(Institute for Fiscal Studies, April 2005)

The area under the line represents how much your life is p0wn3d by the State.

————————————————–

“Government, what long arms you have!”
“All the better to arrest you with, my dear.”

“Government, what big lies you have!”
“All the better to ruin you with, my child.”

“Government, what big fears you make!”
“All the better to scare you with, my child.”

“Government, what big cctv you have!”
“All the better to see you with, my child.”

“Government, what big taxes you get!”
“All the better to beat you up with.”

In order to address the ongoing problem of teenage pregnancies the government has launched their latest programme. In addition to safer-sex education teenagers will now be able to verify their ID cards in order to buy subsidised contraceptive devices (or receiving them free of charge from their GP), a spokesman said “this will also allow teachers to provide additional support to teenagers who are sexually active” when asked whether this would simply deter people from buying contraception he replied “within the framework of effective sexual education throughout secondary education youngsters will realise the necessity of safe sex and appreciate the chance to buy contraception at a price they can afford.

—

Since the scheme was introduced earlier this year it has had some embarrasing consequences for a small number of teenagers. JT a 16 year old boy, has a typical story, he had bought condoms and verified his ID card, he then went to the cinema with his 15 year old girlfriend who showed her junior ID card in order to see a 15-rated film. “I was surprised on the monday morning, I was told to see to the school’s health care worker who gave me a lecture on underage sex and how I could get an ASBO or worse if I carried on”. Unfortunately for JT he ignored this advice another three times and found himself with an ASBO barring him from contact with his girlfriend until she reaches 16, his parents were also fined £200 for not correcting his behaviour after being sent a letter outlining the situation.

Rumsfeld sued over Pentagon’s recruiting database

[…]

The Pentagon last year acknowledged it had created a database of 12 million Americans, full of personal data such as grades and Social Security numbers, to help find potential military recruits.

The Pentagon has defended the practice as critical to the success of the all-volunteer U.S. military, and said it was sensitive to privacy concerns.

[…]

Washington Post

So do you think they only compiled a database of ‘good guys’ or, rather, do you think they stopped profiling of people who were found not to be useful to the Pentagon?

Do you think that with the continuous testing and assessment in UK schools something similar hasn’t been (or couldn’t be) devised in the UK?

When they have NIR information do you think the government/security forces won’t be tempted to try something much larger?

Do you think the companies that will be paying for NIR information will simply bin it after verifying your ID or do you think they will ‘optimise their investment’?

Do you think we should even give them the chance to do this?

(Ha, beaten to it while I was working! Darn you and your socks!)

It looks like the government are finally seeing what hatred their piratical mutiny of HMS UK propogates. You will see that not only the readers of the Guardian will not take the bullshit proffered by the Home Secretary but neither will the editor of The Telegraph, and let them be aware this is the tip of the iceberg, they would do well to remember they only have the ‘mandate’ of roughly 20% of the electorate.

Indeed not only does Hogwash peddle the same old lies about the impact of his legislation, he introduces misleading conflations about those who write agianst the government. He twists the comparison from history of the way the Nazis imposed ever increasingly authoritarian and discriminatory legislation into some spiel about the Holocaust, this is incorrect (google – holocaust and blair or clarke,…) and oversimplifies the tragedies of the Nazi regime to the killing of Jews.
The comparison stacks up – the (ab)use of the media is comparable, the cynical ‘populism’ is comparable, the creation of an ‘Other’ within our society is comparable, the inventorising of the people is comparable, the brazenly simplistic belief in ‘technology’ to cure society is comparable, the monomania of their policies is comparable.
The comparison is made not out of spite or delusion but because it is relevant, we can learn from history even if it isn’t exactly the same as our times. The people will not forget history no matter how much Neu Labour try to assert 1997 as year zero – to abolish history and in so doing try to remove the notion of a different future.
Talk of how the situation may worsen in the face of legislation and schemes that are poorly defined (Terrorism Act), spiteful (directed against Brian Haw ‘s demonstration), inefficient (ANPR, NIR, ID cards), counter to the UK way of life (NIR, ID cards) is not only legitimate it is absolutely necessary when the government steadfastly refuses to any voice against them – if it is the case that people only pay attention when ministers are called Nazis then that is what will be done.
If it the case that people need to refuse to cooperate then that is what will be done.

