White Rose is a protest blog collective focusing on civil liberties in the UK.
It was set up to point a finger at the erosion of personal freedom in the UK.
Government's active measures introduce new means of control such as identity cards and surveillance cameras, the passive measures such as weakening of double jeopardy and presumption of innocence.
The arguments
- Most measures regarding security and crime control do not work.
- Their effect is restriction of 'honest citizen's' privacy and freedom.
- Alternative solutions to the security and privacy 'trade-off'
The resistants
Gabriel Syme and Perry de Havilland of Samizdata.net to rally the Anglosphere behind the UK.
White Rose contributors are those bloggers and non-bloggers who oppose restrictions on personal liberties.
To find out how to become a White Rose contributor, please
go here.
Tuesday, August 19, 2003
ID cards must be OK if they're doing them
Brian Micklethwait (London)
News of a new ID card scheme, in China:
BEIJING, Aug. 18 – For almost two decades, Chinese citizens have been defined, judged and, in some cases, constrained by their all-purpose national identification card, a laminated document the size of a driver's license.
But starting next year, they will face something new and breathtaking in scale: an electronic card that will store that vital information for all 960 million eligible citizens on chips that the authorities anywhere can access.
Surprise, surprise.
Has Blunkett scheduled a fact-finding visit to China yet or did he give the Chinese government the idea in the first place I wonder?
And in China everyone does have a lifetime file on them which is referred to by the authorities to check if someone might have dangerous tendencies...
Threw a tantrum in kindergarten and refused to wear that red-ribbon in your hair? Noted. Obviously a worse candidate for promotion than the one without the attitude problem; and we should check your web use, now we think about it.
(0)
