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19 Jul 2005
An online petition against UK identity cards has reached its target of 10,000 signatures, with each respondent pledging £10 to fight the legislation.
The No2ID campaign was set up to oppose the introduction of ID cards in the UK and aimed to get 10,000 people to sign an online petition and pledge £10 to underwrite legal challenges against the bill.
No2ID has stated that any money left over from legal proceedings will be donated to charity.
"When I started this pledge, I hoped we could show the government the depth and strength of feeling against this draconian ID system," said organiser Phil Booth in a message to those who signed up.
"This pledge does not end just because we have reached 10,000. We know that many tens of thousands more will refuse to register, and we still want to reach them and have them sign up before the closing date of 9 October, the day before Parliament sits again in the autumn.
"The more of us that there are by then, the harder we make it for the government to proceed."
The plans for ID cards have already come under attack from analysts and academics, but this is believed to be the first time that an electronic petition has been used to show opposition and raise money.
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Do you agree?
it's what you voted for
It's what you voted for, folks. Remember that at the next election and don't be gormless and gullible enough to vote Labour again. It will protect your children and pension, Darren? Like all the extra tax we pay gets spent on schools and hospitals? Yeah, right. Wake up and smell the coffee
Posted by: Dave in Aberdeen 18 Jan 2006
Works?
Does it work elsewhere? Even taking into account that the UK plans something more complex, pervasive and invasive than has yet been tried elsewhere (save--perhaps--Singapore, some Middle-Eastern states and the People's Republic of China), it rather depends what you mean by "works". ID card systems of many sorts continue to exist in many parts of the world. So the bureaucracy that sustains them certainly works. But do they stop or reduce violent crime, illegal immigration, and fraud, and make government more efficient as the Government suggests? Or protect children and provide pensions as Darren does? A glance at our near neighbours, Belgium, France, Spain and Germany (which all have ID systems of varying degrees of sophistication), suggests that they aren't much different from us in these fields. Except they have more bureaucracy--part of which can be blamed on ID cards--and _pace_ Darren, they have less money left over for pensions.
Posted by: Guy Herbert, General Secretary, NO2ID 21 Jul 2005
to track or not to track....
There's a difference between needing a card to open a bank account and usage of a card being tracked. The only justification for any data on a chip on a card is to prevent duplication of the card. I support the principle for a card that is not routinely tracked, but I don't trust any Government enough to believe that they wouldn't track, tracking would be done, BECAUSE TRACKING CAN BE DONE. These are the same arguments as speed cameras, speed cameras exist because the technology exists. In the mistaken belief that cameras are a universal panacea to death on the roads. I agree entirely that having (or not having a card) will not stop one of the 580,000 (estimated) illegals. If somebody wants to know where I am they can already track my mobile phone and my car using Trafficmaster cameras.. and I have NOTHING to hide.
Posted by: Roger C Whiteley 21 Jul 2005
Identity Cards
Well, I'm a Pensioner and have never broken the law in my life! However, if ID cards of the type proposed are ever made compulsory in this country, I shall categorically refuse to have one!! I am prepared to go to prison if needs be over this. I am English and my ancestors as far as I can trace back were English too. I think it is disgraceful and a gross infringement of our liberties that the indigenous population of this country should be forced to have personal and biometric(?) details held about us in a database somewhere (and we all know how secure Government databases are - I don't think!) and have to carry cards to show to any official on demand! And all because successive misguided Governments have allowed just about anyone who wants to come into our country and put it at risk! As for stopping Social Security fraud, identity theft, etc., well, we all know that Blair & Co. will just hand out ID cards to everyone coming into the country so they can get all the handouts as usual! All the time of course, Pensioners continue to get paid a pittance! Even less if they have managed to save something for their old age! Everything is going up: next year there will be a terrific Council Tax rise when properties are re-valued, yet Pensioners around here are expected to pay an average Council Tax at the moment, in excess of £1300. a year! (Unless of course, they have little or no savings!) It will be a nightmare trying to find any further increases! Off-Topic I know, but I couldn;t resist it!
Posted by: P. Edwards 21 Jul 2005
Not quite...
The story confuses different things the campaign is doing. We already had well over 10,000 people opposed to the Government's plans to nationalise identity (it isn't just a card) signed-up to our original petition before the pledge was launched. What the pledge has done is to find 10,000 people ready to refuse to register on the system. We are now launching an appeal for £1,000,000 to put towards legal challenges to add to the £100,000 we've raised over the past four weeks.
Posted by: Guy Herbert, General Secretary, NO2ID 20 Jul 2005
Perplexing ignorance
Darren F's comment shows he hasn't been following the debate. The Home Office proposal is to make life entirely impossible without using government ID-- and logging every occasion you do use it on a central database. All the occasions Darren suggests (and many more) would soon require it. Passports are planned to be first. But Darren's final comment is utterly puzzling: how can spending vast sums of public money on an ID system that will collect personal information on every family in the land protect children or provide a pension? If anything it seems likely to do the opposite.
Posted by: Guy Herbert, General Secretary, NO2ID 20 Jul 2005
Nothing justifies a police state
"Single point of failure" comes to mind here. Six months after compulsory ID cards are released, we will very likely have usable fakes. As soon as usable fakes exist, ID cards become simply an expensive, intrusive, Orwellian waste of time. The only thing I can see ID cards being useful for, is for the government to tag and monitor the law-abiding majority, while criminals do what they always have done. Besides, I'm not a number, a barcode or a pet animal, and the government does not own me. The nazis are not about to storm the beaches. ID cards will do more harm than good. You don't believe me? OK, pray tell, how will a bit of plastic linked to a database of personal information prevent me from mixing fertilizer and fuel oil, and detonating myself on a bus? And what happens when census information is inevitably linked with the ID database, and we end up with the identity of every black, gay, jewish or dimply dissident person easily available to any government, fair or foul? Wake up, people, before it's too late.
Posted by: M Gale 20 Jul 2005
ID Cards
I'm with Darren. What he says works elsewhere so why not here? NO 2 No2ID!
Posted by: Theo 20 Jul 2005
Because 2 + 2 != 5
I don't see how wasting billions on the national ID system is going to provide a pension, or security. The money the government is currently diverting towards this travesty could probably fill the black hole in the national pensions fund; the hole created by successive governments plundering our future every time they want to implement some fancy vote-winning idea. It could provide more police, a better border control system, more hospitals, schools, anything other than an ID card. You want to get angry at the lack of a pension? Well, now you know what to get angry at. Spending all this money on a compulsory citizen tagging and monitoring system will only make things worse.
Posted by: M Gale 20 Jul 2005
ID Cards
[10,000 surfers slam UK ID cards]! Why slam them? I think they should expand on the idea, make them a requirement to open a bank account, obtain a drivers licence & passport and take up NHS status etc. If it means my children and being safe in their every day life and able to retire with a pension and healthcare I'm all for it.
Posted by: Darren F 19 Jul 2005