A weasel is weasely distinguished

[catgate]

A lot of stoats have had to die for this.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticl...IN-IDENTITY.xml

[andsome]

What's the betting that they solve nothing and some kind of forgery will become rife. Will we be able to take out a mortgage to buy one?

[jimv7]

An email that I have recieved, disconcerting if true.

Identity Cards

by Francis Stonor Saunders

Former arts editor of The New Statesman, author of The Cultural Cold War,

Diabolical Englishman and The Devil's Broker, winner of the Royal Historical

Society's William Gladstone Memorial Prize.

"You may have heard that legislation creating compulsory ID Cards has passed

a crucial stage in the [House of Commons][now the Lords]. You may feel that

ID cards are not something to worry about, since we already have Photo ID

for our Passport and Driving License and an ID Card will be no different to

that. What you have not been told is the full scope of this proposed ID

Card, and what it will mean to you personally.

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.

By itself, you might think that this register is harmless, but you would be

wrong to come to this conclusion. This new card will be used to check your

identity against your entry in the register in real time, whenever you

present it to 'prove who you are'.

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 NatWest, 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.

Oyster, DVLA, BT and Nectar (for example) all run very detailed databases

of their own. They will be allowed access to the NIR, just as every other

business will be. This means that each of these entities will be able to

store your unique number in their database, and place all your travel, phone

records, driving activities and detailed shopping habits under your unique

NIR number. These databases, which can easily fit on a storage device the

size of your hand, will be sold to third parties either legally or

illegally. It will then be possible for a non-governmental entity to create

a detailed dossier of all your activities. Certainly, the government will

have clandestine access to all of them, meaning that they will have a

complete record of all your movements, from how much and when you withdraw

from your bank account to what medications you are taking, down to the level

of what sort of bread you eat - all accessible via a single unique number in

a central database.

This is quite a significant leap from a simple ID Card that shows your name

and face.

Most people do not know that this is the true character and scope of the

proposed ID Card. Whenever the details of how it will work are explained to

them, they quickly change from being ambivalent towards it.

The Government is going to COMPEL you to enter your details into the NIR and

to carry this card. If you and your children want to obtain or renew your

passports, you will be forced to have your fingerprints taken and your eyes

scanned for the NIR, and an ID Card will be issued to you whether you want

one or not. If you refuse to be fingerprinted and eye scanned, you will not

be able to get a passport. Your ID Card will, just like your passport, not

be your property. The Home Secretary will have the right to revoke or

suspend your ID at any time, meaning that you will not be able to withdraw

money from your Bank Account, for example, or do anything that requires you

to present your government issued ID Card.

The arguments that have been put forwarded in favour of ID Cards can be

easily disproved. ID Cards WILL NOT stop terrorists; every Spaniard has a

compulsory ID Card as did the Madrid Bombers. ID Cards will not 'eliminate

benefit fraud', which in comparison, is small compared to the astronomical

cost of this proposal, which will be measured in billions according to the

LSE (London School of Economics). This scheme exists solely to exert total

surveillance and control over the ordinary free British Citizen, and it will

line the pockets of the companies that will creat the computer systems at

the expense of your freedom, privacy and money.

If you did not know the full scope of the proposed ID Card Scheme before and

you are as unsettled as I am at what it really means to you, to this country

and its way of life, I urge you to email or photocopy this and give it to

your friends and colleagues and everyone else you think should know and who

cares. The Bill has proceeded to this stage due to the lack of accurate and

complete information on this proposal being made public. Together & hand in

hand, we can inform the entire nation if everyone who receives this passes

it on."

[catgate]

This has been around for a week or two, in one form or another. The only way out of it seems to be to totally erase any political party who will not promise to repeal this legislation if elected. This matter should be at the forefront of every political meeting anywhere in the country.

I'll bet it just gets ignored.

[r4may]

Oh Well, We will all have learn to hack the NIR database so we can ensure we know what's on it. :P :P

[andsome]

Sounds like Big Brother, Big Sister and nanny and granddad too.

[Besty]

I dont agree with shops employers all your transactions being recorded. Do you realy mind tho if your prints etc are all recorded surley it will make life alot easier for the police which then means less crime less illegals and less grumpy old men (no offence just an expression)

[andsome]

I dont agree with shops employers all your transactions being recorded. Do you realy mind tho if your prints etc are all recorded surley it will make life alot easier for the police which then means less crime less illegals and less grumpy old men (no offence just an expression)

I have no objection to my details being on record as such. I do however object to all and sundry having access to these details. I also object to having to pay for an ID card out of a pension.

[AlanHo]

Why do people get so paranoid about identity cards and nvent all sorts of scare stories about them. If you have nothing to hide - you have nothing to woryy about.

The writer argues that they will stop you drawing money from the bank if you do not have a valid card - but they will not stop benefit fraud. Surely - if they can stop you drawing money in one circumstance - why not in the other. In my opinion, identity cards can be justified solely on the grounds of preventing benefit and other identity frauds which are at scandalous levels.

The fact that the government can access my records to determine that I wear Y fronts purchased from M&S is of course a great worry - or is it?

[r4may]

Another 'Big Brother' scenario :-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/clic...ine/4886598.stm

[catgate]

Another 'Big Brother' scenario :-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/clic...ine/4886598.stm

Very interesting.

What Albrecht Von Truchsess, from the German supermarket chain Metro Group, does not say is that Metro are going to save money by using this technique. He does not need to, because we know that nobody, these days, spends a penny (or pfennig...or cent)on anything, without a payback.

What is not universally recognised is that all cost is labour. The iron ore cost nothing but the labour of digging it out of the ground and turning it into steel does. Similarly trees and plants cost nothing. The cost in in the labour of planting, tending and harvesting. The same with coal, oils etc etc.

All this leads to the inevitable conclusion, that has been demonstrated so many times over, that reduction in cost=reduction in labour= less money in circulation= either less sales or more debt = need to reduce costs to generate more sales ad infinitum.