events all over the UK. Press releases and messages from local groups are already beginning to go out but even if there isn't an event organised near you, you can still get involved.

in the run-up to the 4th anniversary of the iraq occupation, 'voices in the wilderness' staged an unlawful demonstration in parliament square yesterday afternoon. police were clearly instructed not to intervene, as members of the press were there and it was a sensitive issue.

Britain would be expected to contribute all the details held by police. These include fingerprints of suspects and people released without charge, as well as those convicted of crimes. The plan coincides with the Home Office preparing to expand the range of people fingerprinted to include those caught speeding or dropping litter. The aim is for the database to be up and running by the end of next year. The sensitive information it contains could be shared with third parties, such as US law enforcement authorities.

Well, here's some new information; For this year's Red Nose Day, Comic Relief is highlighting issues surrounding mental health. OK, so that's raising awareness of poverty, aid, Fair Trade and mental health issues... and you can do all of this simply by wearing a red nose or a Red Nose Day t-shirt. Can anybody please tell me how this differs from any other awareness-raising campaign? Many of us know from bitter experience that any form of awareness-raising in Westminster (yes, even of the deliberately w-w-wacky variety) will result in you having your collar felt if you don't get your permission slips in first and follow the conditions laid down by police to the letter.

The NO2ID campaign is organising a national day of action on March 26th to raise awareness of Neo Labour’s database state. ‘Cos from March 26th, anyone applying for a new passport will have to visit one of the 69 new interrrogation centres in order to have their identity ‘validated’ (see SchNEWS 578).

The police will also gain sweeping extensions to their powers to take fingerprints and DNA samples from anyone they suspect of committing a crime. In addition, the proposals appear to lift the barriers that separate the police fingerprint and DNA databases from the new national identity register. The changes were proposed in a Home Office consultation document reviewing the Police and Criminal Evidence (Pace) Act 1984 code, which lays down the rules and safeguards for police treatment of crime suspects.

James Hall, the person in charge of the supposedly voluntary ID Card scheme, confirmed that if people wanted to opt out of the pervasive Identity Register that sits behind the innocuous ID card they must "forgo the ability" to have a travel document. So if you are one of the people who will not allow the Government to join all your personal details up in one dangerous database then it's simple - you just can't have a passport.

Britain's collusion with the CIA rendition and black sites program has been well documented. However, what seems to be emerging now is not so much a story of collusion but full involvement.

Mr Hall, chief executive of the Identity and Passport Service, delivered his warning during a Downing Street "webchat". One concerned member of the public, Andrew Michael Edwards, asked what would happen to people who refuse to join the £5.4 billion scheme. Mr Hall replied: "There is no need to register and have fingerprints taken - but you will forgo the ability to have a passport".

for the past few weeks, barbara tucker has been subject to wholly disproportionate bail conditions denying her the right to enter a 1km area around parliament. today, justice prevailed in a hearing at southwark crown court, where the judge, clearly appalled at the restriction, lifted all conditions and allowed her to return and peacefully protest outside parliament and downing street

See Charles Clarke spinning his way through 30 minutes of pro identity management television. Clarke omits almost all the facts which detail known problems and concerns with his governments plans, and heavily misrepresents several other key points, particularly the very nature of the Estonian scheme which he offers up as a shining example of identity management.

From next year, all adults who apply for new passports will have their fingerprints recorded in the National Identity Register as well as scans of their eyes and face. But ministers are concerned that some youths with child passports, which are valid for five years, could end up travelling on passports without biometric details when they turn 16. To ensure all passports carried by those over 16 hold biometric details, officials at the Identity and Passport Service have proposed a fingerprint database for 11 to 15-year-olds.

The leaked Home Office plans show that the mass fingerprinting will start in 2010, with a batch of 295,000 youngsters who apply for passports. The Home Office expects 545,000 children aged 11 and over to have their prints taken in 2011, with the figure settling at an annual 495,000 from 2014. Their fingerprints will be held on a database also used by the Immigration and Nationality Directorate to store the fingerprints of hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers.

In January, NO2ID declared 26th March 2007 as 'ID-Day' to mark the predicted opening of the first ID interrogation centres. Since then, our claim that intrusive "interviews" will begin for some passport applicants this April has been confirmed, and the launch of our 'Take a hike, Tony' campaign [Newsletter 65] forced the chief executive of the UK Identity and Passport Service (UKIPS) to go on national TV and admit that everyone is going to have "to go through a little bit more inconvenience" to get their passport in future. All because the government has decided to use the passport as a way to force you to get an ID card.

