Big Brother-in-chief Woolas bottles it

Government minister Phil Woolas was supposed to come to the St Andrews Street Post Office this morning to open a biometric facility. Coleridge Conservatives and Nick Hillman joined the local NO2ID group to give him the kind of welcome he wasn't looking forward to, but it seems the minister was unable to visit due to 'the weather'.

We are suprised Mr Woolas would have wanted to be associated with the government's unpopular identity agenda but hope we have helped to get the message across a bit more that the scheme is not needed and not wanted.

We didn't notice any Labour councillors.

Just say no to ID cards

I can scarcely believe the latest headline on the BBC website.

The country is going bust - whoever wins the General Election next year is going to be facing the worst crisis in public finances since, well since the last time there was a Labour government, thanks to Gordon Browns reckless borrow and spend policies of the last decade. Yet despite all this, they are still going ahead with plans for ID cards that will cost us all an estimated £5 billion pounds. From the BBC article:

At a series of meetings on Wednesday, Ms Smith will say post offices and pharmacies can play an important role in the success of the ID scheme, allowing people to give their fingerprints and a face scan while "out doing the shopping"

Each card will cost £30 with a further £30 charge for collecting the data.

"ID cards will deliver real benefits to everyone, including increased protection against criminals, illegal immigrants and terrorists," the home secretary will say.

So lets get this straight, we will be expected to hand over £60, and our vital biometric information to the government, who will put it all in one place, a one stop shop for identity thieves.

From there it can be accessed by thousands or perhaps hundreds of thousands of government officials, from the same government that has a track record of catastrophic losses of personal data.

Having done this, the Government will then setup systems to protect national security that assumes the data on this database is always correct, and so foolproof that it will never be lost and cloned by anyone, such that when checking your identity, a simple match between your biometric information and that on the database record will be enough to confirm it is you. Even though your identity is actually only really defined by a vast and complex array of information starting with your genetic makeup, moulded by your experiences in life to date, and corroborated only by your whole current life circumstances and network of personal relationships.

As if this wasn't bad enough, by telling everyone the system is a foolproof way of determining someone's identity, either every organisation imaginable will have a live link to the database, or many people will accept a little bit of plastic saying 'ID card' as a foolproof way of assessing your identity. And this assessment may determine your right to access Government services that you have already paid for (several times over in the case of most full time employees not on means tested benefits).

And then the Government tells you that this system in some way protects or even benefits you.

You couldn't make up - the fact is the ID database will never be completely secure, it will always lose data, and it will always be possible to create fake records. And when that happens, innocent people will be denied access to services that are rightfully theirs, and the mad, bad or dangerous will be able to prove they are anyone they want to be, and use that information to convince the gullible (or even the sceptical) and allow them to do very damaging things.

So I say to the Labour Government, no, you will never have my biometric information - it is none of you business, and I will be a lot less safe if you take it and misuse it as you plan to do with the ID cards scheme.

There is a local politics angle - Labour's candidate in Coleridge on June 4th is also their parliamentary candidate in South Cambridgeshire, and he has a track record of defending the Government's record to the hilt - he recently spoke at a public meeting in support of Labour's lamentable record on civil liberties. When it comes to who will be co-operating locally with Labours planned ID cards scheme, as our local authorities will doubtless be called on to do in the near future, the Coleridge Labour candidate and Conservative candidate in are likely to be poles apart.

Liberty Convention this Saturday

The Convention on Modern Liberty is tomorrow. The convention is running concurrently across the UK in seven locations, including Cambridge. Coleridge Conservative Councillor Chris Howell will be chairing a debate on "The view from the trenches - engaging with government in the digital age".

The event is free and open to everyone. It starts at 9.45am and runs until 5.15pm at the Cambridge Union Society, behind the Round Church, 9a Bridge Street. See the official site for the full timetable.

Why not come along to have your say on the gradual erosion of ancient freedoms under the Labour Government?

