New Events

National

no events posted in last week

Blog Feeds

Public Inquiry
Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005

offsite link RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony

offsite link Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony

offsite link Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony

offsite link RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony

offsite link Waiting for SIPO Anthony

Public Inquiry >>

Human Rights in Ireland
Promoting Human Rights in Ireland

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link Best-Selling Hybrids Face Net Zero Ban From 2030 Tue Dec 24, 2024 15:42 | Will Jones
Some of Britain?s best-selling hybrid cars will be banned from sale after 2030 under a?Net Zero crackdown?proposed by Ministers, including the mild hybrid versions of the Ford Puma, Range Rover Evoque and VW Golf.
The post Best-Selling Hybrids Face Net Zero Ban From 2030 appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Experts Call For Return of Lockdown-Style Social Distancing as Flu Surges, Claiming ?a Fifth of Thos... Tue Dec 24, 2024 13:46 | Will Jones
Experts?have issued an urgent call for lockdown-style social distancing ahead of Christmas Day amid surging flu infections, claiming that a fifth of those infected have no symptoms but can spread it.
The post Experts Call For Return of Lockdown-Style Social Distancing as Flu Surges, Claiming “a Fifth of Those Infected Have No Symptoms But Can Spread It” appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link J.K. Rowling Leads Backlash Against Sturgeon for Claiming There Was No Public Opposition to Gender S... Tue Dec 24, 2024 11:23 | Will Jones
J.K. Rowling has led a feminist backlash against?Nicola Sturgeon?after she was accused of ?rewriting history? over the gender self-ID law controversy by claiming there was no public opposition until "forces muscled in".
The post J.K. Rowling Leads Backlash Against Sturgeon for Claiming There Was No Public Opposition to Gender Self-ID Until “Forces Muscled In” appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Science Shock: CO2 is Good for the Planet, Peer-Reviewed Studies Suggest Tue Dec 24, 2024 09:00 | Chris Morrison
Dramatic evidence has been published in a number of recent science papers that CO2 levels are already?'saturated', meaning little or no further warming is to be expected and rising CO2 levels are all beneficial.
The post Science Shock: CO2 is Good for the Planet, Peer-Reviewed Studies Suggest appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Whoever Rules Britain Is Going to Be Unpopular Tue Dec 24, 2024 07:00 | Noah Carl
It isn't so much that the Tories are getting more popular as that Labour is getting less so. Which illustrates a more general predicament for the Tories and any other party that might have aspirations to government.
The post Whoever Rules Britain Is Going to Be Unpopular appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?113 Fri Dec 20, 2024 10:42 | en

offsite link Pentagon could create a second Kurdish state Fri Dec 20, 2024 10:31 | en

offsite link How Washington and Ankara Changed the Regime in Damascus , by Thierry Meyssan Tue Dec 17, 2024 06:58 | en

offsite link Statement by President Bashar al-Assad on the Circumstances Leading to his Depar... Mon Dec 16, 2024 13:26 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?112 Fri Dec 13, 2024 15:34 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Government starts rollout of national biometric ID card starting with the vulnerable who can't easily refuse

category national | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis author Wednesday July 31, 2013 11:48author by fred Report this post to the editors

Government is currently rolling out a national biometric ID card scheme ostensibly to help stamp out welfare fraud. It currently holds facial data and signature data. However the card is extensible and designed to hold other data in the future. (No doubt they started with the least offensive biometric measurement! )
It has been stated that these cards may act as driving licences etc in the future. It is a national ID card by the back door. Expect it to be issued to everyone. How can government justify such expensive schemes in times of recession without a murmur from the MSM?? And where are the protests against this attack on our civi8l liberties in the wake of the NSA / UK mass surveillance scandals?
id.jpg

The Irish government has begun roll out of a biometric ID cards ostensibly to help prevent welfare fraud by the unemployed. It has been stated openly that more data can be stored on the card and It is intended that it will also act as your driving license etc in the future.

http://www.thejournal.ie/poll-is-the-new-social-welfare...2012/

http://www.nascireland.org/campaign-for-change/social-p...raud/

This is, of course, a national ID card for everyone by the back door. These things are generally imposed first on vulnerable people not in a position to object as they will lose their welfare payment. Or immigrants. People that have been systematically demonised in the mainstream media so it is unlikely will rush to their defence.

To facilitate this no doubt bloated and expensive venture at a time of massive social spending cuts to special needs assistants etc, all over the country, whole floors of new buildings have been rented and kitted out especially with cameras, wooden booths, computer systems, a queueing system, reception, staff, etc etc.

