NO2ID Worcester

For the first time in I dont know how long, the NO2ID Worcester group has been sparked back into action by myself (Mark) and 5 others whom were awesome enough to turn up to the meeting yesterday. All gathered at the PortoBello Inn to discuss the past and previous plans for the Worcester group.

Our attendees:

Brain Gladman, Mark, Matt Johnson, Carol Haden, Maureen, Dave

Those there in spirit but not in person:

• Tom Saville & partner
• George & partner
• David Hall
• Oz and Deb

Please do give me a nudge if I have forgotten you via worcester[at]no2id.net.

What did you talk about?

ID and Privacy

Firstly we covered what he had heard and knew in general. Some of the group had been out of the loop with ID cards for sometime now however all of us were a little concerned about the related finger printing at Terminal 5….aside from losing those 28,000 bags :P.

The Hidden Message in TV Programming

Anyone watch the recently finished BBC series The Last Enemy? Those whom have heard of the National ID Card  and the National Identity Register should wonder…

“Hang on, this is what society could turn into if this stuff got rolled out”

The later episodes show Steven (main character) almost completely cut off from participating in society. Being refused entry to pretty much any building, tracked through the Rail Network with his ID card, having his mobile phone usage revoked and being unable to sell his own property because his ID card was no longer being allowed to function.

Concentrate the Efforts

I put forward where I felt was most important to concentrate our efforts in the coming days/weeks/months. The government wishes to bring this in by stealth and for 2008 at least wish to target younger individuals most likely students, we shall play them at their own game.This is best done by notifying students of the issues for them and why they might not want an ID card.

Showing students the issues with ID cards that affect things they enjoy will get a far greater reaction than putting forward the whole set of issues.

The importance of speaking to student unions on this issue is also of great importance. Brain suggested that our web site should be live before we approach unions so his advice was taken on this matter, not a bad idea..gives them something to look at :P. The National Union of Students has already expressed concerns about the issue of ID Cards however its important for the unions to set their positions to an absolute “NO”.

We cannot allow students to be gotten to this way. The upcoming local elections and the soon to be generals may well see key parts of the current labour government holding back on pushing our young students towards this.

Flyers

Some eye catching flyers have been planned. Carol has also offered to do some drawing work for us which is most appreciated. Look out for these flyers at a location near you! Hopefully proof that NO2ID posters can get students behind us too. We plan to focus these on issues of high relevance such as the social and inconvenience issues.