Stop the Database State

Civil liberties campaigners have questioned the Home Office's motives behind an "ID card registration" event at Manchester Central Library on Tuesday 5th May. The event has not been publicised on the library's website, in the press or on the council's website, and follows Manchester's appointment as a "beacon area" for the National Identity Scheme.

Just a few days ago, David Blunkett MP called for the cards to be scrapped following "a massive drop in confidence in the system". Blunkett championed the ID databases and associated cards while Home Secretary. Contracts to build the databases were only awarded last month.

Manchester NO2ID co-ordinator Dave Page said, "This is yet another 'soft launch' for a discredited, unpopular farce. People are aware that the National Identity Scheme is nothing but an expensive risk to their privacy. The Government claims that the cards add convenience, but this just means that it will become impossible to live your life as normal without one. This event has not been publicised and is nothing but a stage-managed PR stunt."

ID cards had been scheduled for voluntary introduction to Manchester residents in November. In the autumn they will be mandatory for airside workers at Manchester Airport, a move described as "a dubious PR initiative by the Government and one that fails to offer any real benefits" by the British Air Transport Association. Airport unions have threatened industrial action over the scheme.

ENDS

For more information or interview, please contact Dave Page on 07982 814 441, or via e-mail at manchester@no2id.net or online at http://manchester.no2id.net/

Manchester's appointment as a beacon area was announced in http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7859097.stm

David Blunkett's comments on the National Identity Scheme are at http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39647175,00.htm - for NO2ID's full response, see http://www.no2id.net/news/pressRelease/release?name=Blunkett_baffling

The database contracts for IBM and CSC are mentioned at http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39637650,00.htm

Airport unions' strike threats are detailed at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/pilots-threaten-to-strike-...

NO2ID has been since 2004 the national non-partisan campaign against ID cards and the database state. See http://www.no2id.net/dbstate.php for a list of 'database state' initiatives that NO2ID is actively opposing, and http://www.no2id.net/datasharing for how it all fits together.