Your political scaffold awaits, Prime Minister April 7, 2006
Posted by lifejacket in "Politician he speak with forked tongue".add a comment
More shameless self-publicity on the part of Mr Blair …
… and just in time for the local elections in London in May.
When will this man (or his puppeteers) learn? He is finished. Discredited. Detested. Unwanted. As it stands now, he could find a cure for cancer tomorrow or set up 100 orphanages somewhere through the most altruistic motives, and people would still dismiss it as a publicity stunt. He is irredeemable.
Live by spin, die politically by spin. Every strand and fibre of that symbolic rope around Mr Blair's neck was woven over nine years, lie by lie, cover-up by cover-up, smile by disingenuous smile. It's time to pull the lever.
Sale of the Century April 6, 2006
Posted by lifejacket in ID Cards & the Surveillance State.add a comment
This chap has the right idea: sell your own identity legitimately before the British government do it illegitimately.
(please give NO2ID a hand, and add this item to your eBay "watch" list)
At least you will have the right to what you're selling; the government have no right to your identity, but will force you to sell it to them anyway for the princely sum of at least £93 if you are renewing a passport from 2008.
They will then sell your details to various agencies (not "sell" in the direct sense, but by way of giving organisations a paid license to access the National Identity Register in order that they can check you aren't a terrorist).
Who knows where your data will go once the database is hacked by identity thieves; or when someone bent in a government department decides they can make a mint by selling whatever they can syphon out of the system without being caught.
You don't believe that will happen? You don't think the government would "sell" your data or disclose it without your knowledge? You don't think anyone with that goldmine at their fingertips will ever abuse their position of authority? Then I'm sorry, but I fear you're very naive.
ID Card Act Draft Code of Practise for Civil Penalties April 5, 2006
Posted by lifejacket in ID Cards & the Surveillance State.add a comment
This is how the government will deal with you if you don't submit to Mr Blair's State Inventory.
(With the usual arse-covering, career-saving disclaimer that "This document is an indicative draft only. It has no legal effect and is subject to consultation and alteration".)
7.3 There is no power of imprisonment for failure to pay a civil penalty.
Excellent. That means that besides not submitting my details to the National Identity Register under any circumstances, as far as possible I'll also be flatly refusing to pay any civil penalties imposed on me.
6.9 As the purpose of the penalty scheme is to encourage compliance rather than to punish,
Eh? Did Andy "Accuracy Tortoise" Burnham write this particular part? Penalties punish. A penalty scheme penalises. It does not "encourage compliance". If it did, it would be offering a carrot for conforming rather than a stick for not conforming. What complete bullshit.
6.13 Only in the most extreme circumstances should that result in cancellation of the penalty. Rather the penalty should be reduced to an amount which is affordable.
6.14 Once the amount of a penalty is fixed, the Secretary of State or the court may agree that it should be paid by instalments in amounts and at times to be agreed
Great. So if for some reason I do decide to accept a fine: "I can afford £2 per month, Your Honour, as I'm self-employed and on breadline wages. You want more? Well I'm sorry, but you can't have it, because I don't. No I don't own a house or anything of value. What are you going to do about my inability or refusal to pay? Send me to jail? I refer you to paragraph 7.3."
A maximum fine of £2500, paid at £2 per month, would take 1250 instalments to pay off. That's 104 years. I'm 34, and according to the official statistics only have about 40 years left. So I'd only pay off around £960 of the original £2500 fine, and that would take me 40 years. So, even if my circumstances improve and I end up paying a little more per month, was it worth the court time? And particularly, will it be worth the court time when you multiply me by the thousands and thousands of people who are in my financial position, or will morally take exactly the same line as me? Because there will be that many people. Probably more than that. Certainly more than the courts can cope with or the administrative systems can process. Count on it.
This intrusive, unasked for, unneeded, unwanted, dare I say even fascist scheme is doomed from the start. It is already unworkable in the very detail; and the large number of us Brits who oppose it will make damn sure it's unworkable on the ground. And as it pauses to take its dying breath in years to come I will be watching, smiling, and raising my middle finger.
London Strategic Voter 2006 April 4, 2006
Posted by lifejacket in Voting & electoral reform.add a comment
Live in London? Want to give New Labour a kicking in the local elections on May 4th, but aren't sure which way to vote?
For the first time, a website has been set up to help you use your vote effectively.
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"Our aim is to make available the information London’s progressive voters need to make the London local elections on 4 May 2006 a crucial part of the process of kicking Tony Blair out of 10 Downing Street, not letting him walk when he chooses.
This site gives you ward-by-ward information on how to maximise the effectiveness of your vote – the best tactical vote against Tony Blair and New Labour in the ward where you live."
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Just enter your postcode, and away you go.
Wherever you may live, if you are so disillusioned that you were thinking of binning your polling cards and not bothering on May 4th, then please think again. New Labour is systematically dismantling British democracy and hard-won British liberties. Blair must go now, preferably taking the rest of his corrupt, self-serving, and morally bankrupt cronies with him.
If your local councils are holding elections on May 4th, you have been handed the opportunity to participate in a massive public statement: a statement that New Labour do not own us, the British people, but are supposed to serve us. That we are not just numbers on a Whitehall identity database, mere items on a state inventory. That we are no longer prepared to listen to New Labour's lies or double-speak, or watch certain people in its ranks abusing their positions and velvet-lining their futures whilst our taxes continue to rise and our own pension plans are being decimated.
If you have the chance to vote in May, you have the opportunity to be part of this protest; thousands of other people have not, as not all areas are holding these elections. Don't let those people down, and ignore the opportunity to speak out where they would dearly love to, but on this occasion cannot. In May, you are their voice. Whatever shade your politics, however disillusioned you are, if you are one of the millions dissatisfied with New Labour, then what personal cost to you is a five or ten minute trip to the polling station? Strategically putting a cross in a box is free, it costs you nothing, yet in our present political situation that cross is of incalculable value to the future of this country.
If you only ever vote once or twice in your life, please make one of those occasions May 4th 2006. Vote strategically and vote New Labour out. Stand up for your country and for your fellow Brits. Please don't squander the opportunity to help pry Tony Blair's fingers from the keys to No. 10, and to tell this government loud and clear that enough is enough.
NO2ID
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