We're Off On The Slippery Slope To A New Poll Tax

[threegee]

ID cards are now being issued to foreign nationals. As the Lib Dems say:

"Foreign nationals, who cannot vote, are perfect guinea pigs for a government wanting to test a deeply unpopular and unworkable policy. When the rest of us are forced to carry ID cards, this scheme will prove to be a laminated Poll Tax."

These people already have passports with visas on them, so, if taken at face value, there is absolutely no point in this exercise. That's unless there is a hidden agenda at work!

[Pete]

ID cards are now being issued to foreign nationals. As the Lib Dems say:

These people already have passports with visas on them, so, if taken at face value, there is absolutely no point in this exercise. That's unless there is a hidden agenda at work!

Big Brother.

[Mr Darn]

or the fact passports are too bulky to carry round, where as an ID card would stay in one's wallet...

not a bad way to prove one's identity...

[Symptoms]

Until the Boys in Blue say "Your papers please" (in a mock Jerry accent); no papers and you get whipped off to the Nick, have your mouth swabbed and a rubber glove up your ar*e. Oh, and to help you along the way a good Tasering to soften you up.

[threegee]

or the fact passports are too bulky to carry round, where as an ID card would stay in one's wallet...

not a bad way to prove one's identity...

It's not instead of it's in addition to!

OK then, place a value on what would be reasonable to pay for "this convenience" of an ID card? Civil liberties issues aside, let's decide if the amount the government is mooting charging us is really a tax by another name, or a service that is worth paying for.

[Malcolm Robinson]

I was amazed the other day when I heard the minister say what was going to happen; I thought it had been quashed? It’s the start of implementation by any other name!

Oh but then isn’t it the Gov’s favourite way of getting stuff like this through, put it out when everyone’s attention is drawn to bad news and for bad news read pre budget report!

Just stick a chip into everyone or bar code us and be done!!!!!!

Nice one Symtoms.........

[Denzel]

ID cards, great idea.

[Symptoms]

Now, what data will that little card chip contain and be copied to the Government's databases? All the usual stuff like height, eye colour, Nationality, marks, on so on; stuff they already have from passport applications. The new stuff, like our dabs and other bio-metric measurements, will also be included. Next comes the spooky stuff culled from the NHS Spine, our blood group, DNA, diseases/illnesses suffered (including pox clinics visited), allergies, hereditary information, and so on. Next the financial stuff - the data from the credit reference agencies, Land Registry, The Revenue, our Banks and credit card transactions. What next? Oh, yes - they'll get the data about our subscriptions to magazines and membership of clubs and unions. Oh, and there's our travel habits picked-up via Automatic Number-plate Recognition (have you noticed how many of these fixed cameras have sprung-up in the last year). Blimey, I almost forgot about our ISP's having to keep all of our emails for years and log all our web browsing.

All/much of this data is/may already kept by individual organisations but when (not if) it all gets sucked onto one database (and burned onto that card chip) it can be more easily interrogated by GCHQ. So what? The Government will sell this information onto insurance companies so they may well refuse cover for those whose Granddad died of cancer. A subscribing company won't hire you 'cos your cousin is a villain (criminality might run in the family). Union membership ... drag the trouble-maker off to the Jails (Camps). And a thousand other ways to restrict our freedom.

If you don't hear from me again you'll know the Government's plans are further developed than I thought and I've been 'lifted' by the Boys in Black, injected, chucked into the back of a van, delivered to a deep underground installation on the Outer Hebrides and water-boarded for posting this.

I'll leave you with something Pastor Martin Niemoller wrote years ago ...

First they came for the Communists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Communist

First they came for the Socialist

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Socialist

First they came for the trade unionists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a trade unionist

First they came for the Jews

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me

And there was no one left

To speak out for me

[Denzel]

Now, what data will that little card chip contain and be copied to the Government's databases? All the usual stuff like height, eye colour, Nationality, marks, on so on; stuff they already have from passport applications. The new stuff, like our dabs and other bio-metric measurements, will also be included. Next comes the spooky stuff culled from the NHS Spine, our blood group, DNA, diseases/illnesses suffered (including pox clinics visited), allergies, hereditary information, and so on. Next the financial stuff - the data from the credit reference agencies, Land Registry, The Revenue, our Banks and credit card transactions. What next? Oh, yes - they'll get the data about our subscriptions to magazines and membership of clubs and unions. Oh, and there's our travel habits picked-up via Automatic Number-plate Recognition (have you noticed how many of these fixed cameras have sprung-up in the last year). Blimey, I almost forgot about our ISP's having to keep all of our emails for years and log all our web browsing.

All/much of this data is/may already kept by individual organisations but when (not if) it all gets sucked onto one database (and burned onto that card chip) it can be more easily interrogated by GCHQ. So what? The Government will sell this information onto insurance companies so they may well refuse cover for those whose Granddad died of cancer. A subscribing company won't hire you 'cos your cousin is a villain (criminality might run in the family). Union membership ... drag the trouble-maker off to the Jails (Camps). And a thousand other ways to restrict our freedom.

If you don't hear from me again you'll know the Government's plans are further developed than I thought and I've been 'lifted' by the Boys in Black, injected, chucked into the back of a van, delivered to a deep underground installation on the Outer Hebrides and water-boarded for posting this.

I'll leave you with something Pastor Martin Niemoller wrote years ago ...

First they came for the Communists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Communist

First they came for the Socialist

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Socialist

First they came for the trade unionists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a trade unionist

First they came for the Jews

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me

And there was no one left

To speak out for me

Christ on a bike. Get yourself down Greenham Common.

