NO2ID
Stop ID cards and the database state
We are a non-aligned diverse group of people and organisations who stand against the Government's attempts to introduce intrusive, expensive and bureaucratic control of personal identity. We are non-discriminatory and opposed to violent action.
Supported by
LIBERTY
www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk
We are opposed to a national identity scheme that will:
• be very expensive and have no real impact on terrorism;
• provide a new target for and most likely increase identity fraud;
• have serious and negative affects for ethnic minorities.
Stop ID cards and the database state
• ID won't stop terrorists
• ID won't catch criminals
• ID won't prevent fraud
• ID will be vastly expensive
• ID will waste your time
• ID will strip your privacy
ID cards and the Identity Register behind them will put you and yours at the mercy of any future government Information
More than a card - a new way of life
The ID Card scheme is not just a harmless new bit of plastic in your wallet. It requires a massive and intrusive database that changes the nature of UK Citizenship and shifts the balance of power further away from the citizen to the State. With the National Identity Register (NIR) and ID Card, the Government will control your identity. It will decide who you are. Showing ID to officials will become an everyday part of British life.
Although other Europeans are used to ID Cards the NIR is much more controlling than their ID Card systems and they have legal safeguards we do not. It will open your life to inspection by thousands of bureaucrats.
Spiraling costs
Even the Government admits the minimum cost is £5.5 Billion — that's five domes! That estimate has already doubled in six months! It does not include the charges for ID Cards, the penalties for errors, or the cost of policing many new offences. The Government is reducing the Civil Service. But it will create a whole new Identity Agency. Taxpayers and businesses will have to pay yet more for special scanners in doctor's surgeries, benefit offices, banks and even hotels.
The biggest ever White Elephant
Big Government computer systems are a catalogue of disaster. Yet this is the biggest and most complicated government computer scheme anywhere, ever.
Even if it works perfectly, the ID scheme cannot meet the problems it is supposed to solve. The Government admits that the NIR will not stop terrorism. Almost all benefit fraud is lying about circumstances, not who you are. A single master document makes identity theft easier, and more worthwhile, not harder. Criminals don't play by the bureaucratic rules. ID Cards won't cut crime.
A tool for racists
With a wink to racists, the Government says ID will stop illegal immigration. But it doesn't in the rest of Europe. Asians and black people often feel they are unfairly stopped and searched by police already. ID will give more reasons to "check" people. What's more, demands to prove you are British will creep into more and more public and private services, with the system as an excuse. How does a divided society make you safer?
And when it goes wrong? — You, the suspect
You are about to be fingerprinted, eye-scanned and tagged like a criminal. Any errors will be your responsibility. The Home Office will have the final say. Even now about 100 people a month (out of a few thousand checked) are wrongly marked as criminals by the Criminal Records Bureau. The NIR could mean several checks a day for everybody. What happens to your life when the scanner fails or there's a mistake?
Say NO to ID
The ID scheme is expensive and socially destructive. Either it will help make Britain a police-state, or it will be a bigger white elephant than the poll tax. Help us stop it.
Published by: N02ID, Box 412, 78 Marylebone High St, London W1U SAP 07005 800 651
Printed by:
Impress Print Services 10 Thornsett Road London SW18 4EN
http://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/
Text taken from NO2ID leaflet
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