[…]

I know many people—I am one of them—who were not born here, nor have the applied for citizenship, and who yet love America with deeper passion and greater intensity that many natives whose patriotism manifests itself by pulling, kicking, and insulting those who do not rise when the national anthem is played. Our patriotism is that of the man who loves a woman with open eyes. He is enchanted by her beauty, yet he sees her faults. So we, too, who know America, love her beauty, her richness, her great possibilities ; we love her mountains, her canyons, her forests, her Niagara, and her deserts—above all do we love the people that have produced her wealth, her artists who have created beauty, her great apostles who dream and work for liberty—but with the same passionate emotion we hate her superficiality, her cant, her corruption, her mad, unscrupulous worship at the alter of the Golden Calf.

We say that if America has entered the war to make the world safe for democracy, she must first make democracy safe in America. How else is the world to take America seriously, when democracy at home is daily being outrages, free speech suppressed, peaceable assemblies broken up by overbearing and brutal gangsters in uniform ; when free press is curtailed and every independent opinion gagged. Verily, poor as we are in democracy, how can we give of it to the world? We further say that a democracy conceived in the military servitude of the masses, in their economic enslavement, and nurtured in their tears and blood, is not democracy at all. It is despotism—the cumulative result of a chain of abuses which, according to the dangerous document ,the Declaration of Independence, the people have the right to overthrow.

The District Attorney has dragged in our Manifesto, and he has emphasized the passage, “Resist conscription.” Gentlemen of the jury, please remember that that is not the charge against us. But admitting that the Manifesto contains the expression, “Resist conscription,” may I ask you, is there only one kind of resistance? Is there only the resistance which means the gun, the bayonet, the bomb or flying machine? Is there not another kind of resistance? May not the people simply fold their hands and declare, “We will not fight when we do not believe in the necessity of war”? May not the people who believe in the repeal of the Conscription Law, because it is unconstitutional, express their opposition in word and by pen, in meetings and in other ways? What right has the District Attorney to interpret that particular passage to suit himself? Moreover, gentlemen of the jury, I insist that the indictment against us does not refer to conscription. We are charged with a conspiracy against registration. And in no way or manner has the prosecution proven that we are guilty of conspiracy or that we have committed an overt act.

[…]

Emma Goldman

And others

In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps:

collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist;
negotiation;
self-purification;
and direct action.

[…]

As in so many past experiences, our hopes bad been blasted, and the shadow of deep disappointment settled upon us. We had no alternative except to prepare for direct action, whereby we would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case before the conscience of the local and the national community. Mindful of the difficulties involved, we decided to undertake a process of self-purification. We began a series of workshops on nonviolence, and we repeatedly asked ourselves : “Are you able to accept blows without retaliating?” “Are you able to endure the ordeal of jail?” We decided to schedule our direct-action program for the Easter season, realizing that except for Christmas, this is the main shopping period of the year. Knowing that a strong economic with with-drawal program would be the by-product of direct action, we felt that this would be the best time to bring pressure to bear on the merchants for the needed change.

[…]

You may well ask: “Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You are quite right in calling, for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent-resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word “tension.” I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, we must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood.

[…]

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct-action campaign that was “well timed” in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word “Wait!” It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This “Wait” has almost always meant ‘Never.” We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that “justice too long delayed is justice denied.”

[…]

We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was “legal” and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was “illegal.” It was “illegal” to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler’s Germany. Even so, I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at the time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers. If today I lived in a Communist country where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I would openly advocate disobeying that country’s antireligious laws.

