Tag Archives: id cards

Gareth Epps writes: Don’t fix the conference accreditation process – break it!

By Gareth Epps | Published 6th September 2011 - 4:17 pm

I am writing this from the position of having – after two false starts – finally been ‘processed’
or ‘accredited’ by the police in order to exercise my right as a member of this proud and democratic party. This has come after delay, rejection of my form, and increasingly agitated discussion with various people wasting vast amounts of time. Suffice to say that in my 11 years on Conference Committee, I would never have accepted the imposition of such a system. I am possibly luckier, too, than some Conference-goers in knowing how Conference is organised, and who has the ultimate responsibility …

Posted in Conference | Also tagged #ldconf, greater manchester police | 25 Comments

Forgotten Liberal heroes: Clarence Henry Willcock

By Mark Pack | Published 16th February 2011 - 10:25 am

Listen to Liberal Democrats make speeches and there are frequent references to historical figures, but drawn from a small cast. Just the quartet of John Stuart Mill, William Gladstone, David Lloyd George, David Penhaligon corner almost all of the market, especially since Bob Maclennan stopped making speeches to party conference. Some of the forgotten figures deserve their obscurity but others do not. Charles James Fox’s defence of civil liberties against a dominating government during wartime or Earl Grey’s leading of the party back into power and major constitutional reform are good examples of mostly forgotten figures who could …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged clarence henry willcock, clement davies, forgotten liberal heroes, history, national liberal club, nick clegg, winston churchill | 3 Comments

ID cards to be scrapped at midnight tonight

By Helen Duffett | Published 21st January 2011 - 10:31 am

From midnight tonight, ID cards may no longer be used to prove identity or to travel in Europe.

The documents are to be scrapped by the government under the Identity Documents Act 2010.

Tom Brake MP, Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Policy Committee on Home Affairs, Justice and Equalities told Lib Dem Voice,

After yesterday’s annoucement of the cut from 28 to 14 days pre-charge detention, this is the second really big step in restoring the balance between civil liberties and security concerns.

This delivers yet another Lib Dem commitment in Government.

All personal information supplied during the process of applying for an …

Posted in News | Also tagged identity documents act 2010, lib dem achievements, tom brake | 8 Comments

LibLink: the full shambles of the ID card trial in Greater Manchester

By Iain Roberts | Published 30th December 2010 - 6:44 pm

The Manchester Evening News has been investigating Labour’s ID Card trial in Greater Manchester last November. Only 13,200 signed up from a population of over two million.

The MEN reveals how:

* Senior Whitehall officials were urged to email friends and relatives encouraging them to buy cards because of fears about the level of demand
* UK and overseas border guards refused to recognise the cards – with one traveller chased through an Italian airport after trying to use one as ID
* The Home Office discovered the cards could stop some credit

…

Posted in LibLink | 8 Comments

Meanwhile, in other news…

By Mark Pack | Published 21st December 2010 - 10:25 pm

Today Royal Assent was given to the Act scrapping Labour’s ID cards. Good news.

Posted in News | 12 Comments

How ID card data ended up in the wrong places

By Mark Pack | Published 11th November 2010 - 12:24 pm

The Coalition Government’s detailed planning to destroy most of the IT infrastructure and data for ID cards, following the decision to axe Labour’s ID cards plans, has revealed disturbing news about how data was mishandled.

As the BBC reports, equipment is having to be destroyed because it looks like data was wrongly stored on it:

Destruction of [some] equipment might have been avoided if the data it collected had been stored centrally as it was meant to be. But there is evidence that some was accidentally stored locally, the document reveals, so off to the dump it must go…

However, other data …

Posted in News | 4 Comments

Happy ID carders nearly all government employees

By Iain Roberts | Published 29th July 2010 - 2:20 pm

Back in the old days, before we had a government that cared about civil liberties, Labour were busy telling us how wonderful ID cards were. No-one was quite sure what they were useful for (beating terrorism? tackling benefit fraud? getting a drink in the pub? travelling to France without a passport?) but whatever it was, they were really good at it.

