Toby Stevens, of the Enterprise Privacy Group, believes a shortage of fingerprint scanners could lead to an explosion in “flash and dash” fraud. And that, he says, could scupper the scheme before it gets off the ground. The Home Office has said it will set up a hotline for traders concerned about the authenticity of ID cards. via BBC NEWS | Politics | ID card ‘flash and dash’ warning.
Tags: 1984, Incompetence, Privacy
A mob of Britain’s finest eccentrics will gather in central London on February 28th. Their ranks will include outspoken novelists, radical lawyers and fed-up judges. David Davis, an unusual MP who left the shadow cabinet to wage guerrilla war from the backbenches, will be there; so will Shami Chakrabarti, the relentless head of Liberty, a pressure group. Several of those attending can sometimes seem pious; but in a stubborn, deeply English way, many are rather magnificent. The occasion is the […]
Tags: 1984, Liberty, Privacy, The Economist
From the Convention’s “Abolition of Freedom Act 2009”: One of the problems with the erosion of liberty in Britain over the last decade was that the public failed to pay attention to what was happening in Parliament. Laws that fundamentally challenged our traditions of rights and liberty and flew in the face of the Human Rights Act (“HRA”) were passed with relatively little debate. Few grasped the impact they would have on our society and Ministers were able to brush […]
Tags: 1984, Davis, Liberty, New Labour, Privacy, Rule of Law
How I look forward to The Convention on Modern Liberty: Sir David Omand, the former Whitehall security and intelligence co-ordinator, sets out a blueprint for the way the state will mine data – including travel information, phone records and emails – held by public and private bodies and admits: “Finding out other people’s secrets is going to involve breaking everyday moral rules.” via Fight against terror ‘spells end of privacy’ | UK news | The Guardian . Sir David’s IPPR […]
Tags: 1984, Campaigns, IPPR, Liberty, Privacy, Terrorism
Via Spy chief: We risk a police state – Telegraph: Dame Stella [Rimington, ex-head of MI5,] accused ministers of interfering with people’s privacy and playing straight into the hands of terrorists. “Since I have retired I feel more at liberty to be against certain decisions of the Government, especially the attempt to pass laws which interfere with people’s privacy,” Dame Stella said in an interview with a Spanish newspaper. “It would be better that the Government recognised that there are […]
Tags: 1984, Authoritarianism, Campaigns, Liberty, Policing, Privacy, Rule of Law
The government is compiling a database to track and store the international travel records of millions of Britons. Computerised records of all 250 million journeys made by individuals in and out of the UK each year will be kept for up to 10 years. The government says the database is essential in the fight against crime, illegal immigration and terrorism. via BBC NEWS | UK | Government plans travel database.
The steady expansion of the “surveillance society” risks undermining fundamental freedoms including the right to privacy, according to a House of Lords report published today. The peers say Britain has constructed one of the most extensive and technologically advanced surveillance systems in the world in the name of combating terrorism and crime and improving administrative efficiency. via House of Lords: rise of CCTV is threat to freedom | UK news | The Guardian. Also: The House of Lords report on […]
Via Police set to step up hacking of home PCs – Times Online – digg story: THE Home Office has quietly adopted a new plan to allow police across Britain routinely to hack into people’s personal computers without a warrant. The move, which follows a decision by the European Union’s council of ministers in Brussels, has angered civil liberties groups and opposition MPs. They described it as a sinister extension of the surveillance state which drives “a coach and horses” […]
Tags: 1984, Authoritarianism, Liberty, Privacy
It looks as if it is time to pronounce the last rites for pay as you drive charging. Good. We are already taxed according to the efficiency of our cars and the distance we drive them through fuel duty. Thankfully, we may now escape being tracked wherever we go. read more | digg story Update: But it appears New Labour have little interest in what people want: The crushing rejection of a congestion charging scheme by voters in Manchester has […]
Tags: 1984, Democracy, Liberty, Privacy, Road pricing, Tax
An article illustrating the value of patience (but how difficult it is to be patient in the face of such a scheme): The public’s faith in ID cards has slumped in the wake of a series of data loss scandals by the Government. Those in favour of the card now stand at just 55 per cent after dropping from 60 per cent in August. At the same time, opposition to the £4.7 billion scheme grew from 24 to 26 per […]
Tags: ID Cards, Liberty, Privacy
Steve Baker is the Conservative MP for Wycombe.
Steve was first elected to Parliament in 2010. He was previously an RAF engineer officer then a consulting software engineer. Find out more...
Steve holds regular surgeries in High Wycombe. If you would like an appointment, please contact me.
