MSP signs up for battle to stop ID cards

Published on Tuesday 29 January 2008 09:15

GREEN MSP Patrick Harvie has agreed to sign a pressure group's pledge not to co-operate with controversial plans for ID cards.

Mr Harvie, a long-standing opponent of identity cards, is due to sign the pledge tomorrow at a meeting of the Edinburgh branch of privacy campaigners NO2ID.

The group has asked people to pledge they will not register for an ID card or supply any of the 50 pieces of personal information that would be stored on the Government's proposed National Identity Register.

Edinburgh NO2ID co-ordinator, Dr John Welford, said: "With the HMRC Child Benefit debacle, confidential records being dumped on a roundabout and Northern Ireland driving licence and Merseyside health staff details being lost, confidence in the Government's ability to safeguard personal information is crumbling.

"But still they persist in the fallacy that ID cards will protect against ID fraud. It is time for individuals to stand up and resist this nonsense."

The meeting takes place tomorrow at the Quaker Meeting House on Victoria Terrace.