Strawberry Fair – This Saturday

This Saturday (7th June) the annual Strawberry Fair is being held on Midsummer Common. Its not everyone’s cup of tea, but personally I think it is a good thing. The volunteer organisers work hard to ensure the Common is restored after the event, and it allows lots of people from Cambridge and beyond to enjoy the music and entertainment.

I will be at the Fair on Saturday, helping out on the Cambridge No2ID stall. Over the last 10 years we have moved significantly closer to a big brother society, with more laws, less freedom and a style of ‘database law enforcement’ that affects those who are generally socially responsible, whilst failing to tackle the serious criminal and threats to society.

If you forget to renew you car tax, the fine is in the post automatically from the database. Buy a car with cash from a man down the pub, put on some stolen plates, don’t register with the DVLA, pay no tax or insurance, and more often than not the police couldn’t be bothered, so by the time you are caught the punishment will be trivial compared to the illicit gain.

Literally millions of people have been prosecuted for speeding (not including me I might add!) because this is a simple job for cameras and databases, doing all sorts of damage to the public’s relationship with our law enforcers, as no discretion is applied at all. But at the same time there are fewer traffic police tackling the real cause of most accidents, namely intrinsically bad driving, so despite massive rises in fines and cameras, the trend for reductions in road deaths has almost ground to a halt.

There are problems with anti-social behaviour, so we don’t target those who behave irresponsibly and ensure they are punished and rehabilitated, we stop all new licenced premises, and cover ever more of our streets with CCTV. We are the most spied on Country in the so-called free world.

There have been literally (apologies for using this word again but it is true!) thousands of new criminal offences created, banning things we used to be able to do, like protesting to Government in Parliament Square when they do bad things, yet fewer than ever have confidence in our police to fix the things we really care about like stopping burglars and drug dealers. New laws to spy on terrorists, have been used to spy on those who just want to send their children to the best possible school.

But the biggest, baddest scheme of all is the plans for ID cards. Vast amounts of personal information, collected by the state at truly vast cost on a big database, and used to track our every move inside the country and internationally. Paid for by ourselves through increased charges and taxes, it can only make life worse for the generally law abiding, and could be really dangerous if part of the government decides it doesn’t like you for some reason. But by putting all our security eggs in one basket, it makes it much more likely the serious criminal or terrorist will be able to get away with it – as experts like Professor Ross Anderson of Cambridge University have pointed out. No system is foolproof, but when we have been told the ID database is, its identity checks will be trusted even when the data is wrong, and a little common sense would tell you there was a problem. So I will be promoting Cambridge No2ID from 2-4pm at the stall between the Fort St George and Victoria Avenue bridge if anyone would like to say hello, or even help!

I have digressed from Strawberry Fair, but not very far – the spirit of the event is about people behaving responsibly and enjoying themselves, without constant nannying and control from a Government desperate to intefere in ever greater parts of our lives – now lets hope no-one does cause any trouble!

Declarations of Interest

I had to take some time out of the Coleridge campaign yesterday to help at a rowing event - I'm treasurer of a boat club in the City, so was on entries secretary duties yesterday. This has delayed my final newsletter slightly, but the presses are now rolling!

As a Councillor I would have to make declarations of interest. Not sure being treasurer of a boat club is ever going to be relevant, but I am a member of several other campaign groups:

I'm a member of No2ID nationally, and help them campaign in Cambridge. The thought of having to carry a compulsory ID card is not something I would wish to entertain, but particularly not when it would be attached to a national database that would seek to track my every move as I access all manner of public and private sector services - i.e. a one stop shop for the identity thief and and toolkit to help the state harass the generally law abiding whilst ignoring the seriously dangerous who will obviously operate outside the system - thats in the unlikely event that they will ever getting it working, despite the millions it will cost to try.

I'm a member of Cambridge Cycle Campaign, and want to see cyclists get a better deal - but don't think it is necessary for them to be quite so anti-car in the process.

Finally, I am a member of CAMRA, the campaign for real ale. I think a key part of CAMRA campaigning it to protect pubs, particularly those in isolated rural areas, and to encourage responsible behaviour in pubs, both of which aims I wholeheartedly agree with.