It’s a f***ing disgrace! Liberal Democrat shadow home secretary Chris Huhne has put Didier Drogba at the centre of immigration policy. The politician name-checked the Chelsea striker as he responded to Home Office plans that skilled migrants will have to apply an identity card when their current visa expires. That includes footballers. Huhne said: “Making Didier Drogba [...]...

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 BMI baby – told M.E.N reporters posing as customers that the cards could NOT be used instead of passports. Eight of the nine companies later issued statements saying staff had given...

In a gaffe worthy of Nicola Murray and the DoSaC team from the The Thick of It, the stasi-esque titled Identity Minister, Meg Hillier, turned up to an ID card unveiling in Liverpool without her ID card.  As the Liverpool Post reports: The former journalist and mother patted herself down and checked her handbag for the missing card before putting the slip-up down to the demands of looking after her baby. She then posed in front of the city’s landmark Liver Buildings alongside the vast River Mersey without her card. What a fantastic advertisement for those simple and effective cards that make life and travel so much easier. Hillier was there to encourage residents of the North West to take up the scheme but in one cock-up has summed up just how pointless it is.  This non-entity...

Ms Epstein has been gushing about ID cards, this useful idiot has had a meeting with Meg Hillier the commissar in charge of getting us all logged onto the ID card system like beef cattle. An in a display of gushing in the Manchester Evening News she claimed it was the best thing since her child was born. Get this arsewater from her: I’M so proud I could almost burst I haven’t felt this good about cradling something small and pink since my daughter Sophie was born. All right, so I’m exaggerating a bit. But honestly, when you’re the first member of the public to be issued with a brand spanking new national identity card, it’s a seminal moment. This explains why Labour picked this useful idiot: And how did I manage to bag poll position? Thanks...

People in Manchester can sign up for an ID card from today. Let's use the occasion to say a firm no to the database stateToday, I will be making a trip to the Identity and Passport Service's registration centre in Manchester at 1pm. I will not be registering for an identity card. Instead, I will be joining friends from No2ID and other campaigns in demonstrating against the identity scheme. Our message is simple – "Don't be a guinea pig, stop the ID card con!"I expect to see more protesters than volunteers at the registration centre; 96% of respondents in a recent Manchester Evening News online poll opposed the scheme. Fewer than 2,000 people in the north-west have "expressed interest" in the ID cards, and that number includes opponents like myself.Despite lack of interest, the...

The Exeter branch of No2ID have got in touch so say ID cards arrived in Manchester today (Monday, November 30), with indications that most of the populous aren’t willing to sign up to the life-time costly addition to their passports. The Home Office has announced that residents of Greater Manchester will be able to apply for a National Identity Card from today (Monday, November 30), but Exeter No2ID says: “It is quieter about the fact that this also means registering – for life – on the National Identity Register. “Very few applicants are expected, in any case. Just 2,000 Mancunians have ‘expressed an interest’ via the government’s ID card website, less than a tenth of one percent of the city’s population. An informal poll by the Manchester...

Residents who want £30 card can enrol at offices in city centre and at airportIdentity cards will be available to people living in Manchester from today.The scheme's launch was overshadowed by the revelation that the cards are only available to people who already have a passport or whose passport expired this year.Anyone else wanting a £30 card will first have to sign up for a passport at a cost of £77.50.Phil Booth, from the campaign group NO2ID, said: "The government claims that ID cards are a handy alternative to a passport are bogus."You have to have one already, so you will pay another £30 and set yourself up for a lifetime of fees, penalties and compliance."Once you are on the database, you will be obliged to update Whitehall's register on you for the rest of your life."A Home...

Australian domestic air passengers will soon be able to check themselves and their luggage in electronically instead of facing long queues at staffed check-in desks, under an innovative vision for the airport of the future revealed by Qantas.Qantas' vision could lead to a huge reduction in lost luggage if the airline’s plans for smart cards and computer-chipped luggage tags comes to fruition. Qantas chief executive, Alan Joyce, said that its domestic passengers have "told us that airport check-in today is nothing less than a major point of pain"."Check-in takes too long. It causes too much stress. Our customers know what they want: speed and ease," he said.Qantas’ self-service system promises to process passengers much more rapidly than the current system, when queues at peak hours...

