Taking the pledge

Two of The Millbrooker household have signed up to the No2ID pledge. Another one of the Z-listers who appear frequently in these postings has signed up too but as they haven't said it's ok for me to publicise the fact, there's only two pledge certificates to show here: Mrs The Millbrooker's and mine.

If anyone wants a pledge certificate of their own, I've got a plentiful supply of blanks for you to fill in and I'll be very happy to act as witness if you haven't got someone else you'd like to get involved.

In case the pledge isn't really legible in the scans above, here's what it says:

"...I solemnly and publicy promise that:

*I shall not register for a national identity card.

*I shall not supply personal details or fingerprints to a National Identity Register.

*I shall not apply for any document or service if joining the National Identity Register is a condition of obtaining it.

*I shall not co-operate with any Identity and Passport interview concerning my identity.

I also promise by my advice and example to encourage others to do the same"

It's not too late to stop this police-state-in-the-making: even if you don't want to make a pledge like the one above you can help by talking about the issue with friends, relatives, colleagues. The argument that "if you've nothing to hide, you've nothing to fear" is fatuous in the extreme; what about abused women needing to get away?

What about the simple right to buy a travel ticket and go to another town? Once ID cards are a reality it won't be long before you'll have to produce them every time you travel on public transport. The transport companies will love it. They will be able to prove to any authority they like that they're being responsible; a record of where you've been will be on file forever for who knows how many people to look at for who knows what nefarious reasons.

Don't use public transport? How about swiping your card every tme you buy petrol? It's going to happen: someone in the oil companies will sell the notion as a way of making sure they don't sell petrol to potential molotov cocktail makers. Then there'll be another lovely database of your private information.

The simple act of buying a bottle of wine or some over the counter pain killers will involve creating a new permanent record of your activity, so the retailer can demonstrate how they never sell to underaged customers.

It's not about national security, it's about national control and the retention of power by a small, wealthy, political elite.