[…]

Martin Luther King’s letter from Birmingham jail

Visitors to the UK’s biggest cities will be tagged and tracked by a network of cameras in a revolutionary system to tighten security while also providing a personalised alibi for the general public.

Police in Manchester will be fitting visitors with wrist bands containing tiny Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips in the ultimate big-brother system.

Visitors will be watched as they use the city and will be filmed on streets.

At the end of the day they will ‘store their alibi’ in a proprietory HDTV format.

Technology experts at Stasi Solutions, the firm behind the project, say it will also make the city more secure, with the tags used to track lost children and cut crime.

Stasi Solutions joined forces with Sony to provide the system, called Your Life, which could also be introduced to Bush Gardens, in Florida and Halliburtonia, Baghdad.

Ali Baba, from YourLife, said: “It will involve cameras being strategically placed along the paths and at crime photo-opportunity locations.

“The cameras will be used to track and video visitors while they experience the city’s attractions.

“These personalised video clips will then be routed, catalogued and digitally stored, ready for the SOCA to pick up in a tailored HD format when they require it.”

He added: “In addition to using Sony video cameras to capture the guest’s experience in the city, the cameras can also be utilised to provide additional security protection in the event of break-ins or acts of vandalism.”

Hans Burger, from Stasi Solutions, said: “Our aim is to give the police the opportunity to view their unique day time and time again through secure digital video footage.”

Original story here and elswhere. Of course ITRW you would only need to install a network of RFID detectors and cross reference with CCTV as and when (to keep costs down).

An IRS Privacy Nightmare

April 11, 2006

This column was written by Peter Rothberg.

The IRS has quietly proposed astounding new rules which would allow tax preparers to sell the contents of their client’s tax returns to third-party businesses, as long as a requisite form is signed. Historically, tax returns were a strictly private affair, with both tax preparers and IRS agents forbidden to share the info with anyone for any reason. But this could all change if the IRS’s blatant corporate giveaway is passed. That’s great news for “data-brokers” like Choicepoint that make tens of millions of dollars selling personal information to corporate marketers.

Here’s how the new rules would work: When you visit your accountant or a tax-preparation firm like H&R Block, your tax preparer would ask you to sign a form authorizing them to release your information at their discretion. Once you sign that form, your tax preparer has permission to sell or share the information contained in your tax filings. You have no control over how that data will be used, who will get it, or whether it will be adequately safeguarded from identity thieves.

[…]

I assume your SSN is on US tax returns and this would be replaced by a RealID number and these can be cross referenced to health care provision, your driver’s license, credit card company, real estate. It’s almost as if they want your personal information to be insecure – so they can develop a ‘solution’ to their imposed problem.

Total Insanity!!!!!!

In case you think traces of data on your hard disk is an unlikely source of ID theft here’s a couple of easy ways NIR information can be gathered with minimal effort (and therefore maximum profit!!!!). And remember because NIR information will be ‘valid’ in perpetuity it can be traded long after the information is stolen (and even if it is encrypted it will be just like futures options on the stock exchange, people will be willing to bet on whether the encryption can be readily broken or bypassed).

Scenario 1:
You’re 21 looking 18.
You’re at the off license.
You have an NIR linked ID card.
You have a credit card.

You let your card be verified against the NIR, he asks you to take a fingerprint scan
The retailer has a recorder box between the RFID scanner and the NIR connection and skims the RFID & fingerprint data, he has also put some thin film on the fingerprint scanner which now has your fingerprint on it.

You pay with your credit card
The retailer skims your credit card information

You get your beer
The retailer gets the information transmitted by your ID card, the NIR ready data from your fingerprint, a valid fingerprint for the ID card, your credit card details – he can use these directly or sell this information to someone else (or both)

—

Scenario 2:

You are at a restaurant
You leave your coat with the waiter
Your wallet is in your coat

Your ID & credit cards are in your wallet
The waiter skims all your cards with a stand alone reader while you are at your table

You are handed a laminated menu
You leave your fingerprints all over the menu, the waiter takes care to only touch the top edge of the menu

You go home having a nice meal
The waiter lifts your prints off the menu and sells this with your card information

—

Although card skimming can be done now it is simple to invalidate your current credit card number and get a new one.
You cannot get new fingerprints, and you cannot invalidate them if access to public services and your own money depends on them.

This story about physical data traces on hard disks was on the digg front page. (A known problem addressed by a number of programs). But it raises a few questions:

Will the server disks for the NIR have an audited destruction procedure?
Likewise all disks for companies and services accessing NIR information?
Will ‘free space’ on such disks be frequently and systematically erased?
Will there be enforcable methods for immediately erasing data in temporary files on all computers accessing NIR information?

Every time you answered ‘probably not’ is an opportunity for NIR information to be stored onto a hard disk and retrieved in a way similar to the article (and there are plenty of other ways). Every such answer is another reason not to register.

And when I say all computers I include your local NHS Trust, your banking & mortgage adviser, DVLA, car rental firms, IPS, travel agents, any company that verifies credit card purchases agianst NIR, law enforcement officers here and abroad (and companies with RIPA powers), etc, etc.

Voters Revolt

Brief Summary

Britain is embroiled in an almighty battle between “us” and “them” – the voters of Britain versus the new ruling class which ignores our views. Our elected representatives are under the thumb of the political establishment. The forces of bureaucracy and political correctness are throttling the rights and liberties of the people.

Slowly we are being herded into a police state from which it will be hard to break free. We must act now. We must force the parties to reform the system and give power back to us.

The British people will not tolerate this attack on their liberty. We must leave the political establishment in no doubt that at the next general election many will vote for the party which is most committed to giving power back to the people.

They won’t want to listen. They will fight to keep the power they have taken from us. We must therefore stand firm and use the power that STRENGTH IN NUMBERS gives us. We must send the politicians a very clear message that their lives are about to change!

The Mass Withholding of Council Tax

The mass withholding of Council Tax is one weapon at our disposal. It would be much more effective than isolated individual protests and far less risky. A mass withholding would demonstrate the number of votes at stake and the determined resolve of those taking part. The parties have to be convinced we can affect the result of the next election. This action will not be necessary if the parties accept that they must take steps to restore our democracy.

One to watch.

It is time for new labour legislation in this province. At present, it is too one-sided. Individual rights are being totally ignored.

We have far too many strikes in Saskatchewan, which could have been prevented if we had some politicians with a little backbone. It appears they are only interested in the public at election time for votes.

Controversial issues are not touched or discussed.

Unionized employees of the Sobey’s grocery store on south Albert Street have been on strike for six months. It is a great store with honest, hard-working and self-reliant workers.

[…]

If joining a union is so good for its members, then way should they be forced to join? It should be voluntary, as in other organizations.

If a union member is not satisfied with the salary or working conditions, then he or she should look elsewhere for a job that fulfills all expectations and demands.

Compulsory unionism is called “the new slavery” because once a union has been voted into a workplace, there is no going back, especially for workers who didn’t want to join in the first place. Freedom of association is lost in the labour movement and in its place is coercion of its members. Coercion is contrary to all principles of freedom.

The Leader Post

[…]

You get the picture.

And in case you think I use that article because I couldn’t easily find harsh words about the UK government:

From time to time I, like many of us, muse on what is wrong with the people who run our country. Are they stupid? Are they naïve? Or are they actually downright wicked?

[…]

Consider, for example, the likely outcome of possibly the nastiest Bill to go before Parliament since the Six Acts of 1819, the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill. The Commons has given a second reading to this Bill, which would increase the already great ability of ministers to bypass Parliament in enacting, repealing or amending (according to Clause 2 of the Bill) “any legislation”. The Bill would especially be used, if enacted, to import EU law into our own without any parliamentary scrutiny, but could be used for even worse things besides.