This, of course, is the icing on the cake in the lucrative drive to "stamp out welfare fraud". Recently we already saw the expensive installation of useless electronic signature recognition hardware and software systems in most of the welfare offices around the country. No doubt a most profitable contract for someone, and possibly exceeding the cost of fraud itself to install. if you claim that you cannot write, ( as many foreign visitors or "indigenous people" are known to do) then it's an effectively useless and expensive measure!!. But I digress.

In Britain, when they tried to bring in ID cards, there was a huge uproar. You had the likes of the NO2
ID campaign etc.

http://www.no2id.net/IDSchemes/

and it gave rise to wonderful protest gems like the following video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8ZHXGHEfHM

In the wake of the huge uproar surrounding the whole NSA / UK spying debacles, don't you just have to admire the "cojones" of the government bringing in such a fundamental pillar of the orwellian state, starting with the vulnerable just shortly afterwards?

And doesn't our media's conspicuous silence on this and other such important matters whilst continuing to gush interminably about the royal sprog just make you want to throw your hands up in the air in utter exasperation?

So should we be out on the streets objecting to yet another erosion of our civil liberties or should we just roll over yet again as the state, under the guise of "policing welfare schemes" slips in another such Orwellian erosion of civil liberties into our society, and in doing so, wastes loads of money, paid out to private companies, while happily cutting special needs, rent allowance and indeed the very same vital social safety nets they are supposedly designed to police to help pay for this intrusion. Because in reality, this is not just designed to reduce welfare fraud. It's a measure meant for all of us. The rollout on the unemployed is just the softening up phase of the process.

Soon your face will be recognised on garda cctv cameras and by the facebook photo facial recognition algorithms, and tied to your ID card data and all the information held about you by the state. Lots more data can be tied together by this biometric. And even if you are of the opinion that government is totally inept and cannot get this right, do you really want all this stuff left somewhere on a laptop unencrypted as information has been before by government departments? Talk about an identity thief's wet dream!!

And down the line when a garda stops you, the first sentence will be the paddy equivalent of "show me your papers". Do we really want that as a society?

As fraud measures, these, as most others, can be circumvented easily enough by clever people once the cards get into wide circulation. They don't work.

These schemes are costly to the taxpayers.

They result in centralisation and collation of larger volumes of personal data by government. Often with insufficient security measures.

It brings us one step closer to a police state having to carry biometric ID around with us everywhere we go. Increasing electronic surveillance, biometric ID cards, Do we really want to drift this direction as a society?

author by fredpublication date Thu Apr 03, 2014 17:11author address author phone Report this post to the editors

be careful of "freeman of the land" rubbish.
After some initial confusion, the courts usually laugh and stick you in the clink anyway.
It's nonsense.

It was probably invented to damage and divide genuine NVDA protest movements.

Curiously it became much bigger around the time of the occupy movement and
it's insidious divisiveness was largely responsible for the demise of some of the groups.

If "freeman of the land" junk did not exist, the state (or states!) would have to invent it
because it's so very useful to them.

author by Davepublication date Thu Apr 03, 2014 14:28author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Morgan, could you provide us with a copy of your letter? or at least an idea of what you wrote in it.

Thanks in advance

author by William crawfordpublication date Sat Dec 21, 2013 20:51author address author phone Report this post to the editors

My mum and Dad's generation in Belfast. Fought and died to stop this trype in the 2world war. And here it is being sneaked in by an inept government on to the people of our little island. I know it does not apply to the people in the north, but we in the north admire those in the south for their freedom, and here it is being stripped away from them by their elected government.

author by Morgan Mandelapublication date Sat Dec 21, 2013 16:02author address author phone Report this post to the editors

I was sent this letter almost a year ago and yes I am one of those vulnerable people that depends on the Social Welfare Department to live. I sent them a NOTICE OF NON-CONSENT and I haven't heard fro them since except for a short note written in pen stating that they received my notice. I also stated in the notice that if I have any problems accessing services I am entitled to in the future because of non-consent, that I will hold them responsible. I think though that once they have a critical mass of the public on these cards they will start deliberately making it difficult to use the current ones.

This changeover was announced to the public in a deliberately subdued manner just so there would not be opposition as there was in Britain when they tried to introduce them under Gordon Brown and had to roll back on it.

Also they most offensive part of all this is that in the letter asking for consent they write that if you don't consent you need not take any further action; this is a complete and utter blatent lie as 'silence is consent' in law. This shows the disgusting arrogance and contempt the government have for the public that they will bare faced lie to them, confident that they will get away with it.

The public needs to educate themselves in matters of law that they could be confronted with as every letter from the government or a business is a legal document and Legalese and English are not the same thing. I implore people to do their homework whenever they get a letter asking them for consent or money or a contract.

 
© 2001-2024 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy