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Hundreds of thousands of people are set to defy the government by refusing to
carry ID cards, despite the risk of imprisonment.
Campaigners say that a network of anti-ID card groups, ranging from hackers to
anarchists, plans a series of assaults in the coming months to try to block the
scheme. A £1 million fund is being raised to help pay legal fees if, as
expected, prosecutions are brought once the cards become compulsory, probably
in 2010.
'We have to show these [people] that we did not vote for them and that we will
bring them down. This is the poll tax all over again. I am prepared to do time
for this,' runs one entry on the No2ID campaign website. Another says: 'I'm
not an anarchist, but we're getting to the stage now where I think peaceful
protest isn't going to work.'
The Home Office estimates that around 17 per cent of adults - up to four million
people - oppose the cards. A recent ICM poll, commissioned by No2ID, found that
43 per cent believe they are a 'bad' or 'very bad' idea.
'Whichever poll you believe,' says Phil Booth, head of No2ID, 'there are millions
who just won't do it.'
Many of the tactics to be used by the campaigners have been borrowed from Australia,
where in 1987 the government scrapped plans for ID cards after a network of
'refusenik' organisations obstructed the scheme.
Booth was at the Glastonbury festival last weekend drumming up support. So
far 7,000 people have pledged to resist the scheme.
He says they could be followed by hundreds of thousands of others willing to
obstruct the whole scheme. 'Our next pledge will be to raise £1 million
for a fighting fund from people who feel they cannot actively reject the scheme,
but are sympathetic to those who will.'
The phased nature of the scheme's launch - with ID cards initially distributed
on a voluntary basis to Britons and compulsorily to foreign workers from 2008
- has been seized on by campaigners as proof that the government knows the strength
of the opposition. Ministers have yet to commit themselves to a date when the
cards will become compulsory for all.
'The government appears to have learnt from the poll tax, in that it's not
going to introduce it in one go,' said a man called Nathan who helps to co-ordinate
the Defy ID network, a loose, pan-national organisation that advocates direct
action.
'In the same way people broke the law by refusing to pay their poll tax, we
may see similar acts of disobedience. There's a diversity of tactics people
are going to use, from targeting the companies involved to buying shares in
them so you can attend and disrupt their annual meetings,' Nathan added.
The Passport Office, which in the autumn will roll out new biometric passports
with scans of applicants' faces, fingerprints and irises, will be a key target.
Initially only those who need to renew their passports will be required to have
the scans.
Opponents are preparing to launch a co-ordinated mass application to the Passport
Office over the summer. The applicants would be issued with the current non-biometric
passports that would, theoretically, be valid for 10 years. The surge in applications
would cause a major headache for the office, which has suffered backlogs due
to IT failures.
'Given the Passport Office's past form, being required to process a big increase
in applications is something that could cause significant problems,' Booth said.
A second front will be the launch of a legal test case challenging enforced
fingerprinting on passports which the shadow Attorney General, Dominic Grieve,
said last week may be illegal.
Individuals are being encouraged to launch their own forms of resistance. One
idea is for people to refuse to touch their fingers on the scanners, causing
backlogs at the 70 ID card centres.
Campaigners are also being instructed to cross their eyes when in front of
the iris scanners. Another suggestion is for people to say they have undergone
a religious conversion, and insist on wearing burqas - which cover the face
- in front of the scanners.
Booth said: 'There will very definitely be resistance. As with the poll tax,
mass refusal to comply occurs when people feel something is deeply unfair.'