ID CARDS FOR AIRPORT STAFF IS A DEVIOUS PLOY

6.31.30am GMT Tue 11th Mar 2008

Scarborough campaigners have condemned the Home

Secretary's decision to make airport workers the

first group of British citizens to have

compulsory ID cards under threat of losing their

employment. The Scarborough NO2ID group insists

that this measure offers nothing to improve our safety.

Martin Haggerty, who is one of the founding

members of Scarborough NO2ID, said: "Only a few

months ago, the Prime Minister publicly promised

that ID cards would not be compulsory for British

citizens; but now we learn that some people are

to be forced to choose between collaborating with

the national ID card scheme and losing their

jobs. It is outrageously unjust. This news also

reveals the deviousness with which the Government

is manoeuvring to win our acquiescence with

nothing less than the loss of our privacy and freedom."

Responding to the Home Secretary's indication

that students would be next group of people to be

coerced into accepting ID cards, Phil Booth,

national co-ordinator of NO2ID, asserted:

"Whether you volunteer or are coerced onto the ID

database, there's no way back. You'll be

monitored for life. That's why the Government is

targeting students and young people, to get them

on before they realise what's happening."

Madeleine Parkyn, co-ordinator of Scarborough

NO2ID, added: "The Home Secretary's announcements

make it even more pressing to develop a robust

campaign against ID cards and the database state.

Anyone opposed to the introduction of ID cards is

welcome to come to the first planning meeting of

the NO2ID Scarborough group, at which we will

decide what we can best do to publicise the campaign and win the argument."

The inaugural meeting of Scarborough NO2ID will

be held on Thursday 13 March at 7.30 pm, at

Sigma, under The Cask Inn on Cambridge Terrace, Scarborough.

To find out more about joining the local group,

visit www.no2idScarborough.org.uk or email

Scarborough@no2id.net. To find out more about the

national NO2ID campaign, visit: www.NO2ID.net