Meetings in 2007
27 November 2007 - Taking Liberties
Revisited
Perhaps aided by the HMRC debacle, the group had its highest attendance for nearly two years. The group agreed to buy and loan out from the weekly stall, without formality, two copies of the "Taking Liberties" DVD and book - the idea being to show that mutual trust did still exist in some sections of society. The group viewed and discussed some of the extra features on the DVD, which were just as worrying as the film itself - an everyday story of control freakery, ignorance, incompetence and greed.
20 September 2007 - The Scottish National
Entitlement Card Scandal
Four sixth-formers researching for projects on ID cards, along with a teacher, were a welcome addition to the usual audience at this group meeting. They heard a talk by retired academic John Welford describing his campaign to publicise the fact the the Scottish National Entitlement Card (SNEC), an ID card in all but name, has been deceitfully foisted on to pensioners and the disabled under the guise of a bus pass. Dundee for example is already extending its use to cover libraries - classical function creep - and there are proposals to extend it to other council services and to health services. The introduction of the system is reminiscent of the Poll Tax, being tried out in Scotland before being imposed in England. Having returned his SNEC John has been campaigning for over a year to receive a 'proper' bus pass and has meanwhile collected over £300 worth of tickets.
25 June 2007 - Strategy meeting and AGM
At this meeting Edinburgh NO2ID group members were told that a local band leader was so outraged after seeing "Taking Liberties" that he had contacted the coordinator for NO2ID leaflets to give out at his next gig. The weekly stall on Princes Street continues to attract attention and this year will carry on during the Festival. Membership is growing steadily and members are encouraging the formation of a new group in Stirling. John Welford and David Muxworthy volunteered to continue as coordinator and secretary respectively and were elected. John Wood volunteered to serve as treasurer and was elected, superseding John Welford who had been acting treasurer.
30 May 2007 -
Strategy meeting and demonstration post-mortem
Edinburgh NO2ID's short film of their recent ID-Day demo was the main attraction at the group's May meeting. The ten-minute film shows members dressed eye-catchingly as barcoded robots in white hooded overalls with featureless white masks. Members of the group had attended a preview screening of "Taking Liberties" and were pleased to see pictures of the Edinburgh demonstration in the closing credits. DVDs of the group's film would be available from the weekly stall on Princes Street and it had also been posted on youtube. Further demonstrations are planned when the interrogation centre opens for business and the group is now focussing on how best to exploit the change in control in the Scottish Parliament and on Edinburgh District Council.
See Edinburgh's short at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQMtrq8BQ8w
8 March 2007 - Strategy meeting
The main business at this meeting was to plan the demonstration outside the Edinburgh Interrogation Centre on 26 March. It was decided that the demonstrators should wear white robot masks and overalls, both festooned with large barcode designs, and would be silent. They would be on the pavement rather than on the property itself. Various media organizations would be alerted. There was a discussion on the Channel 4 programme "The Insider: Fighting Identity Fraud" (shown on 2 March, now at http://www.talkswindon.org/no2id/newsvideo/theinsider.wmv) which was said to be very unbalanced and essentially 30 minutes of government propaganda.