Stop the Database State

Manchester No2ID Press Release
Date: 23rd April 2010
For immediate release

At a Manchester Withington hustings last night, six of the seven constituency candidates spoke out against the ongoing ID card scheme and compulsory identity database. The National Identity Scheme is an ongoing issue in the election, with clear dividing lines between Labour and the other major parties on the issue.

Each candidate was asked for their opinions on the five policies of the Power2010 Pledge, one of which is "Scrap ID cards and roll back the database state". Brian Candeland (Green), Marcus Farmer (Independent), Chris Green (Conservative), John Leech (Lib Dem), Robert Gutfreund-Walmsley (UKIP) and Yasmin Zalzala (Independent) were all opposed to the scheme. Only Labour's Lucy Powell spoke in defense of the scheme.

In addition, Brian Candeland, John Leech, Chris Green and Robert Gutfreund-Walmsley took the opportunity to sign the No2ID Pledge, committing themselves to rejecting the ID card scheme.

Manchester No2ID co-ordinator Dave Page said, "Power2010's popular vote on policies has made it clear that people are deeply concerned about expensive, intrusive Government databases like the National Identity Register, ContactPoint and Summary Care Records. No2ID do not endorse any candidates or parties, but we do encourage people to ask their candidates, through Power2010, No2ID or directly, for their stance on these issues."

The hustings was organised by Unlock Democracy and Power2010. Power2010 is a new campaign group, campaigning on a manifesto of five democratically-chosen policies. Unlock Democracy, formerly known as Charter 88, campaigns for electoral reform and is a partner organisation of Power2010. No2ID is the nationwide nonpartisan campaign against the Database State, and another partner organisation of Power2010.

ENDS

For more information or interview, please contact James Elsdon-Baker, North of England co-ordinator on north@no2id net or 07817 695 162. You can also contact Dave Page, NO2ID's Manchester co-ordinator, on manchester@no2id.net or 07722 615 398.

For photos of the signings, see http://manchester.no2id.net/

For more details of the No2ID Pledge, see http://www.no2id.net/pledge/

NO2ID is the UK-wide non-partisan campaign against ID cards and the database state. See http://www.no2id.net/dbstate for a list of ‘database state’ initiatives that NO2ID is actively opposing, and http://www.no2id.net/datasharing for how it all fits together. NO2ID’s ‘Don’t be a guinea-pig’ campaign is at: http://www.idcardcon.org/