[…]

Frankly, these plans are so absolutist that one could make a strong case that the Queen should abdicate rather than give her assent to either of them.

To obviate that horror she, Parliament and the British public must demand a straight answer to a straight and vital question: what is so wrong with our democracy that Labour wishes so ruthlessly to end it?

There have been quite a few views aired like this in the Telegraph recently, by ‘Establishment’ figures, it makes wonder whether there was a time when the nobs could simply ‘arrange an accident’ for ‘here today gone tomorrow’ political figures.

The notion that queen should abdicate rather than assent to the legislation talked about is interesting – is it a veiled call for her loyal subjects to oppose the proposed laws? Like I say interesting, and on a day when the Guardian publishes a piece explicitely citing Marx!

The new UK Identity and Passport Service, spawned out of the Passport Service after the ID Cards Act became law on Saturday, has celebrated its birth by trying to stop people renewing their passports whenever they want to, whether or not the passport is about to expire. The change in terms and conditions has been slipped into the website without announcement, and is quite clearly ID card related. [The Register]

Basically you can guarantee that if your ‘strategy’ is to look for loopholes in current legislation you are a sitting target and being as useful as going on a demonstration.
The government are making certain that you will have to *fight* for your rights if you want to return this country to a free, peaceable, libertarian democracy.

Edit:
The IPS site now has the fact you can renew your passport at any time on it. But the points above stand, legislation can and most likely will be amended to suit the government – loopholes are pretty trivial to close especially so if the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill is enacted.

So cock-up or a symptom of the endemic bullying of the Home Office?

Water cannon could be used to quash street protests (Guardian)

Water cannon could soon be used to quell serious civil disturbances on British streets after a successful display of their effectiveness to senior police officers. […]

What are the government going to do next that they feel is BEYOND DOUBT that people will protest against?

It could be an attack on Iran – the US talk has shifted from recent events to a so called 20 year history of nuclear activity (the ‘ we’ve tried for yars and this is our last resort excuse’).

Quite why a government with the backing of 20% of the population (max) feels it needs to pursue policies that it obviously knows the country does no want is beyond me, especially when most people want to just get on with their lives and do something useful rather than need to be bothered with whatever treachery and piracy the government is up to.

*They* obviously want a fight. But I still can’t understand why they want to go to such lengths to do it.

Talking of riots and such, the French riots are being somewhat underreported by UK press don’t you think?

Can the Home Office be trusted, asks MP [Do we even need to ask, says Me!]
JAMIE LYONS [for the Scotsman]

THE Home Office was yesterday accused of showing a “casual disregard” for taxpayers’ cash after criticism from spending watchdogs.
The Auditor General was forced to issue a “disclaimer of opinion” on the Home Office’s accounts because of fundamental problems with them.
It led a member of the Commons public accounts committee to ask whether taxpayers could trust the Home Office’s handling of money.

[…]

And he singled out the Home Office for particular criticism. He said its accounts presented “such fundamental problems” that he had to issue a disclaimer of opinion because of the lack of audit evidence which he needed to reach an opinion on the truth and fairness of the accounts.
Sir John said the Home Office had not maintained complete financial books and records during the year and as a result was unable to deliver its accounts for audit on time.
The Tory MP Richard Bacon, who sits on the public accounts committee, said the Home Office had shown a “casual disregard for the use of taxpayers’ money”.
And he called for Sir John Gieve, a former Home Office permanent secretary and now deputy governor of the Bank of England, to be called back to explain the “mess” to parliament.

He said: “How can taxpayers possibly have any confidence in the proper use of their money if the Home Office cannot even reconcile its cash?”

Looks like we can’t even guarantee how much of our money will be wasted by the shennanigans of Captain Hogwash and his Home Office pirates. Avast Behind!

Gum Blondes

via wackydoodler