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Another campaign from Amnesty is irrepressible.info – an online pledge run together with The Observer, seeking to campaign against internet censorship, often complicity undertaken by large corporations who really should know better.

Protect the Human is the current campaign from Amnesty, which readers may wish to support by buying a badge. The campaign itself culminates with Protect the Human week from 14th to 20th October.

Human rights are one of the most important things to stand up for, and supporting Amnesty helps in a small, but significant way. I’m proud to have been a member of Amnesty for the last five years, and hope that if you agree with the following, you might consider joining too.

We’re Amnesty International – a movement of ordinary people from around the world standing up for humanity and human rights. We believe people should be treated like people. It’s amazing how often they aren’t.

Women are raped as a weapon of war. People are victimised by their own governments. Innocent citizens are locked up for their beliefs. We want to do something about it by getting one million people standing up for humanity.

You can be one of them.

More at http://www.protectthehuman.com.

Sometimes I wish I was still living in London. Tomorrow sees the March for Free Expression taking place in Trafalgar Square at 2pm. If like me, you can’t attend, you may be interested in the petition.

Freedom of expression, and freedom of speech, are important rights that seem to be under sustained attack by various groups (see here, for example). Some groups seem to be actively seeking out offence, and parading their supposed insult as a justification to further restrict liberties, whilst at the same time using the selfsame rights and liberties to ensure their opinions are heard when it is convenient or expedient for them to do so.

I am not saying people should have a right to deliberately and gratuitously say what they want without retort. Criticism and open debate on matters are important in an open democracy, and with rights come responsibilities; a right to speak doesn’t imply a right to be heard. Yet it is in my view becoming increasingly important that we stand up and defend our historic and hard-won rights, notably to freedom of speech, expression and privacy, in this increasingly edgy – and intolerant – climate.

Once more unto the breach. The atrocious ID cards bill is once more before the house, this time with various amendments up for consideration after the House of Lords set into it. I’ve written before about the reasons the proposals are truly awful.

Whilst the Government has now removed the element of compulsion in the bill, there are still serious problems with what is proposed. Even without compulsion, I fear that the element of compulsion by “the back door” (sorry to use that horrible phrase) will be entered into as Government departments put bureaucracy in the way of anybody without the card. And as for the Identity Register, I shudder at the unparalleled level of information this would make available on the way we lead our lives. Even queries against the register would be recorded, so as more organisations start using it, peoples lives will lose much of their privacy.

So, as the vote is today, I’ve made use of writetothem.com, to send a fax through to my new MP, Mr Tom Harris. Regrettably he seems, according to theyworkforyou.com’s page on him to be strongly in favour of the proposal, so I have very little hope that he’ll pay any attention to my letter, much less take any of the points I make on board. I’ll transcribe any response I receive.

If you’ve not already done so, it’s not too late to make the case against ID cards. Check out no2id.net. Even if the legislation is passed, the battle is not over, and I shall certainly be doing everything I can to ensure that the project is cancelled before it ends up wasting billions of pounds that really could be much better spent.

My letter to Mr Harris is attached below.

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I’ve been known to go on about wasteful packaging (see also my original posting from 2002). Regrettably, very little seems to have changed. In fact, I’d say the situation is a whole lot worse.

So I thought it was high-time for another rant. But with another target in mind other than just Pret. This time, it’s one of the high-street supermarkets: Morrisons

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This morning, on Radio 4’s Today Programme, the agenda setting 8.10am interview (Podcast link) was on the subject of ID cards.

The 20 minute discussion involved first David Davis, Tory Home affairs spokesman and the favourite to take over as leader of the Tory party, followed by Charles Clarke, the current Home Secretary.

I listened to the discussion in some detail, and it deeply concerned me in a number of ways. Firstly, the primary opposition party actually agrees in principle with the idea, but disagree with the current proposal: Their lack of principles here is somewhat unsettling.

Secondly, the Home Secretary’s arguments were flawed in the extreme, shifting position once again. His arrogantly dismissive comments regarding well argued criticisms flies in the face of his supposed interest in provoking a debate.

Finally, the media itself is pushing the issue of “cost” and “law and order”, without actually addressing the underlying principle issues, including data accumulation (what is kept and for how long), security (controlling who has access), and – bluntly – the inability of the Government to manage any complex IT project much less one of this scale, sensitivity and importance. There is a focus too on the card itself rather than on the more important database behind it.

Principle doesn’t always hold much sway in public debates in this country: People need to see how it affects them. The debate concerns me as both sides portrayed the issues very inaccurately, with too little coverage of practical repercussions. I’ve made an attempt to sum up my perception, and criticisms of, the positions this morning. I also look at some of the more fundamental issues, and finally try and demonstrate some of the very likely personal incidents that might happen.

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http://no2id.net/

If you’re as annoyed and irritated as I am by this whole retched farce, you might also want to consider signing this pledge:

http://www.pledgebank.com/refuse

Demonstrating how little the government want to actually have a debate, they’ve simply dismissed the LSE report. One of the key points the report made was that the government point of “renewal every 10 years” was inaccurate. Biometrics are just that, measurements of biological elements, and they change. So, if your fingers get badly grazed whilst working in the garden, and leave marks, you’ll need a new card.

If you’re not sure, you might want to consider the previous IT screw-ups associated with Government, the unique centralisation of data and the risks that poses, and the access history that was raised by the Information Commissioner – as they’ll be able to track who accessed a record, it’ll enable a picture to be built up, especially as “feature creep” ensures these retched things become commonplace (think speed cameras and CCTV)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4627881.stm

Oh, and if you’ve ever used a biometric system for accessing a data centre, or some other purpose, you’ll know just how unreliable and frustrating they truly are.

And here’s what they plan to store:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4630045.stm

More on this pathetic Government idea in the next few days.

Personally, I can’t help but wonder what’s wrong with a driving license and passport as definitive identification documents.

Readers of my various posts over the course of the recent general election will have realised that I’m a proponent of electoral reform in this country. Therefore, I’m very pleased to see the campaign launched by The Independent has attracted some serious attention See the makemyvoutecount.org.uk website too

The most senior politician of all, Tony Blair, has been asked for his opinion on the growing calls for a review and reform. Unfortunately, his enthusiasm has been somewhat muted since the heady days of the 1997 election campaign manifesto which read:

“We are committed to a referendum on the voting system for the House of Commons. An independent commission on voting systems will be appointed early to recommend a proportional alternative to first-past-the-post”

The 1998 Jenkins commission report (set up by Blair) in 1998 backed a Proportional system. So it’s ironic that Blair should now be saying that “…there are no plans to change the present system.“

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I’ve mentioned it before and I’ll mention it again, check out www.makepovertyhistory.org. It’s aiming to recruit ordinary people to add further weight to their campaign, and get the loudest voice they can ahead of the G8 summit on the 8th July.

Visit the website and click ‘Join Us’. It takes no time at all, and it really could make a big difference.