25 October 2006 – Brian Monteith MSP (Independent)
Mr Monteith focused on maintaining personal liberty and the vigilance against an overreaching state.
He had been astonished that Tony Blair had recently asked all individuals to lodge their DNA data in a central database.
More generally, he was alarmed that in our society the fundamental assumption of innocence was slowly being eroded, to be replaced by the assumption of guilt.
Linkage
With regard to identity cards Mr Monteith was particularly concerned about the linkage of separate databases, thereby putting too much power into the hands of the state.
But he was optimistic about the future. Young people were aware of the problems, and they had read "Nineteen Eighty-Four".
They did not want a controlled society, and as a result they were joining NO2ID and similar organisations.
Folly
Mr Monteith had been slightly late arriving at the meeting, due to problems with an unhelpful car-park ticket machine.
Amusingly, he was able to refer to this incident within his talk to point up the folly of society relying too much on the wonders of modern electronic technology!
Welcome
Finally, at this meeting we were very pleased to welcome Geraint Bevan and Richard Clay, both of NO2ID Glasgow.