http://www.pure-virtual.org/ian/PermaLink.aspx?guid=73dc9f04-2566-4934-a3e1-0373059ad7e9

Or something like that. I was just out for a nice night and quiet relief of the pressure on my bladder!

On the subject of tax-avoidance, the contract for management of the new “take-your-biometrics” passport centres has been awarded to…. Mapeley, the offshore tax-evading company that owns HMRC’s(that’s HM Revenue and Customs!) headquarters!

It’s the usual story. Shit on the heads of those who can’t fight back, while the powerful get away with murder…

keep bloggin!

Involuntary ID Cards

Home Secretary Charles Clarke would like to reassure us that ID cards will be voluntary, because you’ll only have to get one when renewing your passport, and a passport is an entirely voluntary document, apparently. “The question is one of free will” he tells us.

I’m sure Evening Post readers will find it reassuring as I do to realise that you would have about as much choice, under this scheme, of choosing not to have an ID card, as of choosing not to breathe, eat, drink or sleep – all of which are well within the scope of your “free will”.

How ironic that these blatantly coercive tactics coincide with the Home Office’s new campaign emphasising rape awareness, by introducing the definition of consent – that a person consents if s/he “agrees by choice, and has the freedom and capacity to make that choice”.

To say that we have a free choice over ID cards and the National Identity Register, when we can only choose not to take part if we decline to travel, is stretching the definition of “voluntary” to breaking point.

Furthermore, the rollout of the new biometric passports (being issued since the start of the month) gives the lie to the government’s story that we need the ID scheme to meet international requirements.

The Home Office have claimed all along that a main reason why we absolutely must have ID cards and the National Identity Register is to ensure that we comply with the new International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) passport standards, and remain in the US Visa Waiver Scheme. The new £51 biometric passports, available right now, meet those standards with a single biometric, showing once again that the intended £93 price hike apparently in the name of “meeting the ICAO standard” is nothing but a bare-faced lie by the government, to help cover the astronomical costs of it’s stealth tax on our very existence.

If ID cards are so beneficial to us, the government would give us a real choice in the matter – yet the whole element of compulsion gives away their game. When a farmer brands cows with a number, it’s not for the cow’s benefit!

What a shame most of Nottingham’s Labour MPs are too spineless to stand up to this sinister legislation, instead choosing to vote with their control-freak party, not their consciences. They could learn a few things from their friend Alan Simpson, MP for Nottingham South, who has given his backing to our campaign for some time now.

Cheers