This could just be disinformation, but if true it explains a lot.  Note that some of the worst anti-Semites in history, including Torquemada and Karl Marx, were of recent Jewish descent, and used anti-Semitism to ingratiate themselves with their non-Jewish constituencies. Ha’aretz: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s scathing attacks against Israel and his repeated denials of the Nazi Holocaust could be motivated by a desire to conceal his own Jewish roots, an Iran expert told The Daily Telegraph on Saturday. The British newspaper examined the Iranian leader’s identity card which he displayed in public during his country’s elections in March 2008. The ID card bears his family’s original surname, Sabourjian, which is a Jewish name that means cloth weaver,...

The Telegraph reports a surprising development concerning the lineage of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's family name:A photograph of the Iranian president holding up his identity card during elections in March 2008 clearly shows his family has Jewish roots. A close-up of the document reveals he was previously known as Sabourjian - a Jewish name meaning cloth weaver. The short note scrawled on the card suggests his family changed its name to Ahmadinejad when they converted to embrace Islam after his birth.I knew it: there had to be more than a mere pun to the 'Aghh, My Dinner Jacket' thing. Cloth weaver, no less....

The Manchester Evening News reports that Lord Brett, the minister responsible for the identity card rollout, has admitted that only 8,000 people in Manchester have enquired about getting a card.This was revealed in a live webchat at the newspaper's offices.Now, I presume that the scheme is only open to those in the city itself, which Wikipedia says has a population of 458,100.If the scheme was open to those in the Greater Manchester Urban Area, with a population of 2,240,230 according to Wikipedia, or the county of Greater Manchester, with a population of 2,547,700, the percentage uptake would be much smaller!A Manchester Evening News poll also found that 81% would not be taking part in the trial, but Lord Brett claims that "our research shows a majority of people support ID cards." What...

The latest version of the ‘voluntary’ UK National Identity Card was launched at the end of last week. It was, after all, the start of the silly season. The man now charged with mantaining the impression that this might actually happen under a Labour government is the new Home Secretary, Alan Johnson. During the spring, Johnson was widely touted as the man to replace Gordon Brown if Labour had a leadership election. There is precious little in UK public life which is quite like being given the job as Home Secretary to make you unpopular and Jonathan Calder explains the grubby whys and political wherefores of this here. If you are interested in the official view of how the project is proceeding you may read an interview with Annette Vernon, the civil servant in the Home...

Home Secretary Alan Johnson has created ‘identity rights’! Rejoice! He will continue to introduce ID cards by stealth, but worry not – your ‘identity rights’ will be guaranteed! The union flag has been left off the final design of the national identity card unveiled today in order to recognise the “identity rights” of Irish nationals living in Northern Ireland. Instead the ID card design unveiled by the home secretary, Alan Johnson, features a tasteful floral pattern made up of the shamrock, daffodil, thistle and rose alongside the Royal Coat of Arms. A Home Office spokesperson said today this was because “the card represents all the nations of the United Kingdom and the design reflects themes of Britishness and aspects of UK...

• Design chosen to reflect rights of non-UK nationals• Welsh language version ruled out for lack of spaceThe union flag has been left off the final design for the British national identity card unveiled today in order to respect the "identity rights'' of Irish nationals living in Northern Ireland.The Home Office has deliberately avoided the use of flags, including that of the European Union, which features on British driving licences, on the new ID card in an effort to reflect all the nations of the United Kingdom.Instead the card is to contain the royal coat of arms and "a floral pattern representing the four floral emblems of the UK: the shamrock, daffodil, thistle and rose".A Home Office spokesman explained that this design reflected "themes of Britishness and aspects of UK...