[Symptoms]

I knew a girl who used to go to Greenham Common to protest ... it's an industrial estate now, Yanks all gone.

Mind, there could be underground bunkers there for holding the dissidents, camouflaged by an MFI store. Maybe that's why MFI's gone tits-up ... they never sold anything 'cos they were a Government ghost organisation.

[Denzel]

I knew a girl who used to go to Greenham Common to protest ... it's an industrial estate now, Yanks all gone.

Mind, there could be underground bunkers there for holding the dissidents, camouflaged by an MFI store. Maybe that's why MFI's gone tits-up ... they never sold anything 'cos they were a Government ghost organisation.

Let's hope so, we don't need a load of smelly old hippy women wandering the streets. I blame The Levellers.

[Symptoms]

She was a really, really attractive woman but heavily into radical feminist politics.

[Denzel]

She was a really, really attractive woman but heavily into radical feminist politics.

What a waste.

[Symptoms]

Now it's been confirmed that there are no scanners to read the card data and it'll all be down to some some guy eyeballing the card when it's presented. There are no plans to issue scanners either! What a waste of dosh!

From The Observer this morning:

"Britain's first ID cards, issued last week with fingerprint and facial details, cannot be read by any official body because the government has not issued a single scanner.

Ministers promised to roll out hundreds of electronic readers of biometric details. However, a spokesman for the Home Office admitted last week that no employers, police forces, hospitals or colleges have been given the machine - and there are as yet no plans to issue them.

The disclosure means the ID cards issued last week to foreign students and the foreign spouses of British citizens can be used only in a similar way to a valid passport and visa. Instead, authorities will have to rely on visual checks on the card and calls to a UK Border Agency hotline if they fear the card is not genuine.

The admission bolsters concerns the ID verification scheme is now just a 'flash and go' card similar to those used by many companies.

Home Office documents revealed last month that the cards' biometric details will only be cross-referenced with the National Identity Register in a minority of cases."

[Symptoms]

Oh dear!

It's been announced that our Government is going to work with the European Parliament on plans to extend police powers to conduct remote searches of computers without a warrant.

More here for those quaking in their boots (& that should be all of us):

http://www.silicon.com/publicsector/0,3800...39372009,00.htm

[Malcolm Robinson]

Oh dear!

It's been announced that our Government is going to work with the European Parliament on plans to extend police powers to conduct remote searches of computers without a warrant.

More here for those quaking in their boots (& that should be all of us):

http://www.silicon.com/publicsector/0,3800...39372009,00.htm

Watch what you are saying Symtoms you might just get the jackboots at the door at 3.00am!

I think Stalin would have been proud of some of the measures we see coming into law.

Good job we live in a free democracy with freedom of speech............

[Monsta®]

what a splendid way of sorting out the unwanted immigrants!

[Denzel]

what a splendid way of sorting out the unwanted immigrants!

Not before time too, Enoch was right.

[Merlin]

Not before time too, Enoch was right.

Watch yourself Denzel last time I said such a thing the Bedlington Lynch Mob were after me!

[Symptoms]

Watch yourself Denzel last time I said such a thing the Bedlington Lynch Mob were after me!

We're still watching (and recording details of 'offenders').

[Merlin]

We're still watching (and recording details of 'offenders').

:lol: :lol:

[Denzel]

Watch yourself Denzel last time I said such a thing the Bedlington Lynch Mob were after me!

I'm not scared of them, I'm Ronnie Rockhard me.

[Malcolm Robinson]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-...ms-1366716.html

[threegee]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-...ms-1366716.html

Ah "Data-sharing"; what MI5/6 does and calls "intelligence", and the common man calls spying and snooping! All in the public interest of saving us time having to give the same data to lots of different government departments and quasi government organisations. Just think of the work this will save you in having to hand out your medical records to the DHSS (or whatever it's called this week), and the DTI so's they can assign you to a more suitable job - without your having to lift a finger. Brave NuLabor World - it's closer than you think, and in ways George Orwell couldn't even dream about!

But you don't want personally to give the same information again and again if it can be safely held and safely transferred.

-- Jack Straw

But you can't Mr Straw! And you won't Mr Straw! And we don't trust you (or your self-appointed unelected "Data-Commissioner") Mr Staw! And you've never asked the public if that's what they want. And you don't have the guts to do this - because you know what the answer will be! So please don't tell me what I want.

BTW Mr Straw has great credentials in the matters of data security and civil liberties. Amongst other things he was the person accused of leaking Norman Scott's social security file during the Jeremy Thorpe scandal. And, as home secretary, presided over the small matter of the reduction of our historic right to trail by jury.

[Monsta®]

Ah "Data Sharing"; what MI5/6 does and calls "intelligence", and the common man calls spying and snooping! All in the public interest of saving us time having to give the same data to lots of different government departments and quasi government organisations. Just think of the work this will save you in having to hand out your medical records to the DHSS (or whatever it's called this week), and the DTI so's they can assign you to a more suitable job - without your having to lift a finger. Brave NuLabor World - it's closer than you think, and in ways George Orwell couldn't even dream about!

But you can't Mr Straw! And you won't Mr Straw! And we don't trust you (or your self-appointed unelected "Data-Comissioner") Mr Staw! And you've never asked the public if that's what they want. And you don't have the guts to do this - because you know what the answer will be! So please don't tell me what I want.

but it does not concern us the public what the government do! cause they'll do it anyway!

they even know when your having a !*!@#!