The Brown government is under massive pressure over a party funding scandal. The man at the centre of the row, David Abrahams, has explained that his actions were intended to protect his privacy.

What planet is he living on?

Worrying about privacy whilst supporting Labour is like worrying about the environment whilst dumping chemical waste into a river.

The Labour party is one of the biggest threats to personal privacy that we've seen for generations. Over the last ten years we've seen massive expansion of the national DNA database, a snoopers' charter for civil servants and even fingerprinting of kids at school. This government also wants to impose compulsory National Identity Cards and a huge, intrusive National Identity register.

The government doesn't even properly protect the information it collects: HMRC lost discs containing the personal information on almost every family in Britain. The discs still haven't been found and the information is still out there. Somewhere.

Abrahams is backing the wrong horse.

Labels: Labour, privacy, uk politics

Gordon Brown has ruled out a snap election this autumn and is unlikely to call one next spring either. He's denied that this is because the latest opinion polls show the Tories 6% above Labour - but nobody's going to believe him.

So the Brown bounce has run out of steam, to mix a metaphor. He is now facing the prospect of not getting a majority in the next election whenever it happens. How can he change minds and win the votes of people like me?

Simple: drop plans for ID Cards and a huge, intrusive National Identity Register (NIR).

It's clear that ID Cards have no positive political value. Few people will switch to Labour because they like the idea, many of us will switch from Labour because we find the scheme totally unacceptable.

If you feel the same way and have a Labour MP, this might be a good time to write and remind him or her that there's now time for them to change Brown's mind, get Blair's dangerous ID Card scheme dropped and win back your vote.

Labels: election, Gordon Brown, ID Cards, Labour, uk politics, ukpolitics

I'm not a member of any political party. I don't have a vote in the Labour party deputy leadership elections. Those who do might want to bear in mind recent statements by two of the candidates, Peter Hain and Hazel Blears.

The BBC reports Peter Hain, commenting on anti-terror legislation, as saying:

"We have got to be very careful that we do not create circumstances that are the domestic equivalent of Guantanamo Bay. "Guantanamo Bay, which was an international abuse of human rights, acted as a recruiting sergeant for dissidents and alienated Muslims and alienated many other people across the world."

Meanwhile Hazel Blears, commenting on the recent sugggestion to give police powers to stop and interrogate innocent people, reportedly described the proposal as "reasonable".

'Nuff said.

Hazel Blears Labour party Peter Hain UK politics ukpolitics

Labels: Hazel Blears, Labour, Peter Hain