But Shadow Home Secretary David Davis vowed that if the Tories win the next election his first act as Home Secretary would be “to do away with this Bill”.

Lib Dem MP Nick Clegg said the Bill would “erode privacy, curtail freedom and cost an extraordinary amount”.

He added: “It is a monstrous expansion of big, big government.”

[…]

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006140528,00.html

so in between now and then, you must make sure tha you do not register for the NIR. That no one is registering and the database is virtually empty, with people doing anything they can to avoid going on it, with widespread and vocal hostility and disobedience, we will make the scheme look totally pathetic.

Anyone who willingly registers  is now an enemy of Great Britain and the British people.

‘Labour isn’t wicked – but it’s doing just what the Nazis did’

That is the headline of an article in The Telegraph an asonishing headline and attack, and a part of the fallout from the anonymous email that is breaking the hypnotic spell that the wholley owned subsidiary of Murder Inc. has spread over this great nation.

Once again, these are pretty strong words…surprisingly strong.

When Lord Armstrong rises to amend the government’s ID cards bill in the House of Lords tomorrow, a new stage will be reached in the epic struggle between the Lords and the forces of darkness in the House of Commons.

The former cabinet secretary is a crossbencher, and he takes his political neutrality seriously, so we can trust his constitutional instincts. His case simply concerns the issue of truth, and in effect he will propose that the Labour government must come clean with the British public about its intentions. And that can only be done by delaying the ID cards scheme until after a general election.

As things stand, Labour made a manifesto commitment to introduce the cards on a voluntary basis. Charles Clark went back on that promise by insisting that all those who apply for a new passport must submit 49 pieces of personal information to the national identity register. In practice, therefore, the scheme becomes compulsory for anyone wanting to apply for, or renew, a passport.

Lord Armstrong’s case is that this deception allows the Lords to ignore the Salisbury convention, which normally dictates that the Lords do not oppose the government on the second reading of a measure that was in its manifesto. In other words, the measures as presented last year at the election have changed radically because of this compulsion.

If the Lords have their way, it will mean the compulsory introduction will be delayed until 2011, well after a general election, which will give the public a second chance to examine and debate the proposals. This would not suit the government, because the public is gradually coming to understand the bill’s grave consequences for personal freedom.

Blair may decide to invoke the Parliament Act, the machinery that allows the House of Commons to overrule the Lords when the two houses reach an impasse on a bill. My bet is that he will do so, even though deception is involved, because the longer the ID card bill is delayed, the more people become familiar with its hidden purpose.

People are beginning to see that ID cards are not being introduced so that they can identify themselves but rather so that the government can identify them and keep track of every important transaction in their lives. […]

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/

They will never pull this off. ‘Forces of Darkness’?! There has been a sea change in the media, the public is waking up slowly. They will not get away with this. Henry Porter is only one of the voices spelling out precisely what all of this means, and just how horrible it really is.

“Bill of Rights 1688”

An Act Declareing the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and Setleing the Succession of the Crowne

Whereas the Lords Spirituall and Temporall and Commons assembled at Westminster lawfully fully and freely representing all the Estates of the People of this Realme did upon the thirteenth day of February in the yeare of our Lord one thousand six hundred eighty eight present unto their Majesties then called and known by the Names and Stile of William and Mary Prince and Princesse of Orange being present in their proper Persons a certaine Declaration in Writeing made by the said Lords and Commons in the Words following viz

Whereas the late King James the Second by the Assistance of diverse evill Counsellors Judges and Ministers imployed by him did endeavour to subvert and extirpate the Protestant Religion and the Lawes and Liberties of this Kingdome

1. By Assumeing and Exerciseing a Power of Dispensing with and Suspending of Lawes and the Execution of Lawes without consent of Parlyament.

Bringing EU law into UK law.

2. By Committing and Prosecuting diverse Worthy Prelates for humbly Petitioning to be excused from Concurring to the said Assumed Power.

3. By issueing and causeing to be executed a Commission under the Great Seale for Erecting a Court called The Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiasticall Causes.

4. By Levying Money for and to the Use of the Crown by pretence of Prerogative for other time and in other manner than the same was granted by Parlyament.

Spending money for War without permission of the population.

5. By raising and keeping a Standing Army within this Kingdome in time of Peace without Consent of Parlyament and Quartering Soldiers contrary to Law.

