20 November 2007

Responding to the news that HMRC has lost the confidential details of over 15 million people [1], NO2ID [2] this afternoon called for an immediate halt to the development of the National Identity Scheme and related ‘identity management’ initiatives[3] until a full and independent audit of all personal information held on government systems has been conducted.

Phil Booth, NO2ID’s National Coordinator, said:

This data disaster shows up the madness behind the government’s ID schemes. People had no choice about giving up that information. It makes the government the biggest identity thief of all.

It’s bad enough that HMRC can’t be trusted with basic financial details. But within five years the Home Office could be leaking or losing people’s complete identity records. And ‘data-sharing’ plans would make your whole life depend on government ID management. If you are not on their list, you won’t exist.

Development of the National Identity Scheme should stop now. But more than that – we all need to know what information the government holds about us now, how it is already being shared among departments, and what the dangers are. That will only happen if there is a full and independent audit of what personal information is currently collected and the ways it is used.

-ENDS-

Notes for editors:

1) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7103566.stm – Discs with 15m bank details lost, BBC News, 20/11/07.

2) NO2ID is the UK-wide non-partisan campaign against ID cards and the database state. Scroll down http://www.no2id.net for a list of ‘database state’ initiatives
that NO2ID is actively opposing.

3) See: http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/media/B/9/pbr_csr07_service.pdf

15 November 2007

NO2ID [1] today called in the pledged donations of over 11,000 people who in 2005 committed themselves to donate to a legal defence fund to fight the
government’s ID scheme. Every one of those people has also declared that they will refuse to register for an ID card. [2]

Pledged funds exceed £100,000, but NO2ID expects many more people will want to donate, and that people who supported the pledge—a limited online
exercise that achieved its [3] goal in just over a month—will ultimately be joined by millions more in refusing to cooperate with the scheme. Already
senior politicians and public figures [4] have joined the bandwagon.

The NO2ID “refuse” pledge was launched on 13th June 2005 while the government’s Identity Cards Bill was undergoing its early stages in the
House of Commons. It had gathered the 10,000 pledges sought by 18th July 2005. It is called in now, as Gordon Brown’s government has rejected reports
that it will abandon the scheme, to allow campaigners to take the fight to a new level.

Phil Booth, NO2ID’s National Coordinator, set up the original pledge and sent the email [5] to call it in.

He said:
“More than 11,000 people were ready to face down a bullying government even before the Identity Cards Act was a reality. Opposition is hardening as the
nature of the scheme becomes clearer to the public. With this fund NO2ID is giving everyone the chance to stand up and refuse to be counted.”

Donations for the fund can be sent to “NO2ID” at, Box 412 LDF, 19/21 Crawford Street, LONDON W1H 1PJ. Or by bank transfer to: sort code 40-28-15,
a/c number 81377965

-ENDS-

Notes for editors:

1) NO2ID is the UK-wide non-partisan campaign against ID cards and the database state. Scroll down http://www.no2id.net for a list of ‘database
state’ initiatives that NO2ID is actively opposing.

2) Full text of the pledge:
“I will refuse to register for an ID card and will donate £10 to a legal defence fund but only if 10,000 other people will also make this same pledge”

3) The mechanism of a pledge on the PledgeBank website (http://www.pledgebank.com/ ) is designed to find a fixed number of people to
do something specific in a limited time. It is designed to gather groups to undertake community projects. NO2ID was the first to use it on such a scale.

4) Liberal Democratic leadership contenders Chris Huhne and Nick Clegg have both said they will personally refuse, as has former cabinet minister
Baroness Williams. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7088315.stm

Columnists Philip Johnston and Joan Smith, often on opposite sides of political issues, have both declared in the last week that they will break
the law if necessary.
‘Why I am prepared to break the law’, By Philip Johnston

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/11/12/do1202.xml

5) Full text of Booth’s email:

Subject: Calling in the pledge – ‘refuse to register for an ID card and will donate £10 to a legal defence fund’ at PledgeBank.com
From: Phil Booth phil@no2id.net
Date: 14/11/2007 21:46
To: xxxxxxxx

Hello, you have received this message because you signed my pledge, “I will refuse to register for an ID card and will donate £10 to a legal defence
fund but only if 10,000 other people will also make this same pledge” back in 2005. In fact 11361 other people also did. Thank you all.

You may have seen that recently high-profile figures have begun to follow you, by committing themselves to non-compliance too.

The Identity Cards Act 2006 is now law, and – despite growing opposition, significant delays and rising costs – the new Prime Minister shows no sign
of calling a halt to the National Identity Scheme. In 2008, the government intends to pilot fingerprinting and to issue the first ‘biometric residence
visas’ to non-EU foreign nationals as a precursor to registering British Citizens.

The legal powers to do these all these things will shortly begin to be applied. Now is the time to call in the legal defence fund part of the pledge.

Please send your donation, by cheque made payable to ‘NO2ID’ to:

NO2ID (Legal Defence Fund)
Box 412
19-21 Crawford Street
London W1H 1PJ

If you also send in your contact details (we have no way to identify you otherwise – this message is forwarded by PledgeBank) we will keep you
informed about the NO2ID campaign and how we can, working together, stop the disastrous National Identity Scheme. We will not pass your details to anyone
else.

Phil Booth
National Coordinator, NO2ID

10 November 2007

NO2ID [1] this morning applauded Baroness Shirley Williams’ declaration of non-cooperation [2] with the government’s ID card scheme.

Baroness Williams’ statements follow promises by both candidates for the Liberal Democrat leadership [3] to refuse to comply with the scheme – a commitment already made by over 11,000 people in NO2ID’s 2005 pledge [4].

Phil Booth, NO2ID’s National Coordinator, said:

Every independent poll indicates that tens of millions oppose the government’s deeply unpopular ID plans, and that millions will defy the scheme. The government clearly intends to force people onto the ID database when they renew their passport [5], but this sort of coercion will prompt even greater civil disobedience – on a scale not seen since the Poll Tax

-ENDS-

Notes for editors:

1) NO2ID is the UK-wide non-partisan campaign against ID cards and the database state. Scroll down http://www.no2id.net for a list of ‘database state’ initiatives
that NO2ID is actively opposing.

2) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7088315.stm – ‘Peer ready to defy ID law’, BBC News, 10/100/07

3) http://politics.guardian.co.uk/libdems/story/0,,2202171,00.html – ‘Clegg vows to defy ID cards law’, Guardian, 31/10/07 and
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7071066.stm: “Mr Huhne said he would match Mr Clegg’s promise to lead a campaign against ID card legislation, pointing out that he had long promoted civil liberties.”

4) http://www.pledgebank.com/refuse – the successful pledge, “I will refuse to register for an ID card and will donate £10 to a legal defence fund but only if 10,000 other people will also make this same pledge”, launched at the beginning of July 2005 and gained 11,361 signatories (1,361 over target).

5) Tens of thousands renewed their passports early in May 2006, the month that NO2ID launched its ‘Renew For Freedom’ campaign: http://www.renewforfreedom.org