Via: An Englishmans Castle

Up to 3 million households have RFID chips fitted to their wheelie bins which uniquely identify each bin and, with the aid of a database, link each bin to each household.

The British government is paying its European masters billions of pounds in fines every year because recycling targets are being missed.  One of the favoured solutions is to charge by weight for refuse collections and most bin lorries have already been fitted with scales on the lifting arms.

A while back An Englishmans Castle found that one of the spy chips had been fitted to his bin.  Apparently they don’t work after being nuked in the microwave …

The Centre for Policy Studies has produced a new booklet detailing the 266 ways that agents of the state can legally enter your home without your permission.

There are some interesting ones to watch out for …

• When blogging about politics it is important that you comply with the EC Fertilisers (England and Wales) Regulations 2006 which allows an agent of the state entry to your property to supervise your use of fertilisters – such as bullshit.  Obstruction can result in a fine of up to £5,000.
• Anyone doing business with a country that America doesn’t like needs to be aware that HM Revenue & Customs are able to enter your property to search for evidence of trade with Al-Qa’ida or the Taliban.
• Make sure you check your pockets before doing the washing because if you’re suspected of laundering money (yes, I know it’s a crap joke) an agent of the state is entitled to enter your property with a warrant to search for evidence of an infringement of EC Money Laundering Regulations 2003.
• If you’ve been letting your garden get a bit unruly over the winter then watch out for a DEFRA agent knocking on your door under the Weeds Act which allows him to enter your property to check for the presence of virulent weeds on the instructions of the Millibeast.  Obstruction can result in a fine of up to £1,000.
• If you own a bit of land in a growing town that your local unelected regional development agency wants to build houses on you must allow an agent access to your property so they can decide whether to compulsary purchase it.  Obstruction can result in a fine of up to £1,000.
• Despite reassurances from the Valuation Office Agency, agents of your local authority have the power to enter your property for the purposes of council tax valuations under the Local Government Finance Act 1992.  Obstruction can result in a fine of up to £500.
• Interesting rock formation in your back garden?  The Natural Environment Research Council has the power to enter your property to survey your land under the Geological Survey Act 1845.  Obstruction can result in a fine of up to £20.
• Under the Gas Act 1965 an agent of the state has the power to enter your property to discover any underground site suitable for the storage of gas.  Obstruction can result in a £200 fine.
• Married to someone in the Armed Forces?  Don’t try and encourage them to leave the forces or the police can enter your property to search for evidence under the Incitement to Disaffection Act 1934 that you are encouraging a member of the Armed Forces to resign.
• Does your book collection contain anything that denies the existence of god or questions the bible?  Then an agent of the state can enter your property under the Criminal Libel Act 1819 to sieze blasphemous material.

Be afraid, be very afraid.

Hat-tip: An Englishmans Castle

The Home Office has been split into two with the creation of a Justice Ministry.

The new ministry will be headed up by the unelected Scottish Lord Chancellor, Charlie Falconer, while it is being reorganised.

The Department for Constitutional Affairs is taking over the sentencing side of the legal system from the Home Office and will be renamed the Justice Ministry.  Charlie Falconer will be moved elsewhere in the cabinet – still unelected of course – once the reorganisation has taken place and an, as yet un-named MP will take over the Justice Ministry.

What is left of the Home Office is going to take over counter-terrorism from the Cabinet Office and will see the creation of yet another government department called the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism.

It has been pointed out that the Home Office has been bigger and the position of Home Secretary has had more responsibilities in the past but still performed perfectly well.  It is only since a succession of illiberal dimwits have been put in charge of the department that the department has apparently become unmanageable and “not fit for purpose”.  To divide it up and leave the same bunch of idiots in charge won’t solve anything – it’ll just cost more money, increase the size of the government and it’ll still be incompetent.

The only way to improve the Home Office is a regime change in the entire British government.  The Tories, Lib Dums and all the other parties need to work together and propose a vote of no confidence every day that Gordon Brown is Prime Minister after Bliar resigns until they bring the British government down and get a general election.  Only a change at the top is going to make a difference.

The British government is trying to pass a law preventing any form of discrimination.  The Catholic Church, which believes homosexuality is a sin, is opposed to the new law because it will make it illegal for their adoption agencies to refuse tp place a child with a homosexual couple.  In light of this the Catholic Church is threatening to close their adoption agencies unless they’re given special dispensation.

I don’t believe in any religion and I don’t believe that religion should play any part in the legislative process.  However, when it comes down to it, this isn’t about religion.

The British government thinks that it can legislate to prevent prejudice but it can’t.  Passing a law banning discrimination against homosexuals, ethnic minorities, women or little green aliens from Mars doesn’t change opinions.  If someone doesn’t like homosexuals or thinks that homosexuality is wrong then you can’t pass a law to make them think differently.

