More second reading stuff… Tony McNulty (Minister of State, Home Office) My hon. and learned Friend the Member for Medway (Mr. Marshall-Andrews) was wrong in his supposition that there will be an open book for adding data to the database. Clauses 1, 3 and 43 and schedule 1 […]

In part two of the ID Cards debate bullshit guide I’ve decided to look at the ‘but we need to do it anyway’ arguments being put forward in relation to the inclusion of biometric information in passports. We’ll start with a couple of extracts from the debate itself… […]

I’ve set up a new subsection called ‘ID Cards second reading’ specifically to make a series of posts, using extracts from the second reading debate to look at the questions asked by members and the Government’s response to them. Think of this as a handy-dandy, easy to use, […]

Citizen: Ah. I’d like to have a debate about Identity Cards, please. Receptionist: Certainly sir. Have you been here before? Citizen: No, I haven’t, this is my first time. Receptionist: I see. Well, do you have any proof of identity. An identity card, perhaps? Citizen: Well, actually no. […]

The Identity Cards Bill passed its second reading with a majority of 31 and, unsurprising, the Government have moved a programme motion – otherwise called a ‘guillotine’ – restricting debate at the committee stage of the Bill to 19th July and leaving no time for either the Public […]

On November 15th 2004, The Children’s Bill 2004 received the Royal Assent and became the Children’s Act 2004, having passed its third reading in the House of Lords by a mere 12 votes. Reading what the DfES has to say about this Act it would seem benign enough […]

Forget the complaints from Opposition MP’s about the scheduling of the second reading of the ID cards Bill to coincide with today’s Internation Fleet Review marking that the start of celebrations of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar. The Government could not have chosen a more […]

In the annals of official stupidity, a report is today’s Times that the Home Office has, over the last month, been deporting asylum seekers to Zimbabwe of all places, and is due to deport many more over the next few weeks, deserves a page all of its own. […]

One of the more interesting and illuminating books I’ve read in a long time is Tim Slessor’s ‘Lying in State’ which through a range of examples, some familiar (Hutton, Belgrano, Gulf War Syndrome) and some maybe not so familiar (the Chagos Islanders, Chinook ZD576) explores the way in […]

The other day I pointed out how, once you have a government in possession of a National Identity Register, it was possible for people’s civil liberties to slowly and quietly slip away over time without them ever realising it until it was too late. It doesn’t take a […]