We know lots of people think that ID cards have gone away now that Gordon McBroon has got more important things to think about – but they're wrong. The Home Office still intends that everyone will be fingerprinted and indexed on a central database, whether or not an actual ID card is involved. They may have managed to recruit only a few thousand willing guinea-pigs (we look forward to the anguished squeals when these volunteers discover how big the fines are for not keeping your database record up-to-date), and the start date may have slipped back from 2008 to 2012, but the plan is still for you to pass control of your identity to the state when you apply for a passport.
Meanwhile the Department of Health has engineered a massive mailshot to patients in the run-up to the election. You may have received a letter yourself – or it might have gone missing, nudge nudge, know what I mean? If you did get one, we bet that there was no opt-out form included.
But if you fail to respond, your GP's records on your family may be irreversibly locked into a central database, to be added to and accessed without your consent from that point on. We already know that it won't just be doctors and nurses who can look at your details. Newspaper reports have revealed that NHS administrators, technicians, ambulance personnel, even hospital porters can look at the database. Not to mention myriads of local authority snoopers, because the intention is to make your records available to anyone who has a “legitimate interest” in them, which will no doubt include education chiefs, social workers and the men who organise your dustbin collections. If this worries you, do something about it – speak to your GP now.
The infamous “ContactPoint”, an index of every child in England and Wales, has gone live despite technical faults and security concerns. Putting everyone on the system doesn't make any child safer. Indeed, the existence of a "shielding" scheme denied to most families suggests the reverse. You can't ask for your family's data to be shielded, but MPs and celebrities can. Obviously MPs and celebrities know something the rest of us don't ...
Still, the bastards aren't having it all their own way. The House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee has published a report into The National DNA Database. In it they point out that the detection rate of DNA is not all that the government claim it is and go on to suggest that the database is actually used for “pre-crime”.
The report states "It is currently impossible to say with certainty how many crimes are detected, let alone how many result in convictions, due at least in part to the matching of crime scene DNA to a personal profile already on the database, but it appears that it may be as little as 0.3% - and we note that the reason for retaining personal profiles on a database is so that the person can be linked to crimes he/she commits later".
There you have it. Our government calmly assumes that we are all criminals and takes steps to lay traps for us. You can read the whole report here.
And the newspapers are alive to the evils of the database state. Almost every major national and provincial paper (though possibly not the Catholic Times) recently carried this story ...
A FOI request by the Sun has revealed that 15,000 innocent people have been labelled criminals in the past six years. This equates to seven mistakes a day by the Criminal Records Bureau.
The victims discovered they had been branded sex offenders, violent thugs or fraudsters when they had a CRB check before a new job. Many went through lengthy appeals to clear their names. Most of the bungles involved CRB checks being mixed up, or incorrect details being given out by staff. Others involved police releasing information which was recorded wrongly when an offence was committed.
The Conservative manifesto states that the ISA's 'vetting and barring' regime would be scaled back to a 'common sense level' but would retain the CRB check for those working with children. This rather depends on one's definition of 'common sense'.
The number of child victims of sexual offences are not detailed in the Home Office's annual crime reports, which mix adults and children's statistics and fail to provide a clear picture of offences against children. In addition, evidently no statistics are available regarding stranger attacks and abuse carried out by parents or other family members.
Hence, we do not know whether sexual assaults by those working with children have increased or decreased since CRB checks were introduced and how many such attacks have been perpetrated by adults who have had a clear check. Surely it would be easy and sensible to begin to compile such statistics and then these figures could be compared to the numbers of adults who have had lives and careers ruined by mistakes, false allegations and rumour.
And the logical conclusion? Surely someone who has failed an enhanced CRB check should not be left at home to look after their own children? The social services hit squads are gathering round their unmarked Transit vans as we speak ...
The GOS says: Much of this page was pinched from the Newsletter of the No2ID Campaign. As the election approaches, the Campaign are appealing to us all to make it clear to parliamentary candidates how much we care about issues that affect us and their families. Stopping the database state will require MPs of all parties to pay attention now, and to take decisive action for the long-term.
Express your concerns to candidates and party canvassers directly. Another important way to ensure that the database state is an issue in your area is to write a letter to your local paper. It needn't take long - many local papers now take letters by e-mail. Your letter should be brief (200-250 words is perfect) and to the point: write about one specific issue and why you personally are so concerned. You could challenge every candidate to say what they will do if elected. If published, your letter will be read by thousands of people – maybe more. Even if they don't respond directly, you can be sure that candidates in your area will be taking notice.
Until they get into power, of course. Once they actually arrive in Westminster they'll be too busy putting in expenses claims and lining up a few directorships for later, so sock it to 'em NOW!
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