We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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Uncommercial break This morning Andy Burnham MP was quoted by the Financial Times as saying that the government intends to make the British ID card an unrepealable fait accompli before the next general election:
I’m keen to see plenty of ID cards in circulation come the next election” […] The whole landscape will have changed by the time if – and it’s a big if – the Tories ever get anywhere near power.
This evening the NO2ID campaign launched its response:
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Surely now is really the time to start thinking about pushing the information campaign on this one? I mean, really, really push the boat out (that’s not the implication that those involved aren’t doing anything!).
This is a dishonest and monolithic opponent we’re taking on, in an increasingly dishonest and dirty campaign. It needs to be fought on their terms- I fear those at the heart of our opposition are too honourable and corteous in their efforts, relying solely on principles and ethics against an opponent which has neither.
Surely this has to get dirty? Take the fight to them. A campaign of half-truths, sound bites and disinformation, as they do against our opposition. Thick and fast, populist and taking no hostages.
I know we have nothing if we don’t have our principles, but what do we have if we don’t have our liberties?
If you think about it carefully – and believe me, I have – you will realise that “fighting dirty” is actually less cost-effective than fighting clean.
This doesn’t mean avoiding controversy. But stirring up controversy, on a subject that most people do not have any grasp of, is not easy. Something can be scandalous, but if abstract and complicated may never become a scandal. (Example: PFI, the Treasury’s off-balance sheet funding mechanism is hated by lefties because it involves subcontracting to the private sector, and by people like us because it amounts to a massive hidden increase in public spending and Whitehall management exended to ever more parts of formerly freestanding institutions, and ultimately to our lives. Does the public care?)
The profile of the issue is being steadily raised, despite the government strategy of suppressing debate. We have plans for more. It is a matter of building public interest, understanding and resentment steadily, to the point it takes off and has a life of its own. I’m confident that by Christmas, the situation will be transformed.
Meanwhile there is little call to create misunderstandings and half-truths. The question is so abstruse for most people, and the Home Office’s passion for secrecy is such, that they arise naturally. Witness the tabloid interpretation of the LSE report: “cards could cost £300 each” which has taken root in some parts of the popular imagination, as if it were a price-tag. Witness the number of respected journalists (example) who won’t do the not-very-hard work of reading our briefings, but will happily reproduce the content of misleading anonymous emails.
And if you want to help push the information campaign, BTW, £5,000 towards our media-buying fund wouldn’t go amiss. Top-class advertising industry talent will work for free for a sufficiently good cause. Newspaper space and radio time, on the other hand, never comes quite as cheap.
So, a government IT project, with someone like Crapita involved, is expected to be completed, fully tested and up and running by the next general election? Yeah, right.
All is not lost!
Guy if you are really serious, firstly, don’t just talk about the £5000 that is required; put up a link to where we can contribute to this fund for the media buy. Secondly, you can refrain from publicly pulling to bits the email that has done more than any single piece of writing to inform the people of this country about what ID cards really mean. No one from HMG has been able to nullify its effect; why in heavens name are you trying to help them do precisely that?
1. I am really serious. No one more so. You can send a cheque payable to “NO2ID” to NO2ID, Box 412, 78 Marylebone High Street, LONDON W1U 5AP or use the PayPal button on our website.
[PS- And I’ve just noticed you think £5,000 is the target. It was a suggested donation. We need a minimum of £50,000 for a reasonably impactful advertising campaign. We could do with more. To the extent it pre-empts the government spending your money (in the billions) on oppressive technology, it looks like a bargain.]
2. No. NO2ID is committed to remaining a more reliable source of information than the Home Office, because itis to our long term benefit to be the trustworthy viewpoint. If that means pointing out occasionally exactly where fellow opponents are spinning off into fantasy, then it is worthwhile doing so.
Government critique of such materials is designed to discredit them completely, by selectively attacking the wild bits and permitting the reader to take from that and literally-true-but-misleading remarks that the remaining bits are also untrue. My approach is to take them as a springboard to discussing the issues – to point out not just where they are wrong, but where they are right, and where (as they often do) they understate the case against.
Well, it’s not quite £5000, but I have made a financial contribution to NO2ID 😀
I still think the “all your personal information’s going to get shipped off to an out-sourced processing centre in Mumbai!” angle’s got some potential. Even if it isn’t true (though I do see it as something with a real likelihood of happening). It doesn’t have to come directly from an organisation like NO2ID. It just has to start as a Chinese whispers campaign.
Thank you, James.
I still think the “all your personal information’s going to get shipped off to an out-sourced processing centre in Mumbai!” angle’s got some potential.
Indeed. In effect that is what will happen, once it is warehoused under Home Office protection then it might as well be shipped off to a Shanghai street-market – and like as not will be, and available via IRC.
Guy Herbert,
Ever thought of taking a leaf from the red/green left? They have had (at times) some quite innovative approaches to publicising a cause on a shoe-string. Just a thought.
Interestingly, the ID card roll-out is likely to occur around the same time as the other thing which might bring the government down – the digital TV switchover. When people realise it’s buying a box for every TV in the house (not just the “one of payment of about GBP40 that the BBC promises) and possibly getting an expensive new aerial there will be blood on the ceiling. Call me a cynic, but are these the poison chalices his Tonyness is planning on leaving Gord?
Regarding “Renew for Freedom”, note that children’s passports are only renewed for 5 years at a time – so there will be little choice over whether they get caught.
Well they can perhaps get 5 years, Ron. The NIR will currently only have entries for over 16s.
But the likelihoods are (a) they will get children first via the Children Act 2004 Index on which work began last month; and
(b) the Home Secretary’s regulatory power to change the NIR rules will at some point soon lower that age. The treasury-inspired CIP (Citizen Information Project) has just been folded into the NIR, and that originally planned to record people from birth.
There are more practical reasons to oppose this ID card scheme (not that the philosophical ones are not sufficent). At my blog I discuss the likely IT fiasco that will result from ZANU Labour’s desperate attempt to make this irreversable. When the contractors and vendors who stand to get the orders have serious reservations then you have a fairly strong clue that the project isn’t going to work