NO2ID Edinburgh

Previous meetings

Meetings

  1. 15 June 2010
  2. 23 February 2010
  3. 26 October 2009
  4. 30 June 2009
  5. 1 May 2009
  6. 24 February 2009
  7. 20 January 2009
  8. 26 November 2008
  9. 8 October 2008
  10. 27 May 2008
  11. 30 April 2008
  12. 5 March 2008
  13. 30 January 2008
  14. 27 November 2007
  15. 20 September 2007
  16. 25 June 2007
  17. 30 May 2007
  18. 8 March 2007
  19. 4 December 2006
  20. 25 October 2006
  21. 28 June 2006
  22. 12 April 2006
  23. 26 January 2006

5 March 2008 – Jamie Hepburn MSP (SNP)

Mr Hepburn was Convener of the Cross-Party Group in the Scottish Parliament on Human Rights and Civil Liberties.

He said that one of the objectives of the group was to raise public awareness of civil liberties and to warn of the dangers of losing those rights for which our forebears had fought.

Civil liberties

The publicity for the meeting had mentioned "1984". He did not think that we were yet in a "1984"-like state.

The significance of civil liberties and broader concepts of human rights were all too often maligned and downplayed, but little was of more importance to the human experience than the rights and freedoms that were all too often taken for granted.

Database society

He was alarmed by the advent of the state-led database society and the idea that every citizen might be legally required to carry some form of identity card in what is not a time of national extremity or emergency was horrific.

Ineffectual

He believed however that the measure would be ineffectual. The notion the threat of terrorism could be countered by ensuring that every citizen carried a little card was patently absurd. Hardened terrorists would circumvent the scheme with ease.

Nor would an ID card scheme help tackle identity fraud. However, it would further curtail individuals' liberty to go about their daily business without fear of interference from the state.

Dangers

There was a danger that a culture of fear and intimidation will establish itself at a time when distrust of the police and authorities is already building in certain communities.

A national ID database will itself be a security risk, not least if the UK Government accidentally loses the computer disks on which it is held.

The idea of a database of the DNA of those who have committed no crime was also anathema to him.

The suggestion that the state should be allowed to hold information on the genetic make-up of people who have committed no crime and done no wrong was outrageous.

Discussions

Amongst the points raised in discussion afterwards was the intriguing one of whether the Scottish Parliament could advise police not to ask people to show cards.