Military industrial complex.

6. By causing several good Subjects being Protestants to be disarmed at the same time when Papists were both Armed and Imployed contrary to Law.

Banning guns after a single incedent.

7. By Violating the Freedome of Election of Members to serve in Parlyament.

Postal Ballots.

8. By Prosecutions in the Court of Kings Bench for Matters and Causes cognizable onely in Parlyament and by diverse other Arbitrary and Illegal Courses.

Secret court sessions; terrorism act.

9. And whereas of late years Partial Corrupt and Unqualifyed Persons have been returned and served on Juryes in Tryalls and particularly diverse Jurors in Tryalls for High Treason which were not Freeholders.

Ending trial by jury. Introducing double jeopardy.

10. And excessive Baile hath beene required of Persons committed in Criminall Cases to elude the Benefitt of the Lawes made for the Liberty of the Subjects.

Tagging of prisoners.

11. And excessive Fines have been imposed.

Taxes taxes and more taxes, and fines.

12. And illegall and cruell Punishments inflicted.

Rendition. Guantanamo.

13. And severall Grants and Promises made of Fines and Forfeitures before any Conviction or Judgement against the Personsupon whome the same were to be levied.

‘Criminals’ can now have their assets siezed without reason. Transfers of cash must now be reported to government if they are ‘too big’.

All which are utterly and directly contrary to the known Lawes and Statutes and Freedome of this Realme. […]

http://zenblues.blogspot.com/

We have been here before it seems.

Parliament must be completely reformed and made into a tool whose sole purpose is to serve the population. That means they must be made into street sweepers and ditch clearers. International shenanigans, intrigue, nation building, border drawing –  none of this has anything to do with clean streets and our rights.

Michael Geist reports that the Alberta government has proposed legislation that blocks the US Patriot act:

The Alberta government last week introduced Bill 20, which is designed to stop compelled disclosures of personal information under the USA Patriot Act. The bill creates fines of up to $500,000 for violating provincial laws governing disclosure of records. The fines arise for violation of the following provision:

“A person must not wilfully disclose personal information to which this Act applies pursuant to a subpoena, warrant or order issued or made by a court, person or body having no jurisdiction in Alberta to compel the production of information or pursuant to a rule of court that is not binding in Alberta.”

With B.C. and Alberta leading the way on this issue, the pressure for action at the federal level should continue to grow.

The link to the Bill will provide more detail. This current Alberta government is interesting as it has always had a perplexing stance on privacy laws. While it writes bills to improve privacy and protection of information for every citizen of the province, Premier Klein has also made a new bureaucratic (new as in the last decade) office solely directed towards the purpose of limiting the public’s access to the goings-on of the provincial government (of course it’s not advertised as such but just TRY to get some information Klein doesn’t want you to get). Quite an interesting paradox because that information is NOT private is belongs to every citizen of the province, including myself.

Also interesting about this rather progressive legislation is that on the other hand, the AB Government’s health care legislation is completely REgressive, aiming to replace our public medicare with US-style profit-based health insurance (the talking heads deny this, but we KNOW it to be true).

Off-Topic, last night I saw the movie for “V for Vendetta,” which while being a watered down version of the great graphic novels, is still a good movie by it’s own right (even though Alan Moore’s name doesn’t appear in the credits, and despite a single innapropriate Wachowski-Brothers fight scene). It provides some great extrapolating of the current ID-and-Surveillance madness in Britain, especially a scene in which V uses Evey’s ID-card to commit a crime, thereby implicating her instead. The policemen on the case know that it’s unlikely she did it, but the government goes along with it because it’s not only easier, but they CAN. Don’t TELL me this wouldn’t happen in real life! Another great scenes involves a routine patrol van canvassing a neighborhood at night, listening to every phoneline and coversation they pass, monitoring and logging any cases of sedition or independant thought. That being said, the fascist National Front-esque government portrayed is still a bit soft compared to what WE know they are capable of.

PS: There maybe should be a category for Film?

What with the cold weather and assorted other things I’ve noticed if I’m not smiling (or on the positive side of neutral) when I’m wearing earphones the sound is much flatter and deadened. It must be because smiling pushes your ears out slightly and changes the resonant space in your ear slightly.
Maybe the ‘iPod effect’ is owners of new toys being happy whilst listening to their music and noticing the improvement in the sound. Maybe it’s not smugness after all, just satisfaction.