What this boils down to is whose right is right.  If you believe – as the British government does – that homosexuals have a right to adopt children then that infringes the right of a Catholic adoption agency to believe that it is wrong for homosexuals to adopt children.  Catholics have a right to their opinion, homosexuals have a right to theirs.  The British government has committed itself now – it has to decide whose rights are more important and in the process faces a rift in the cabinet.  Both Ruth Kelly and Cherie Bliar are members of Opus Dei, a fundamentalist catholic sect – that should make Sunday lunch interesting.

An elderly Christian couple who wrote to their council criticising it for wasting taxpayers money promoting homosexuality have been paid compensation for the police investigation that followed.

The couple believe that homosexuality is a sin and wrote to their council telling them that they were offended by their council tax being spent on promoting homosexuality and asking for christian leaflets to be placed alongside gay rights leaflets.  The council refused and reported the couple to the police for homophobia.  Two police officers interviewed the couple for an hour on their views on homosexuality.

The couple sued the council and the police but came to an out of court settlement covering their £40k legal bills and £10k compensation which they have donated to charity.

Last month Shropshire County Council started their decriminalised parking scheme accompanied by a series of press releases reassuring residents that the wardens would mainly be giving people advice for the first couple of months.

In the Shropshire Star tonight, they report that wardens have issued a whopping £68,000 in fines since the scheme started in November.

How much will they start raking in when the “amnesty” is over?

John Reid, the Scottish Home Secretary, has announced that plans for a single ID database have been scrapped and that the National Identity Register will instead be serviced by three existing systems.

The single database was proposed – at a cost of £5.4bn – with the intention that it would be a “clean” system with no duplication and no pre-existing duff data.  Now it will consist of three existing databases that will apparently be full of errors and duplication.

Biometric details will be stored on an existing system used to keep information about asylum seekers and biographical information will be kept on DWP systems which are supported by EDS who have a record of being incapable of implementing large-scale IT solutions in the public sector without making a complete balls-up of it.

The British government is also planning new legislation in the new year to require immigrants from outside of the EEA to submit their biometric details to the identity database which will be a requirement to get a national insurance number, without which they will be unable to work and will have to scrounge off the state instead.

The latest list of “benefits” to ID cards from the Home Office is:

• Tackling illegal immigration (because people illegally entering the country will obvously apply for an ID card before doing so)
• Tackling identity fraud (the “secure” RFID chip on the new electronic passports has already been cracked using a reader purchased off eBay)
• Fighting organised crime (because criminals carry ID cards when they commit crimes)
• Fighting terrorism (the Home Office has already admitted that they won’t prevent terrorism)
• Protecting vulnerable children by allowing better background checks (so criminal records, sexual preferences, employment history, etc. will all be on the ID database?)
• Improving public services (by preventing anyone not in posession of their card from having access to public services)

ID cards and the ID database are a serious attack on our rights and liberties.  Every time the British government announces a new proposal or change to the scheme it makes me more determined to resist.  I will not submit my biometric data or personal details to the state for inclusion on their spy database.  Hell will freeze over before I submit myself voluntarily to this illiberal database.

NØ2ID has just released the following press release:

Schoolchildren to be targeted for ID interrogation

In a document leaked to the Sunday Times, the Home Office Identity and Passports Service (IPS) states that from March 26th next year children as young as 16 will be made to attend an intrusive “interview” at one of 69 interrogation centres across the UK, involving a round trip of up to 80 miles at their own cost. The request for proposals from advertising agencies suggests that one in four new applicants will fail to get their passport in time to travel.

The interviews with officials, which are expected to last around 20 minutes, are intended to probe the personal background of each applicant “to ensure that the identity actually belongs to the individual making the application”. An official file will be collated on each person from various sources, and they will then face cross examination by officials to check out their story against it.

Phil Booth, NO2ID’s National Coordinator said:

“If you’re planning on having a gap year, be prepared to answer a few questions.

“The Government is setting itself up to tell everyone who they are. And they are starting with impressionable teenagers. Submit to a grilling, and match what we think we know about you, or you won’t be able to travel, is what ‘Authentication by Interview’ really means. This is just a glimpse of the “papers, please” ID regime that is to come.

“Desperate to avoid another humiliating meltdown of the passport service, and wary of tipping its hand on ID cards, the Government now intends to burn taxpayers’ money in the millions propagandising your children to believe the state is the final arbiter of their identity.”

Alistair Campbell, the cretinous tosspot who used to head up Labour’s Propaganda Department, suggests that bloggers should sign up to a voluntary code of practice and practice self-censorship.