Identity cards have shamrock, daffodil, thistle and rose to 'represent all the nations of the UK' but will not be available in the Welsh languageThe union flag has been left off the final design of the national identity card unveiled today in order to recognise the "identity rights" of Irish nationals living in Northern Ireland.Instead the ID card design unveiled by the home secretary, Alan Johnson, features a tasteful floral pattern made up of the shamrock, daffodil, thistle and rose alongside the Royal Coat of Arms.A Home Office spokesperson saidtoday this was because "the card represents all the nations of the United Kingdom and the design reflects themes of Britishness and aspects of UK history".But the first cards to be issued this autumn to young volunteers in Manchester and...

Home Secretary Alan Johnson has unveiled the final design of the controversial national identity...

Britain’s new Home Secretary may have a cockney cheeky chappy ‘thing’ going on, but don’t be fooled – he’s just as authoritarian as his mad predecessor: The introduction of identity cards is a simple means of helping you, and I, protect our unique identity from fraudsters. Identity fraud costs the UK economy £1.2bn on average each year and causes misery for tens of thousands who fall victim. At a cost of just £30, the identity card is a cheap way of helping fight back. So, despite the headlines that would have readers think otherwise, I’m not scrapping identity cards – I’m committed to delivering them more quickly to the people who will benefit most. I know that some of you have real concerns about the government’s motives for...

Identity fraud costs the UK £1.2bn, and untold misery, each year. ID cards are a cheap and effective way of fighting backOur identity, the information that makes us unique, is something that we get called upon to prove each day, when we are opening a bank account, renting a flat, proving our right to work. It is this unique information that fraudsters and criminals want and this is why we guard it so carefully. Shredding machines, once only found in offices, are now found in many homes as people protect their personal information by destroying personal bank and billing information.The introduction of identity cards is a simple means of helping you, and I, protect our unique identity from fraudsters. Identity fraud costs the UK economy £1.2bn on average each year and causes misery for...

The Home Secretary has hit all the headlines today with his assertion that ID cards will not be compulsory and that plans to introduce compulsory identity cards for airline pilots and 30,000 other "critical workers" at Manchester and London City airports this autumn have been abandoned.However, good news as this is, we should not celebrate too soon nor should we assume that the project is dead and buried. The Government is to press ahead with the National Identity Card Database and British citizens who apply for or renew their passport will be automatically registered on it. This means that the main elements of the scheme will continue to be put in place leaving a future government the prospect of picking it up and running with compulsory cards in the future.The database itself of course...

Labour in retreat as ID card plan is axed - Scotsman.com News THE government was accused of being "in chaos" last night after it all but abandoned its flagship identity card scheme. Not so fast - PR reports And yet Johnson is resolutely refusing to simply scrap the scheme, claiming that it would save little money to do so. That implies to me that the Identity Database, with the details of every UK resident, will still be operational and (one presumes) compulsary - although instead of relying on ‘applications for ID cards’ it will rely on consolidating data from passport applications, CRB checks and other sources. The Database will still come into being, and will still need to be populated with information about every citizen if it is to be any use at all. Given that this aspect,...

Just been watching Channel Four News' report on the rather half-hearted fudge on identity cards by new Home Secretary Alan Johnson, who seems determined to waste money on this foolish scheme.For some reason, Gary Gibbon's report was introduced by Jon Snow with a graphic of Gibbon's face inside an identity card. After a serious and interesting report on the decision to make identity cards voluntary, cut back to studio and bizarre Gary Gibbon/identity card graphic, with Jon Snow saying "Gary Gibbon, with his own identity card, there."I remember a few weeks' ago a news report, which I think was also by Channel Four, commentating on Gordon Brown as a lame duck prime minister.For some reason, footage of a yellow plastic duck had to be shot, with the duck caught by the reporter at the end of...

It looks like the Identity Card plan has now been...

Apparently new Home Secretary Alan Johnson is an ‘instinctive’ supporter of ID cards. Strange then to give the impression he’s walking away from them: A compulsory identity card trial for pilots and 30,000 other airport workers due to start in September has been abandoned by the new home secretary, Alan Johnson. But he intends to accelerate other elements of the scheme including plans to issue £30 voluntary ID cards to young adults across north-west England. Johnson is also looking at making ID cards free for over-75s. Longer-term plans to make ID cards compulsory for critical workers at rail stations have also been dropped. British citizens would not be forced to carry ID cards, insisted the home secretary. Johnson said: “Holding an identity card should be a...