Now, thanks to some persistent questioning from No2ID National Co-ordinator Phil Booth, we know that of the nine people who featured in the glossy advertising telling us how ID cards had transformed their lives and possibly cured …

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged no2id, phil booth | 6 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 28 May 2010

By Helen Duffett | Published 28th May 2010 - 7:00 am

As Big Ben chimes seven, it’s time to celebrate the day 151 years ago, that the famous bell was drawn on a carriage pulled by 16 horses from Whitechapel Bell Foundry to the Palace of Westminster.

To show that cuts in Westminster are nothing new, the cost of the bell was reduced by recycling the metal from the previous, faulty bell:

George Mears, then the master bellfounder and owner of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, undertook the casting. According to foundry records, Mears originally quoted a price of £2401 for casting the bell, but this was offset to the sum of £1829 by the metal he was able to reclaim from the first bell so that the actual invoice tendered, on 28th May 1858, was in the sum of £572.

If you’d like to know what Big Ben itself has to say today, you can follow it [him?] on Twitter: @big_ben_clock.

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here are two posts that caught my eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

David Laws knows the last digit of Pi and Simon Kaye knows it. Read his (and the broadsheets’) review of David’s defence of Government cuts.
My First Lib-Dem meeting: Boris Pomroy describes his first time – do you still remember yours?

Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren’t on the aggregator? Do post up a comment sharing them with us all.

2 Big Stories

Posted in Daily View | Also tagged big ben, boris pomroy, david laws, higher education, ming campbell, simon kaye, theresa may, tuition fees, universities | 3 Comments

Norman Lamb: “A Queen’s Speech of which Liberal Democrats can be proud”

By Norman Lamb MP | Published 25th May 2010 - 8:40 pm

It is worth spending a moment reflecting on just how remarkable today’s Queen’s Speech is from a Liberal Democrat perspective.

We have become conditioned to believe that the policies we develop will never be implemented. A good intellectual exercise but nothing more. Yet here we have a programme for government of which we can be proud. It contains an extraordinary list of Liberal Democrat commitments on which we fought the general election.

Right from the start the speech grabs attention:

My Government’s legislative programme will be based upon the principles of freedom, fairness and responsibility.

Who would have dreamt of those words introducing the Queen’s speech just a few weeks ago?

Posted in News, Parliament | Also tagged alternative vote, child detention, constitutional reform, deficit, elected health boards, fixed-term parliaments, queen's speech, referendum, royal mail, tax | 36 Comments

Opinion: Securing civil liberties

By James Elsdon-Baker | Published 13th May 2010 - 2:20 pm

Along with other civil libertarians I’ve dedicated my time to fighting off Labour’s encroachments on our freedoms and liberty. This struggle has found me working with traditional Labour members, Greens, Liberal Democrats and Conservatives; everyone from anti-corporate Libertarian Socialist to Euro-sceptic UKIP activists. People of all tribal loyalties and ideological outlooks have come together in non-partisan campaigns like NO2ID, and events like the convention on modern liberty. Not because they have sought to make their ideological explanation of why our liberties have been encroached the dominant one, but because they realised achieving a shared goal required finding the common ground …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged civil liberties | 13 Comments

LibLink: Steve Webb – There has been no rightward shift by the Liberal Democrats

By NewsHound | Published 25th March 2010 - 6:19 pm

At Comment is Free today, Steve Webb MP reiterates the Liberal Democrats’ focus on redistributive policies and fairness.

He’s replying to Tim Horton’s suggestion that the Liberal Democrats have seen a “rightward shift” under Nick Clegg, at the expense of the party’s progressive credentials.