I can’t speak for other bloggers but I already parctice self-censorship.  I don’t post anything libelous and I moderate my language.  What more should I do?  Stop criticising corrupt, bigotted politicians?  Stop slagging off career politicians and dodgy politics?  Stop calling politicians and other public figures names?

How does “bollocks” sound?  The internet is the only place left where you still have freedom of speech and where you can voice your opinion without oppresive censorship.  It’s my blog and I’ll say what I damn well want.  If Alistair Campbell and others of his ilk don’t like it, I suggest they write their own blogs and defend themselves and their parties.

I refuse to give up my right to freedom of speech.

New passports feature a “secure” RFID chip with all your details on them.  The RFID chip allows the details on your passport to be read by a scanner without actually coming into contact with the passport.

The British government introduced the RFID chip for a couple of reasons – firstly, the American’s will only waive the visa requirements for the UK if we have these chips on our passports (although they don’t use them themselves) and secondly, these chips will also be incorporated on ID cards.

The Identity and Passport Service website says “The development of the National Identity Scheme builds on the changes being made to passports to provide a secure and straightforward way to safeguard personal identities from misuse.”

Interesting use of the word “secure” there because a Guardian investigation has discovered that the data on these “secure” RFID chips can be downloaded to a PC using a commercial scanner they bought for £174 off the internet.

How reassuring.  They’ve spent £60m on the scheme so far, using technology that is going to be used in ID cards which the British government have told us is perfectly safe and secure yet a journalist can use a scanner he bought off the internet to read the “secure” chip.  All the more reason to refuse to submit to Labour’s police state if you ask me.

NØ2ID – you know it makes sense.

Common sense has prevailed.  Nick Griffin, leader of the BNP, has been found not guilty on race hate charges.

The whole trial was a joke.  His comments were in opposition to Islam – a religion – and the charges were race hate.  The judge said that he was merely expressing his freedom of speech – a right which everyone has, regardless of whether what they say is considered socially acceptable.

I still think Griffin is a tosser but the judge was absolutely and no matter how repulsive Nick Griffin is, he has a right to criticise who and what he wants.

Update:
The Ignorant Jock has said that race hate laws may need to be reviewed.  What has this got to do with the Treasury exactly?  And what changes are going to be made?  To make it illegal to criticise a religion as well as a race?  Funnily enough, this was a clause in the original bill and it was taken out.  The unelected Scottish Lord Chancellor or England, Charlie Falconer, has also said that the laws may need to be looked at.

Two men have been cleared of racial harrasment over a private joke about black jelly babies in a trial costing the taxpayer a quarter of a million pounds.

The two men had been joking about black jelly babies with a colleague with whom they regularly had banter of a racial nature.

They denied the charges when arrested but the Crown Prosecution Service decided to prosecute anyway at huge expense to the taxpayer and for what?  Ridiculous.

Nick Griffin – the leader of the BNP – is a tosser.  Can’t stand the bloke.  He’s a blatant racist and white supremecist.  However …

He’s standing trial for using words likely to stir up racial hatred.  The words he used were obviously intended to stir up racial hatred, that’s what he does and that’s what the BNP is about.  However, there is such a thing as freedom of speech.  If he holds the views he does and wants to voice those opinions to people who choose to go and listen to what he says then he should have a right to do that.  What he said may have been offensive to asians and muslims and other ethnic groups but – this is an important thing to remember – they don’t have to listen to what he says!

He says that Islam is wicked.  That’s his opinion, he’s entitled to it.  I think some parts of Islam – stoning women to death, genital mutilation, honour killings, halal for instance – are medievil and barbaric.  Should I be arrested and charged for saying this?

He said that Islam is sweeping the world and if you read the Koran you’ll see that’s what they want.  This is actually a simple statement of fact – one of the obligations you have as a muslim is to convert the world to Islam.  Is telling the truth a crime?

He talks about asians committing rape.  They do.  White people commit rape as well – he didn’t say “only asians rape women”.  Again, it’s not a crime to state a fact.

He also says that some places have become a multi-racial hellhole.  Quite right!  There are places not far from here where it isn’t safe for a white person to go and I speak from personal experience having been escorted off a housing estate by a gang of asians for my own safety a few years ago.  It shouldn’t happen and when it does you shouldn’t get into trouble for telling people about it.

Finally, he says that asians don’t mug or rape other asians and that they do it to white people instead.  Not entirely accurate but broadly correct – as far as I’m aware, the majority of crimes committed by asians is against white and black people.

I’m not defending the BNP or Griffin but I do think we have to protect our right to freedom of speech.  If any asians or other ethnic minorities were present at the BNP meeting in which Griffin said what he did then that’s their fault.  They knew what would be said, they knew who he was and they knew what he said would offend him.  They weren’t forced to listen to his speech and they shouldn’t have any right to complain about it.