I am always cheered by news of another nail in the coffin of the ID card scheme.

I dearly hope the whole rotten plan will be dropped once and for all.

However, I am deeply apprehensive that one way or another such marking and monitoring of the population will be introduced for our own good.

No matter how certain the demise of this scheme seems, please continue to support www.NO2ID.net campaigns until we can be certain that those in power have abandoned this terrible idea.

I'd rather douse myself in petrol and burn myself on the steps of the houses of parliment then submit myself to fascist ID schemes (be it ID Card & registery or registering to use a powerful computer.)

I'm a citizen of Great Britain and I'd sooner die in agonizing flames then sacrifice anymore of my already tattered freedom.

"it seems on the point of abandoning the notion of forcing ID cards onto the public via passport renewals."

Indeed... Why force people to get them with passports, when you can get far greater coverage by requiring them to open a bank account, change doctor or buy toilet rolls?

(Toilet rolls theory yet to be backed up by leak, but I wouldn't put it past HM Gov!)

Form a great new initiative.

Today we will

1. Restore judicial process in all privacy matters. Due cause required, and judicial review of cause needed before warrant issued to capture communications. No more searches without warrants, which is what surveillance really is. Regain trust in privacy matters.

2. Protect your privacy rights with the force of law. DVLA selling data to parking scammers? No, that would be a criminal matter. An arrestable offence!

3. Reduce the ID card to the minimum required to do IDs. Why do you want to disclose the ID to private business, or individuals, how can you make sure it's only used for the purpose it's needed and absolutely nothing else.

4. Tightly control the insane growth of CCTVs. Where they can be put, who can monitor them, what the footage can be used for.

5. Break the cosy link between police and television. If privacy is a fundamental right, why do the police take TV crews with them when executing a search warrant? They refuse to enforce the suspects right to privacy.

6. If you can't make the ID card palatable to the vast majority of UK citizens, then you can't force it on them by stealth. It would be attacking your electorate and that is not something you can ever do. Tony Blair twatitude is at an end.

Teachers 1st eh?

What are they going to do when unions reccomend that members do not accept a new ID card, are county councils going to lay off all the teachers who decline the governemnts offer regardless of the fact that they have beenin the industry and for 10-20 years and have past already Police checks?

Its things like this that may make a life long labor voter turn blue!!!

prove it.

... not to sign pre-completed forms.

If I didn't ask for it, I don't want it!

I predict that Broon will drop the ID card thing like a particularly hot potato just shortly prior to the next election, hoping that more extra people will vote for him than just the ones who were going to sacrifice lifetime political affiliations and vote for a party other than Labour.

I preface this with my position that CRB checks for working with children are a waste of time. They make it harder for people to volunteer (and anyone prepared to jump through all the hoops is in a sense suspect) and they tend to drive anyone who doesn't want to fill in a lengthy form and expose their twenty-year-old shoplifting conviction to their child's school away. I'd rather have classrooms contain two unscreened adult rather than one screened, given that CRB enhanced checks are only `not been caught yet'. My children's primary school lost more than half of its classroom helpers when the scheme was introduced.

All that said, if we ARE going to have CRB checks, then performing them and issuing a card is quite a good idea. At the moment, someone needs separate CRB checks for each relationship. My wife has a CRB enhanced check as a classroom helper, but would need another to help at Guides and, in principle, another to be a governor at the same school she helps at! By contrast, BC/SC/etc clearance is portable between employers. Expecting people who want to help in the community to front up 25 quid or whatever it is every time is actually quite a disincentive to engagement.

The need for teachers to demonstrate that (a) they are qualified and (b) they aren't on List99 is also a problem, especially for those working in supply teaching. A `Teacher Card' is not entirely stupid, and rolling a system like that just for one public sector area isn't terribly efficient.

Liar. Your pants will never, ever be on fire.

<quote>

Indeed... Why force people to get them with passports, when you can get far greater coverage by requiring them to open a bank account, change doctor or buy toilet rolls?

(Toilet rolls theory yet to be backed up by leak, but I wouldn't put it past HM Gov!)

</quote>

Well, Halifax will probably have a little space left on their debit cards for more personal information...

"It's once noting that these days..."

Should that be "worth noting"? If this is a typo that the spell-checker didn't correct properly though, I can't imagine what the original typo must have been. What's close to "worth" but can be spell-checked into "once"?

Round the poker table the suspense is mounting. There is £20bn+ plus in the pot. Who is going to get it? Already two big players have just dropped out. But HMG is still hanging in there. Now it is HMG to take a card. Dealer deals... and it's the pedophile card!!!

Erk. This is a disturbing admission, given the quantity of Paris based articles on El Reg.

"It's not me. My wrist has a mind of its own"

Appalling images are coming to mind ! Aaargh ! My eyes !

In Scotland, your legal name is "that you are known by": it is legal to change your name ad hoc, so long as it is not done to defraud. All one must do is tell your bank, debtors, employers, employees, family and there you go. In England, you've got deed-pol or some-such.

So if this mad scheme every tries to get doing: let's all start changing our names every two weeks. See if the buggers can keep up with that. I'm thinking "not a hope", even though in fairness, they ain't got a hope even if we don't...

If I were you I'd check your union's stance on ID cards... I hope it goes well for you.

It's difficult to see how fingerprinting teachers prevents kiddie-fiddlers from being teachers. If you've not been arrested or prosecuted for pedophilia there's nothing to discover.

Perhaps the government has super-sekret research which says that pedophiles have very distinctive fingerprints?

If you want the full document (annotated by No2ID), you can read it here:

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/01/390352.html

Pretty insidious stuff.

Good idea!

I'd love to know how this is going to work in Scotland because the Scottish gov has publically stated it's against ID cards are will not require people to use them although it looks unlikely it can stop people being required to get one.

Also it doesn't seem like the best idea trying to force teachers to get ID cards, having spoken to a number the general responce seems to be "over my dead body".

Thanks for the reminder.

Also, once card is cross referenced with health records you might find it hard to buy pizza or McDonald's (except maybe the salad) if you're in a risk category, never mind toilet rolls. It's all for your own good, of course.

It's been obvious for some time that schoolkids are being softened up to be used to presenting smartcards / fingerprints / retina prints / RFID for everything via implementations in school. The Government ID cards team must be rubbing their hands at the thought of all these youngsters accustomed to being tracked by all means possible.

Wow! Choose one group (teachers) that have so much data on them and so many security checks already that they really don't NEED ID cards, and another group you want to alienate just before they are old enough to vote. Neither of whom are likely to be benefit cheats, terrorists, or illegals, all the reasons given for the card. Brilliant. This government must be getting utterly desperate.