Rescuing
Democracy in the United Kingdom from our current Elected
Dictatorship
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Spin,
not face-to-face confrontations with the voters, is the
Government's chosen method of communication. Ordinary people
are dangerous. Ordinary people might ask a question which
throws a politician 'off message'; the Cabinet member might
reveal himself or herself to be a human being like us, and
not a programmed android. Worse still, he or she might tell
the truth.
Ann
Leslie - Daily Mail, September 16, 2004
Blair
wants to leave his mark on history - looks more like a stain
to me.
Peter
Thorndyke, Diss, Norfolk - Daily Mail, May 23, 2005
I
know I'm me - why do I need an ID card?
"Sorry,
officers, I don't have an ID card. I never applied for one.
It seemed a bit steep at 300 quid. I do have my free passport,
my driving licence and my London freedom travel pass, each
with my photograph. I have my NHS medical card, with its
lengthy number, given me at birth, my RAF service book with
my Armed Forces number, and a chit authorising me to wear
a few gongs -including a General Service Medal with Malaya
bar, for fighting communist terrorists on behalf of my country,
or so they told me.
"I've
also got various credit cards and store cards, all with
my signature on the back, generally good for buying the
everyday requrements for life as well as the odd luxury.
If you decide to arrest me, I suppose I'll have to be photographed
and given another number, besides my PINs.
"I'm
afraid I haven't got a pension book; it was taken away."
"By
thieves, sir?"
"No
... well, not exactly. By the Government. By the way, may
I see your warrant cards please, gentlemen?"
Oh
dear, they've disappeared.
E. Harry Gumer, Romford, ESSEX - Daily Mail, June 1, 2005
NO
means NO
When
does NO mean MAYBE?
When it's not the answer the EU wants.
With
the courageous French NON resounding
in their ears, shabby, undemocratic self-interested leaders
of Europe propose ignoring the part of their precious constitution
that requires ratification by all members and continuing
without one of the biggest founder members to prevent derailing
the gravy train.
As
in Ireland, they refuse to accept any NO votes, ignoring
the will of the people, and re-stage votes until they can
engineer the 'correct' answer. Sadly, Foreign Secretary
Jack Straw dances to their tune like a puppet on a string.
With tactics such as these, how can anyone really believe
the EU has our interests at heart.
Letter from Steve Penny, Kingsnorth,
Kent - Daily Mail, June1, 2005
Surely
the French result makes the £1million the EU recently
spent on a treaty signing ceremony seem a trifle premature
and extravagant. Letter from
Keith Wiseman, Bury, Lancs. - Daily Mail, June1, 2005
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May
11, 2005 (741 days since war ended)
Death
Toll: 1,610 US - 88 UK - >6,164? Iraqi - >17,300 civilians
- 25 media
May
31, 2005 (761 days since war ended)
Death
Toll: 1,657 US - 89 UK - >6,164? Iraqi - >17,300 civilians
- 25 media
June
3 , 2005 (765 days since war ended)
Death
Toll: 1,670 US - 89 UK - >6,164? Iraqi - >17,300 civilians
- 25 media
June
17, 2005 (779 days since war ended)
Death
Toll: 1,716 US - 89 UK - >6,164? Iraqi - >17,300? civilians
- 25 media
June
26, 2005 (788 days since war ended)
Death
Toll: 1,737 US - 89 UK - >6,164? Iraqi - >17,300? civilians
- 25 media
Britain
has traditionally been one of the biggest net contributors
to the EU because we do not get as much money back from
Brussels in farm and regional subsidies as our rivals.
According
to Treasury figures, between 1995-2002, Britain's average
contribution taking the rebate into account, was £2.6billion,
or £43.55 per head of population.
The
French - the biggest recipient of farm subsidies - contributed
£1billion a year or £16.08 per head of their
population.
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Home
Secretary Charles Clarke tries to bully LSE academics back into
line over the cost of ID cards
ID
cards are a 'Dog's dinner'
Academics
insist that ID cards will cost a bruising £19bn, will not
work, and might even break the law
By
James Slack, Home Affairs Correspondent, Daily Mail, June 28,
2005
Plans
to introduce ID cards were yesterday labelled a 'dog's dinner'
open to massive abuse by fraudsters. Senior academics warned they
would cost taxpayers more than £19billion, they won't work
- and could even be illegal.
4m
face passport interview
More
than four million people a year will be summoned to face-to-face
interviews to renew their passports, it has emerged. They
will also be forced to pose for scans of their face, fingerprints
and iris before the travel document is handed over.
Currently,
90% of all passport applications are made by post, leading
to predictions of widespread chaos when the new system
is introduced. The biometric passports, which will cost
£68 each, will be handed out alongside ID cards
from 2008. The Home Office said: "We consider it
necessary to help counter the growing threat of identity
fraud and to protect the identities of passport holders."