Talking of which I think African Head Charge’s ‘Hymn’ must be the happiest piece of music I’ve heard.

One to watch:

http://www.infowarsmedia.com/video/shows/030106_camps_free_30min_bb.mov

Alex Jones right on target, and ‘on fire’.

A link from this broadcast:

News Analysis/Commentary, Peter Dale Scott,
New America Media, Feb 21, 2006

Editor’s Note: A recently announced contract for a Halliburton subsidiary to build immigrant detention facilities is part of a longer-term Homeland Security plan titled ENDGAME, which sets as its goal the removal of “all removable aliens” and “potential terrorists.” Scott is author of “Drugs, Oil, and War: The United States in Afghanistan, Colombia, and Indochina” (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003). He is completing a book on “The Road to 9/11.” Visit his Web site at http://www.peterdalescott.net.

The Halliburton subsidiary KBR (formerly Brown and Root) announced on Jan. 24 that it had been awarded a $385 million contingency contract by the Department of Homeland Security to build detention camps. Two weeks later, on Feb. 6, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced that the Fiscal Year 2007 federal budget would allocate over $400 million to add 6,700 additional detention beds (an increase of 32 percent over 2006). This $400 million allocation is more than a four-fold increase over the FY 2006 budget, which provided only $90 million for the same purpose.

Both the contract and the budget allocation are in partial fulfillment of an ambitious 10-year Homeland Security strategic plan, code-named ENDGAME, authorized in 2003. According to a 49-page Homeland Security document on the plan, ENDGAME expands “a mission first articulated in the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798.” Its goal is the capability to “remove all removable aliens,” including “illegal economic migrants, aliens who have committed criminal acts, asylum-seekers (required to be retained by law) or potential terrorists.” […]

http://news.pacificnews.org/

An 82-year-old Women’s Institute stalwart has been asked to remove her hat in a pub – because staff claimed it was a security risk. […]  “I mulled it over and then thought ‘How ridiculous!‘ “.

[…]
Pub licensee Tony Love said it was pub policy to always ask people to remove their hats. …”Mrs Wilbraham does not understand that the world is changing.”

…

Wrong. Mrs Wilbraham obviously understands the changes better than Mr Love. She immediately and correctly identified the changes as ‘ridiculous!’. Mr Love thinks being filmed while in a pub is a normal way for society to progress. He is blind and stupid.

…

I also wanted to point out this as a fantastic read. The Chinese have had enough of being hit by rocks tossed by their friends in the glass house. Every single page is fabulous.

MPs overturned previous Lords defeats on the ID Cards Bill

Government plans to make all passport applicants also have an ID card have been defeated in the Lords.Peers voted by a majority of 61 to overturn the proposal – backed by MPs last month – for a second time.

Opposition peers say the plans break the government’s promise that ID cards will initially be voluntary.

…

The UK and other countries must introduce biometric passports by October to remain part of the US visa waiver scheme, which makes travel to America easier.
[…]

On this latter point…

Remember: this is the government of my country changing my passport requirements – putting my biometric details on a database – at the request of another country.

And will that country get access to that database when some British mug wants to enter The Land Of The Free?

So obviously, if I put on my passport application that I don’t want to travel to the USA, or that I don’t mind getting a visa, I can opt out of having a biometric passport.

N’est pas?

No, me neither.

Al Quaida strikes again!

Update:

Clunk vows to continue ID battle

“I hope the Lords will recognise that this manifesto commitment, voted through by the elected chamber, should be respected,” Mr Clarke told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

[…]

OK. And the manifesto commitment is (was)…

On page 52 of its 111 pages, under the heading “Strong and Secure Borders”, the Labour 2005 manifesto said:

“We will introduce ID cards, including biometric data like fingerprints, backed up by a national register and rolling out initially on a voluntary basis as people renew their passports“.

[…] From David Davis.
As one Lord put it last night, and as this site has said recently…

[Lord Phillips of Sudbury, a Liberal Democrat, said] … describing the ID card scheme as voluntary was stretching the English language to breaking point. He went on: “It’s not often it’s left to the opposition to make sure the government honours its manifesto pledges.”