To: info@davidhowarth.org.uk (David Howarth)
Subject: oppose the Identity Cards Bill
Date: Sat, 18 Jun 2005 04:29:05 +0100

Dear Mr Howarth

Congratulations on your very decisive victory at last month's election.
I'm glad that Cambridge at last has an MP (and a party) truly representative
of our views on today's crucial issues of policy towards Europe and towards
America, and of civil liberties here at home.

I and many others participated in the government's consultation exercise on
identity cards this past year, and, true to form, they haven't listened to
any of us and have laid before Parliament an absolutely repugnant Identity
Cards Bill, the text of which I've just finished reading.  As you know, this
bill would create a compulsory national identity register which would include
all the places that one has ever resided, and would provide for compulsory
submission of fingerprints and other biometrics.  As specified in Section 6
of the bill, resistance from members of the public would be met with an
interminable series of £2500 fines, one fine for each instance in which we
refuse the government's order to submit to inclusion in the register.

Perhaps most worrisome, in combination with these other irksome provisions, is
Section 14, which would allow individuals to consent to the use of their
identity register information by third parties.  If such consent is permitted,
then inevitably it will become required by banks, landlords, and others as a
condition of service.  In addition to being a privacy violation which would
open a huge hole in the Data Protection Act, such sharing of aggregated
individual personal details would create many opportunities for identity
theft.

Congratulations again on your election.  We know that you're on our side, and
we're counting on you to make our voices heard in Westminster against the
Identity Cards Bill and against other instances of this government's
high-handed legislation.

Best regards

Matthew Belmonte
[address]