Webb responds with the £10,000 tax allowance, smarter public spending (including introducing the pupil premium and scrapping ID cards) and the Lib Dems’ fairness in politics agenda:

We have argued for an effective cap on political donations, so that no political party in Britain can be bought by sectional interests: the two old parties have, not surprisingly,

…

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged pupil premium, steve webb, tax, tim horton | 4 Comments

Opposition to I.D. cards grows (if people reminded about costs)

By Mark Pack | Published 21st February 2010 - 1:10 pm

More than half the public (53%) think ID cards are a bad or very bad idea when reminded that “The government has proposed the introduction of identity cards that, in combination with your passport, will cost around £93″. This compares to 37% saying they are a good or very good idea.

Opposition to ID cards has grown since 2006 when only 33% opposed the idea.

You can read more about the Liberal Democrat opposition to ID cards over on the Freedom Bill website.

The results are from the State of the Nation Survey 2010, a new poll of 2,288 people aged 18+ …

Posted in News | Also tagged civil liberties, joseph rowntree reform trust | 2 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 5 February 2010

By Helen Duffett | Published 5th February 2010 - 11:15 am

Happy birthday to Jo Swinson, Lib Dem MP for East Dunbartonshire!

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

Biometric data

How many people have had theirs taken under the Terrorism Act 2000, and how successful have they been at getting the samples destroyed? Lord Eric Avebury has put down a Parliamentary Question.

Will libertarian bloggers ever grow up?

Jonathan Calder wants libertarian bloggers to widen their repertoire beyond “Get out of my room Mom!”

Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren’t on the aggregator? Do post up a comment sharing them with us all.

2 Big Stories

Liberal Democrat MEP celebrates French equality win

Since August 2007, French couples in a Pacte Civil de Solidarité (PAC) have enjoyed the same rights in relation to tax and inheritance laws which had previously only applied to married couples. However, due to a legal anomaly, British civil partnerships were not recognised under French law, meaning couples living in France were liable for a 60% inheritance tax and were treated like any other unmarried couple.

Graham Watson pointed out the ridiculous situation that many people faced: “Up until now, the practicality of French law has meant that British civil partners living in France would have to dissolve their partnership and enter into a PAC in order to secure the same rights as French couples. This violated the idea of European citizenship and equality, and something had to be done.”

Watson asked the European Commission to press the French Government on the issue.
Ministers have now announced that British civil partnerships are recognised as equal to PACs, and reimbursements will be made to individuals who have made undue tax payments since August 2007. [PinkPaper.com]

Posted in Daily View | Also tagged civil partnerships, eric avebury, graham watson, jo swinson, jonathan calder, national dna database | 1 Comment

ID cards trial failure

By Alex Foster | Published 23rd December 2009 - 7:56 pm

Hot on the tails of the news that P&O refused to recognise an ID card as a European travel document comes this investigation from the Manchester Evening News:

THE national identity card scheme was in chaos last night as an M.E.N investigation revealed some of the country’s biggest travel companies are telling customers that they can not be used instead of passports.

Some 1,736 people in Greater Manchester have bought the £30 cards after the Home Office promised they could be used to travel in Europe.

But customer service staff at nine major travel companies – including British Airways, Eurostar and

…

Posted in News | Also tagged eurostar, failure, farce, manchester evening news, national identity register, transport, waste | 3 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 13 December 2009

By Mark Pack | Published 13th December 2009 - 7:00 am

It’s Sunday. It’s 7am. It’s time for feline table tennis, but first the blogs and news.

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here’s are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

Esther for Luton – What’s that all about then? asks Jeremy Rowe. He says, “I couldn’t honestly tell you that I’m any nearer to understanding what she believes or why she’s descended on Luton.”
ID cards – the death knell? asks Lisa Harding

Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren’t on the aggregator? Do post up a comment sharing them with us all.

2 Big Stories

Untouchable: Blair to give Iraq War evidence in secret

Posted in Daily View | Also tagged china, climate change, copenhagen summit, esther rantzen, iraq, luton south, tony blair | 1 Comment

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