Liberal
Democrat home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten said: "This
is the first wake-up call that we are entering a new type
of society. Gone are the days of going to a photo-booth
at the local station. The ID cards Bill must be stopped
if we are to avoid becoming a surveillance society.
51
invasions of privacy
Official
data protection watchdog has warned ID cards could lead
to a Big Brother-style 'surveillance society'. In a carefully-timed
attack, Information Commissioner Richard Thomas voiced
'serious concerns' about the project, claiming it to be'disproportionate
and excessive.'
A
new National Identity Card Register needed to run the
scheme will store up to 51 pieces of information - including
details of whether people have a second home. Mr Thomas
warned the database could also record every time a person's
ID card is checked, allowing the Government to built up
a 'data trail' of people's activities.
He
said: "The extent of information retained as core
part of the National Identity Register is unwarranted
and intrusive."
The
watchdog is also looking at the effects of other 'surveillance
society' developments, including CCTV with automatic facial
recognition and number plate recognition that records
car movements.
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The
ferocity of the attack by experts at the London School of Economics
was described by senior MPs as 'the final nail in the coffin'
for the project. It certainly left Tony Blair on the defensive
ahead of the ID Card Bill's second reading in the Commons tonight.
He was forced to admit the entire scheme would be ditched if the
cost spiralled out of control.
"No
government is going to be introducing ID cards if the cost to
the public is seen by them as unreasonable," he told his
monthly Downing Street press conference yesterday.
The
LSE's authoritative 305-page study - compiled by 14 professors
over 6 months - demolished Mr Blair's key claim that the scheme
will cost only £5.85 billion - or around £100 a card
- over the next decade. It said the worst-case scenario was a
staggering £19.2 billion, with the public having to fork
out more than £300 each for a plastic card containing an
electronic scan of their iris or finger-print. That cash could
put an extra 38,000 police on the streets.
Even
the professor's 'low cost' estimate put the final bill at £10.6
billion, while the most likely figure is £14.5 billion,
or £230 a card. The LSE team said Whitehall officials failed
to take into account the high likelihood of major technical problems
or overruns which have blighted other Government IT projects.
Professor Ian Angell, an IT expert at the LSE, warned: "It
is a dog's diner. I do not believe it is going to work."
The
study also uncovered alarming legal difficulties with the ID Cards
Bill , which is expected to trigger a revolt by as many as 20
Labour MPs in tonight's vote.
From
2008, the cards will automatically be given to people who renew
their passport. In order to get the travel document, fingerprints
will be required by law. The LSE said expert legal opinion was
that the scheme may contravene the European Convention on Human
Rights on grounds of both privacy and discrimination. British
travellers will be forced to give at least their fingerprints
to leave and enter their own country, while some foreign nationals
- who do not require ID cards for visits of three months or less
- will need only a face scan on their passport.
Simon
Davies, of the LSE's information systems department, said: "Every
citizen of this country has the right to leave or re-enter this
country - consequently there is a right to a passport and to place
a limit on that right establishes a fundamental legal problem."
Mr
Davies and his colleagues said there were huge question marks
over the technology needed for the scheme, with five in every
100 people likely to be unable to provide reliable biometric data.
A person's iris can change dramatically as they grow older while
disabled people, such as the blind, can find it impossible to
provide a scan. Fingerprints can be rendered useless by something
as simple as a cut finger of glue. If
the Government forges ahead with a scheme which is unreliable,
people could find themselves refused entry to the UK or without
access to public services.
The
LSE also scorned Government's suggestion that it had an international
obligation to introduce fingerprint scans on passports. Mr Blair
has constantly used this as the main justification for the project,
a claim he repeated yesterday. The academics
said Britain could meet international rules simply by including
a digital photograph on its passports. There was no requirement
for either fingerprints or iris scans, they said.
The
LSE said there was also the potential for the central database
which will run the scheme to become a 'one-stop shop for fraudsters'.
Successful theft of a person's biometric data by a hacker would
mean their fingerprints or iris scans were permanently in the
hands of criminals. Unlike bank details, they can never be changed.
Opponents
seized on the report, which follows a poll by the Mail on Sunday
showing only 10% of the population would support ID cards if they
cost £10. The figure fell to only 2% for a £300 card.
Shadow
Home Secretary David Davis said: "This report raises many
concerns relating to the cost, security and practicalities of
the ID card proposals. The Government has not addressed a single
one of them."
Liberal
Democrat home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten said: "This report
should be the final nail in the coffin." Labour rebel Clare
Short said: "I don't think the case has been made for this
fantastic, proposed intrusion into our lives."
But
Mr Blair insisted the scheme was an 'idea whose time has come."
Other EU countries, Canada and the US had all agreed to introduce
biometric passports and it made sense to join them. "We have
the chance to use this opportunity to get ahead in this change
and the move, therefore, to biometric passports makes identity
cards an idea whose time has come," he said.
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