Tony Blair insists his government is not building a Big Brother-style super-database. But all the talk of 'perfectly sensible' reforms and 'transformational government' masks a chilling assault on our privacy, says Steve Boggan

Downing Street last night defended itself against a fresh attack on its flagship ID cards policy after Tony Blair said the police would be able to use the national database to check against fingerprints found at crime scenes. Opposition parties claimed that once again the Prime Minister was expanding the policy to enable police to go on "fishing expeditions" through the details of innocent people and infringe their civil liberties.

A report by Sir Swinton Thomas, from the Interception of Communications Commissioner's office, has revealed that 439,000 spying orders have been issued against UK citizens in the past 12 months. While the bulk of these were for the gathering of requests for telephone lists and individual email addresses, a number involved more invasive forms of spying.

Tony Blair faced fresh criticism over identity cards today after saying that the police would be able to use the national database to check fingerprints found at crime scenes. The prime minister was accused of "changing his tune" on ID cards after using the argument to reassure opponents of the controversial scheme. The government insisted that there was nothing new in his comments and that the police provision was set out explicitly in legislation passed by parliament.

Blair made the pledge to collar the lot of us, and some, as part of a rag-bag of warmed-over, half-baked, misleading, and just plain untrue claims issued in an email to the near-28,000 signatories of the Downing Street petition calling for the scrapping of the ID card scheme. The notion of the police having access to the NIR fingerprint data in order to tackle unsolved crime is not entirely new (the Home Office document Identity Cards Scheme - Benefits Overview tentatively suggested this could happen a couple of years back), but it's not something that has previously been pushed by senior ministers.

The World At One on Radio 4 leads with the latest missive from Tony Blair giving the finger to the public who had the temerity to sign the anti-ID cards e-petition. There are one or two discrepencies between his email and the ID cards legislation as passed and understood, which the LDs and Tories are jumping on with both feet.

Shadow home secretary David Davis has criticised the government's plan to make people travel to interview centres to provide a biometric for the national identity card. He said it would force people to travel, in some cases hundreds of miles, at their own expense to an interview centre, and would hit the elderly and the less well off the most. Davis branded the proposals an "outrage", and repeated the Conservative pledge to abolish ID cards if they get into power.

28,000 people signed the petition calling for the Government to abandon plans for a National ID Scheme, one of the largest responses since the e-petition service was set up. The petition is now closed but the Prime Minister has decided to e-mail the people who signed up to tell them why he is going to ahead with the scheme anyway.

I WAS pleased to help organise the well attended, Whose Identity Is It anyway? meeting at the Pilgrim Centre. Members of the public heard arguments both for and against the compulsory registration of British citizens, and enrolment on to the National Identity Register. Finding supporters of the National Identity Register who will publicly support the scheme is difficult at the best of times, even more so now as the Government seems to be lurching from one Home Office crisis to another.

NO2ID has dismissed claims from the Identity and Passport Service (“IPS”) that its new programme of interrogating applicants based on detailed personal dossiers is a necessary procedure for passport security. They say it is only a pretext for building up centralised official files on individuals as the basis of the planned National Identity Register. The scheme is to be rolled out at 69 new interrogation centres during 2007 and used first on new applicants for passports, who are mostly teenagers contemplating travelling alone for the first time.

Ministers plan to force all adults to travel miles at their own expense to fingerprint scanning units so their details can go onto an identity card database. From 2009, everyone will have to attend one of 69 "interview centres", whose locations are revealed today for the first time.

According to the email from Tony Blair, the petition attracted one of the largest responses since the service was set up. “So I thought I would reply personally to those who signed up, to explain why the Government believes National ID cards, and the National Identity Register needed to make them effective, will help make Britain a safer place,” he added.

Police across the EU are to be given free access to Britain's DNA, fingerprint and car registration databases in a move denounced last night as the creation of "Big Brother Europe". At a meeting in Brussels, the Home Office agreed to a deal that will set up a network of national crime records across 27 states. All member states will have access to other countries' DNA and fingerprint data, as well as direct online access to vehicle registries.

FACE-to-face interviews with passport applicants will help to fight fraud, officials insisted last night amid claims that the checks posed a "major threat" to individual security. Anyone requesting a passport for the first time will be interrogated on personal details under new rules coming into effect from April.

if you've followed this issue on indymedia, the name 'barbara tucker' will be well-known to you. for over a year, metropolitan police have been harassing, hounding and assaulting this peaceful woman for doing no more than holding a pink banner in public in the socpa area. yet they have still not been able to defend their actions in court, and the stench of corruption grows stronger.

