From the BBC:

“Former Home Secretary David Blunkett says the government should scrap plans to introduce ID cards for all in favour of mandatory biometric passports.

Speaking at InfoSec 2009, a security conference held in London, the MP for Sheffield Brightside said biometric passports could do the job.

He said he had put the idea to the current Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.

He mooted the idea of ID cards when Home Secretary in 2001, but has changed his position in the last few months.

Asked whether ID cards could be dropped, Mr Blunkett told the BBC: “I think it is possible to mandate biometric passports.”

Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne said:

“When even the father of ID cards spurns them, the idea is truly an abandoned orphan.

“Only the most profligate of governments would lavish billions on this programme in such a deep recession where hard choices are needed on public priorities.

“There is no face-saver with passports, which were becoming biometric in any case. It would be ridiculous to insist that people pay for new passports whether they need them or not.

“The Government should remember that the British state belongs to the British people and not the other way around.”

You can sign the Liberal Democrats’ petition against ID cards here.

Yet more controversy over the police’s handling of protests:

Government officials passed secret police intelligence to energy firm E.ON before last summer’s environmental demonstration at Kingsnorth in Kent.

Environmental action group Climate Camp had planned a peaceful demonstration at the proposed site of a new coal-fired power station.

Emails obtained by Liberal Democrat MP David Howarth under the Freedom of Information Act show that civil servants from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform gave details of meetings and activists’ movements to E.ON.

From the Guardian:

At first officials at BERR refused to release the emails, despite a request under the Freedom of Information Act from the Liberal Democrats. The decision was reversed on appeal and although large sections have been blacked out, they show:

• BERR officials passed a strategy document belonging to the “environmental protest community” to E.ON, saying: “If you haven’t seen this then you will be interested in its contents.”

• Government officials forwarded a Metropolitan police intelligence document to E.ON, detailing the movements and whereabouts of climate protesters in the run-up to demonstration.

• E.ON passed its planning strategy for the protest to the department’s civil servants, adding: “Contact numbers will follow.”

• BERR and E.ON tried to share information about their media strategies before the protest, and civil servants asked the energy company for press contacts for EDF, BP and Kent police.

David Howarth said, “It is as though BERR was treating the police as an extension of E.ON’s private security operation. The question is how did that intelligence get to BERR? Did it come via the Home Office or straight from police?”

The pioneer of genetic fingerprinting, Professor Sir Alec Jeffries, has said that the Government is risking public support for the national DNA database by holding innocent people’s records.

Professor Jeffries told the Guardian,

“I have significant concerns there [about the size of the database]. That database is currently populated by an unknown number of entirely innocent people. It is not possible to get an accurate number but it appears to be hundreds of thousands.

“My view is very clear that if you have been convicted of a crime then you owe it to society to be retained on that database for catching in the future should you reoffend. But the retention of entirely innocent people is a whole different issue. There is a sort of presumption here that if they haven’t committed any crime now, then they will in the future.”

Chris Huhne, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary said,

“It demonstrates how out of touch the Government is with public opinion when the inventor of genetic fingerprinting has to tell them how unfair the DNA database is.

“It is unacceptable for the state to store the DNA of innocent people. The European Court agrees, Professor Jeffreys agrees and the public agrees. The Government must bring forward concrete proposals to remove the DNA of those that have done nothing wrong.

“Professor Jeffreys is also right to point out that the DNA database is not the flawless crime-fighting tool ministers would have us believe.”

Please help our campaign to protect innocent people’s DNA by encouraging friends and family to sign our petition at:  http://ourcampaign.org.uk/dna

Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, the Met’s anti-terror chief, has resigned after being photographed entering Downing Street with a secret document in clear view.

After press cameras zoomed in on the sensitive information, a raid of several addresses and workplaces in the North West had to be brought forward.

From the Telegraph:

Mr Quick, who is in overall charge of Britain’s anti-terrorism strategy, had gone to Downing Street to brief the Home Secretary on the latest developments in what had been a top secret operation.

The briefing note showed details of the locations and manner of the intended arrests by “dynamic entry — firearms”. It also showed where the suspects would have been held and the names of the six senior officers in charge of the operation.

Shortly after lunchtime, newspapers and broadcasters were contacted by the D-Notice Committee in an attempt to prevent the picture being published, though Mr Quick’s actions had caused such alarm the committee was initially able to tell editors only that they “might be in possession” of a photograph that compromised national security, without saying what it was.

It was not long before the operation had to take place.

Some people’s taste in music can be pretty bad, but criminal??

A jazz musician in Wales was arrested by armed police as part of a major anti-terror raid. Victor Frederick had been aware of police surveillance days before his arrest.

From WalesOnline, via Cory Doctorow on Boing Boing:

Victor Frederick, 63, was arrested and strip-searched just yards from his home, just moments after his partner Andrea Heath and their daughter had infra-red sights trained at them and were told they would be shot if they moved.

No charges were ever brought against Mr Frederick…[who told how] police interpreted soundproofing equipment and wiring from his musical studio as a potential sign of illicit activity.

Mr Frederick was informed he was being arrested on suspicion of making explosives, but later during questioning, police told him they had found nothing.

Police have found a new way to plug those gaps in the DNA database by arresting people for being honest.

Paul Leicester, a teenager from Southport who found a mobile phone and handed it in to the police, was arrested and held at the police station for four hours. He also had his fingerprints, photograph and DNA sample taken. He had been out celebrating his 18^th birthday.

From the Crosby Herald :

Paul said, “It’s stupid. Being arrested isn’t a way to celebrate your 18^th birthday. What are you supposed to do when you find a phone? I told the last caller I would drop it off at the police station the next day. But they arrested me for theft by finding - shocking.”

Please help our campaign to protect innocent people’s DNA by encouraging friends and family to sign our petition at: http://ourcampaign.org.uk/dna