Are you listening, Alan Johnson? I bear in mind that countries, such as France and Germany, and other western European countries have ID card systems in place. This is due to different historical and cultural developments from our own. Our heritage is different. In one of his English letters Voltaire said that the civil wars of Rome ended in slavery, and those of the English in liberty. He wrote that the English were jealous of their liberty. So they are. The commitment, by and large, of the British people to European constitutional principles and ideals does not require us to adopt an ID card system. In my view a national identity card system is not necessary in our country. No further money should be spent on it. The idea should be abandoned. Lord Steyn is right and he points out the...

The Indian government has begun moves to provide a Unique Identification (UID) number to its citizens, the central government has announced.It has appointed Infosys Technologies co-chairman Nandan Nilekani as head of a new body to determine how the scheme will be implemented. The project will mean that all Indian adults will have to carry what is in effect an identity card.Experts say the scheme is likely to take several years to...

To those of you out there who think the ID Database will be a good thing I would like to point you at this story...A GLASGOW council worker was sacked and another resigned after they were caught snooping into the core database of the Government's Identity Card scheme.The two Glasgow staff were caught snooping on people in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Customer Information Systems (CIS) database, which includes among its 85 million records the personal details about everyone in the UK, and which the Identity and Passport Service plans to use as the foundation of the national ID scheme."A member of staff tried to access stuff about famous figures," said a spokesman for Glasgow City Council. He said the DWP alerted the council about the breach. He refused to name the celebrity...

Yep! She's getting the stinking things in through the arris!Apparantly, the machiaevellian madam is to lumber high street chemists, post offices and photo shops with the task of recording the electronic fingerprints and other biometric data needed for the national identity card scheme.The decision to use high street shops sidesteps the need for the Home Office to set up a network of enrolment centres with mobile units to operate in rural areas BECAUSE THEY NEED TO KEEP THE COST DOWN. As it is, they're only going to be stealing £5.3bn of our hard earned money over the next 10 years. (And that figure excludes the costs to other government departments and agencies of scanners and other equipment for verifying the identity of those trying to access public services.)The donkey is going to...

Airline pilots are to become the first group to refuse to take part in the national identity scheme when compulsory trials start at Manchester and London City airports this autumn.The British Airline Pilots' Association (Balpa ), which represents more than 80% of commercial airline pilots, is to mount a legal challenge to Home Office plans to use "critical" airside workers as the first compulsory "guinea pigs" for the scheme.MPs are shortly to be asked to approve the powers to compel the pilots and other airside workers at the two airports to register for the national ID card scheme as part of their "pre-employment" checks. The £30 fee is to be waived as an incentive for them to sign up.The pilots' union has protested to ministers that the £18m scheme cannot be regarded as voluntary...

I make no bones about the fact that I oppose the Government’s national ID card scheme. It is massively expensive and with the Government’s track record on protecting personal information, I have no confidence in its confidentiality or security. The Government’s own initial figures suggested a cost of £5.6bn but Conservatives have claimed that the real figure is likely to be around £20bn. The first cards have now been issued to foreign nationals but are almost completely useless as no police or immigration staff have the equipment to read them. They are still having to rely on conventional methods to establish someone’s identity. No doubt the readers will be installed in due course but for now the cards are not serving their stated purpose. A little noted fact about today’s...

We in Liverpool often complain that the Government favours Manchester and puts Manchester first when it comes to various initiatives.But given this one (below) perhaps we ought to be pleased they take that attitude!Text of an Early Day MotionMr John Leech Andrew Stunell Mark Hunter Paul Rowen Bob Spink Peter Bottomley That this House condemns the Government's proposal to consider piloting the identity card scheme in Manchester; notes with concern the wide disparities between Government and academic costing estimates of the scheme; believes that such funding would be better spent putting more police officers on the streets of Greater Manchester; notes the rising levels of public discontent over the scheme; and calls on the Government to halt the identity card scheme without...