I cannot express my disgust strongly enough

When will the Chagossians see justice?

Bancoult v. the FCO can be found on BAILII.

Big Brother to fingerprint little brother

Ahh isn’t this nice?

Proposals to fingerprint children aged 11 to 15 as part of new passport and ID card plans are being considered.

Immigration minister Liam Byrne told ITV1’s The Sunday Edition the proposals were being “looked at”. (the BBC)

We must indoctrinate the children don’t want our kids to feel left out, do we?

…

Officials at the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) had proposed the fingerprint database, said Mr Byrne.

Maybe they got the idea from the EU!

British children, possibly as young as six, will be subjected to compulsory fingerprinting under European Union rules being drawn up in secret. The prints will be stored on a database which could be shared with countries around the world.

That was from Guardian – July 2006.

More detail on the EU plans is available from Statewatch.

The Register reports that,

A Home Office spokesman said it is bound by the rules of the European Schengen agreement, which Britain isn’t signed up to, but has vowed to mirror, to introduce biometric fingerprints to British passports by 2009.

I’m not sure if that’s accurate, as

The United Kingdom’s “aspiration is to join SIS II in 2009. We think we will be ready … all Member States will be connected when the UK will join in 2009.” (EU Lords Select Committe)

The Committee also commented on a “lack of transparency”, concluding that:

A project of this importance and magnitude needs to be developed openly and publicly. It potentially affects not just EU citizens, but also hundreds of thousands of non-EU citizens who may wish to travel to or reside in the EU. Information must be readily available, not just to EU institutions and national experts, but to all those affected.

It is unacceptable for a project with such cost and resource implications to be developed without a prior full impact assessment, and a full legislative explanatory memorandum.

The Government should press for greater transparency in the future development of the project, including the award of contracts.

Don’t fret though, as the Commission said,

“the underlying rationale and nature of the system [SIS II] will remain the same as the current SIS. An impact assessment and public consultation were, therefore, not necessary.”

And as for our good friends at the Home Office,

Jonathan Sweet repeated this, and did not suggest that there was anything inadequate about this procedure.

Well he would say that, wouldn’t he?

It’s all fine drones – move along, nothing to see here.