Regarding MP Anne Snelgrove's letter, (MP welcomes ID card debate, SA, February 13), I'd like to correct Anne's somewhat misleading statements about the Whose Identity Is It Anyway? public meeting held on Tuesday. Anne's invitation to speak at the meeting was extended to her on January 1, and declined by her office on January 8 because of a pre-existing engagement. On January 9, I wrote and asked whether she would be able to address the meeting if its date could be moved to February 16, then Anne confirmed she could attend the first 30 minutes of the original meet.

On Monday 19th February NO2ID will be launching a new campaign called "Take a hike, Tony". We need your help to get the message out. If you scroll down to the end of this newsletter, you will find the text of an e-mail that explains what action people need to take and why.

The European Parliament will vote today on the report which slams some member states for collusion with the CIA in rendition flights. Last year MEPs set up a temporary committee to investigate the complicity of some European countries and found that 14 of them had at best turned a blind eye, and at worst colluded with CIA activities. Britain was singled out for its lack of co-operation with the committee as well as being one of the countries accused of colluding in the rendition flights. Italy and Germany are also heavily criticised.

The European Parliament has approved a report condemning a number of European countries for their involvement in and/or silent acquiescence of extraordinary rendition. It is only a matter of time before the PMOS utters those immortal words yet again. Move along now, nothing to see here... And, disgracefully, they'll probably get away with it too.

The Federal Government, by introducing into Parliament the newspeak-inspired Human Services (Enhanced Service Delivery) Bill 2007, has embarked on the first legislative phase of its proposal for a national ID card. The proposal is based on a number of deceptions. The first and greatest of which is that the card, styled an "access card", will not be an identity card. The Government says the card will only be used to enable holders to have access to Government services, hence the benign misnomer. Yet the Government's own propaganda for the card promotes its main virtue as being to enable more rigorous identification of benefit recipients.

(From Anne Snelgrove MP). IN response to Simon Bridewell's letter, I did offer to attend the No2ID cards meeting on February 13 but could not stay for the whole debate, so the organisers felt it best I did not join in the panel.

I AM pleased to see that there will be a local discussion on the Government's plans for managing our identities (Whose Identity Is It Anyway?, 7.30pm, February 13, Pilgrim Centre). The Government's plans are far-reaching and we, the people, have had little chance to have our say on something that will impact on our lives in so many ways.

A blazing row broke out this week between the Conservative Party and the IT industry. Though it has a critically important bearing on the government policy at issue — Labour’s compulsory identity card scheme — this row is really about our unwritten constitution. It is a dispute in which David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, is absolutely right. The information technology industry knows it. This explains its fury. The Labour Party knows it, too. This explains its silence.

I HEAR that local politicians of all colours will be taking to the stage of the Pilgrim Centre on February 13 for a public discussion on the merits or otherwise of the Government's plans to enter all citizens into a central identity database.

The Government proposes to house the personal details of all children under 16 in one mega-database, the Children's Register. Every child in Britain will be exposed as a result of this ever-increasing database mania. That's every child of ours. If you are a celebrity, your child's details will not appear on this database, one presumes because the Government does not, in fact, believe the database is safe.

Microchips in Britain's new ePassports only have two-year warranties, a National Audit Office report says. They are so new, no-one knows how long they will last, or how the scanners reading them will work, the NAO said. Public Accounts Committee chairman Edward Leigh said the fact they had a two-year warranty, when passports were kept for 10 years, was "most worrying".

We can safely assume that the result of the Channel 4 vote demonstrates the unprecedented levels of public dissatisfaction with politicians of all stripes which currently exists in this country. Rather than fighting over the scraps using the same methods (sometimes wrapped up in shiny new packaging), politicians should be attempting to rebuild confidence and genuinely re-engage with the badly disillusioned public.

The Conservative Party will cancel the national biometric ID card scheme if it wins the next General Election, potentially pushing up the cost of the project and angering industry groups. The price of the programme will rise because potential suppliers will have to take into account the risk of the deal being cancelled halfway through.

There can be no explanation for the existence of the NIR save that it serves as a means to record in ever-increasing detail, the activities of the entire population - and it is no coincidence that its inception comes at a time when technology is proving it can not only support such mass (multi-media) data storage, but progressively bring the cost down to near zero per capita.

Britain's new 10-year electronic passports carry a two-year warranty only, parliamentary spending watchdogs have revealed. The National Audit Office has raised fears that the multi-billion pound introduction of the British ePassport, which began to be issued at the end of last year, may not be capable of withstanding 10 years of use by travellers.

The Conservative Party has launched a campaign against the government’s ID cards proposals, including sending a direct warning to IT vendors likely to bid for work on the project that the plans would definitely be scrapped under a Tory government.

