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| Councillor Bob Hale, with passport |
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New Forest Lib Dem Campaigner, Bob Hale, has joined the national 'Renew for Freedom' campaign against the government's national ID card scheme and is urging others to do the same.
The campaign group NO2ID is encouraging as many people as possible to renew their passports before the rules change and applicants are compelled to attend an official interview, agree to be finger printed and give a wide range of personal information for a "National Identity Register" database.
The register is the first stage of introducing a national ID card system and will be the biggest store of personal information in the world. People on it will be required to keep their information up to date or face hefty fines.
In future, every use of a new style passport for travel or to prove identity will be recorded on the ID register thus gradually building up a record of each citizen's movements. The government will then start to introduce ID cards using passport renewals and the information given by applicants. However NO2ID is highlighting a way of staying off the register for at least the next ten years.
Bob Hale, Lib Dem councillor for Fordingbridge, says:
"NO2ID have pointed out that anyone can renew their passport whenever they want to, you don't have to wait for it to expire. Mine had five years left to run but I decided to renew it so that I wouldn't be part of this unworkable bureaucratic scheme for the next ten years. It's cheaper too. Renewing now costs £51, when it's tied in with ID cards it will be at least £93. Even in these early stages the government is running into trouble with its timetable. However they will still be building the information database."
"I recently had a dispute with a credit card company which had put someone else's address against my name on a data base used by credit checking agencies. So I know what can go wrong when storing personal information and I have no faith in the government's record of running large scale computerised information projects."
"Liberal Democrats have opposed ID cards right from the start on the grounds of cost, enhanced risk of identity theft and intrusion into the private lives of citizens. To those who might think that ID cards are a good idea I would pose one question. "Do you trust politicians?" I suspect the answer to that would be at best "not much." If that's the case then why trust them with so much personal information about yourself and your movements, with little or no controls on what they do with it."
Passport renewal packs are available free from local Post Offices. |