David Davis has written to Cabinet Secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell, giving formal notice that an incoming Conservative administration would scrap the Government's costly ID card project. And the Shadow Home Secretary has warned of the financial dangers of the Government signing contracts to set up the ID card scheme when it faces cancellation if the Conservatives are returned to power at the next election.

barbara tucker has for the moment given up her daily protest in parliament square. she was forced into this decision through ill health caused by more than a year of police victimisation and harassment, and by a court threat that if she breaks bail conditions imposed today she will be imprisoned. having been detained overnight by police on a dubious charge of breach of bail, steve jago has now regained his unconditional bail and is free.

In a ruling that has a wider bearing on the policing of the crazy SOCPA laws (see SchNEWS 483), the judge noted that as the law currently is, only top cop brass from the ‘office of the commissioner’ are able to sign off orders imposing conditions on specific demonstrations. In this case, cops tried to produce an undated document delegating the powers to get heavy with Brian to a mere superintendent, and the judge declared that this delegation was unlawful, the conditions were unlawful, and so the raid must have been unlawful too. Great! So will police be returning Brian’s full display? Will they perhaps be having some of their stuff unlawfully removed in retaliation? Ok, well fined, then? Apologise even..?

Following the American pattern after 9/11, the UK government has used its own alleged terrorist attacks to push towards a police state, which is not exactly a new phenomenon, as Nafeez Ahmed, for example, explains. This has involved increasing the funds allocated to 'security services' and granting them extra-judicial powers; the systematic assault on civil liberties and human rights; media-spun fear based on dubious 'terror plots'; the clamp-down on activists and the relentless attempts to infiltrate their networks. Even Indymedia, it seems, has not been spared. At least two Indymedia activists have recently been, in one way or another, approached by British intelligence services, offering them better-paid jobs.

Eight non-violent peace activists at Mildenhall police station have today been charged under anti-terrorist laws, SOCPA 128,which is the result of an action last October, when the activists entered USAF Lakenheth nuclear base and chained themselves to secure the gates of a munitions storage area to stop the movement of cluster bombs.

Many thanks to all of you who have already got in touch about setting up a NO2ID group in your area or sent in petition forms following our declaration of 'ID-Day', 26th March 2007. The head of the UK Passport & Identity Service (UKIPS) has now confirmed on national radio that ID interrogation centres *will* be opening their doors for business around this time. We have just EIGHT weeks to spread the word.

steve jago was arrested just before 5pm in whitehall tonight. like barbara tucker, he may face jail for alleged breach of bail conditions. his crime? peaceful protest in the socpa zone

the charing cross campiagn against barbara tucker continued again this morning when she did her usual peaceful protest outside parliament as part of brian haw's demonstration. she was attacked by four burly policemen, held at charing cross for another eleven hours and bailed on what eye-witnesses say are trumped-up charges.

The Information Commissioner has declared that schools should ask for the consent of children and parents before they take pupil's fingerprints, despite there being no legal obligation for them to do so. The data protection supervisor issued the informal advice yesterday, contrasting with previous public comments on the issue of consent, some of them related to its official guidance on school fingerprinting, which it is still drafting.

barbara tonight is free again after being threatened with jail for breach of draconian bail conditions for doing no more than wandering around near the seat of power with her distinctive pink banner portraying the genocide being committed by us and uk troops.

Barbara Tucker the peace protester was arrested outside Downing Street tonight (29.01.07) after a court told her today that she was banned from entering the SOCPA zone.

in the same week that john reid faces pressure over prison overcrowding, barbara tucker, a peaceful anti-war campaigner, faces jail for breaching draconian bail conditions imposed by judge snow, banning her from entering an area within 1km of parliament.

barbara tucker, the stoic peace campaigner facing endless harrassment from charing cross police for doing no more than peacefully demonstrating near parliament and downing street, was arrested again this morning in parliament square. worried supporters and her solicitor are trying to get her out of police hands as there are grave fears for her safety.

Frank Field (MP) - Fiddling while London burns: A successful terrorist attack on London could make part of the capital uninhabitable for decades and make Britain permanently poorer. Yet, while London awaits its fate, Scotland Yard is fiddling away on an enquiry into the alleged sale of honours. How can the Metropolitan commissioner defend this enquiry as the best use of scarce police resources?

Beg pardon? You what?! OK, if we're going to start playing this game... Why is the London Met wasting resources pestering Brian Haw and/or saving Tony Blair from embarrassment?

Anti-war protester Brian Haw has won his latest legal battle to maintain his demonstration in Parliament Square. Police claimed Mr Haw, 57, from Redditch, Worcestershire, posed a threat as terrorists could hide bombs under his many banners and placards. But District Judge Quentin Purdy said he had not breached conditions imposed on him by the Metropolitan Police (Met) as they were unclear and invalid.

When police crept down to Parliament Square in the middle of the night last May and removed most of Brian Haw's display, the were acting unlawfully. Superintendent Terry produced an undated document in Court signed by the Commissioner, delegating powers to him to impose conditions on demonstration. But Judge Purdy ruled today that the conditions were unlawful, the delegation was unlawful and so the raid must have been unlawful too.

Our esteemed Foreign Secretary has finally admitted that the British Government knew about secret CIA prisons prior to Bush confirming their existence back in September. This is a change of tune from the Government which up until now has either denied all knowledge of 'extraordinary rendition' and CIA 'black sites', or simply refused to talk about it.

Moves to share people's personal details across Whitehall have provoked a civil liberties uproar and accusations that the Government has taken another step towards "a Big Brother state". Ministers say the scheme - which will be endorsed by Tony Blair today - is aimed at improving public service delivery. But it faced protests that it was dealing another blow to personal privacy by creating a "snooper's charter" and enabling thousands of civil servants to access sensitive information with ease.

Tony Blair will today spearhead a fresh government initiative to persuade voters they have nothing to fear from consenting to a relaxation of "over-zealous" rules which stop Whitehall departments sharing information about individual citizens. But the exercise was denounced by opposition MPs as a further lurch towards a Big Brother state even before the prime minister announces the formation of five citizen panels, each with 100 members, to examine the merits of such a change.

Once upon a time, I thought that this Government was complacent about our personal privacy. Then I thought they were careless with it. Now, from those in power, I see nothing but contempt for that little bit of personal space and security that is so essential to our dignity, that makes us all human. When the private and family matters of Cabinet ministers are up for grabs, particularly by the grabbing hand of the tabloid press, Government is quick and right to protest. However, the same rules don't seem to apply to the rest of us.

next monday at horseferry road, judge purdy hands down his decision whether brian haw has a case to answer for alleged breach of socpa conditions that led to a night-time police raid by 78 officers in may 2006 cutting his display from more than forty metres down to a mere three. in the meantime, artist mark wallinger has been busy recreating the whole display and his exhibition entitled 'state britain' opened this morning at tate britain, on the very edge of the socpa zone.

Anti arms trade campaigners have handed in seven official complaints to the law society regarding the conduct of Timothy Lawson-Cruttenden, the solicitor who represented EDO MBM in their failed attempt to gain a civil injunction against protesters at their Brighton factory.

A giant database of people's personal details could be created at Whitehall under government plans which ministers say will help improve public services. This particular database will be in addition to the National Identity Register, The Childrens Index, Criminal Records and NHS spine, although it seems increasingly likely that each database will be intricately linked with, and mutually dependant upon the others.

THE Tate gallery, once at the heart of the cool Britannia movement, has turned on Tony Blair over the Iraq war. Sir Nicholas Serota, the gallery’s director, has given the go-ahead for an installation that mounts a strident attack on the government’s foreign policy and its attempts to curb freedom of speech. The work, which will be unveiled tomorrow, is inspired by the ramshackle encampment of Brian Haw, the Parliament Square peace protester.

Officials think current rules are an obstacle to improving public services. But such data-sharing is controversial. As well as criticism from the Conservatives, the information commissioner - the data watchdog - has warned Britain may be "sleepwalking into a surveillance society". The idea of allowing different Whitehall departments to access centrally-held data emerged during the government's policy review of public services.

Thousands of people have already downloaded and used TheBigOptOut.org's[1] letter, and officials at Connecting for Health - the NPfIT division of the Department of Health - are making increasingly desperate and sometimes contradictory statements and claims. Lord Warner (only days after announcing his resignation) got a drubbing from Cambridge Professor of Security Engineering, Ross Anderson on the Today show, and Harry Cayton, CfH's 'patient tsar', just can't seem to understand why people won't take him at his word on the security of the system, and who will have access to your medical records, just weeks after DoH has gone back on its promise of a meaningful opt-out. Please write to your GP using the opt out letter on TheBigOptOut site, their handy form allows you to enter your details and then print off your own letter. In addition please tell all your friends about the opt out letter - the more of us that contact our GPs the more likely we are to succeed.

Further proof, if anyone actually needed any further proof, that the ID Card Scheme is starting to resemble Napoleon's Retreat From Moscow has come with an admission that the ultimate gold-standard secure fingerprint/facial/iris biometric triumvirate has been cut down to just a twosome. Yes, Iris has left the band and will no doubt start a solo career busking at airports.