Resist Now!

This valuable piece I reproduce from the Peter Hitchens in the Mail on Sunday (here).

"A renewed message about passports, and time running out

I have for some weeks been urging readers to renew their passports, because you will soon not be able to do this without being fingerprinted and placed forever on the national identity register. I think fingerprinting is for burglars, and registers are for sex offenders, and I am afraid that millions of people are as yet unaware that this is going to happen. I don't want anyone to be taken by surprise when it does. If you want to be registered as if you were a cow, and fingerprinted as if you were a mugger, then fine. If not, you need to act soon. Please do spread the warning as widely as you can

The interrogation centres where the fingerprinting will be done are being built and equipped, right now. And at some point in the next 18 months, perhaps much sooner, those who seek to renew their passports will be told they cannot do so unless they attend at one of these centres, often quite distant from their homes. I suspect there will be no warning, just an announcement that this is now the rule. The law has already been passed, and merely needs to be brought into force. The price of renewal goes up in October, yet another reason to get on with it.

Here are some questions and answers which may help those who have not yet acted.

Q. My passport is valid until 2014. Why renew now?

A. Because if you wait until 2014, and probably a great deal sooner than that, you will have to be fingerprinted and registered forever on a state database, simply to get a new passport, whether or not you wish to have a supposedly 'voluntary' Identity Card.

Q. How soon will this happen?

A. I do not know. The preparations are far advanced and the law already in place. My guess is that you are safe for some months yet, but I cannot be sure. My advice is to renew as soon as your summer holiday is over.

Q. Officials say that this change only affects new applicants and I do not need to worry.

A. This is a confusion of two completely different things. Pay no attention. New applicants do already need to attend an interview. Fingerprinting and registration are a separate issue, and have not yet come in. But they will.

Q. Do I get any credit for the unexpired time on my old passport?

A. Yes, you get a maximum of nine months credit for unexpired time.

Q. Can I do this at any time?

A. Yes, you can. You're the one paying the fee.

Q. I'm told that new passports are microchipped. Surely that means this is all too late?

A. They are microchipped, but the microchip - at present - contains only the normal information written in your passport. Some people may find this objectionable, but it is nothing like as objectionable as being fingerprinted.

Q. Surely, once ten years are up, I'll have to be fingerprinted and registered anyway, and this is all futile?

A. Not necessarily. If enough people renew early, it will be a sign of major resistance to the Identity Card scheme, and political pressure will grow for its abandonment. Also, if , ten years hence, several million people - whose passports all come up for renewal in the same short period - all refuse to be fingerprinted and registered, will the government be able to refuse them all the right to go abroad? Now, and ten years hence, it faces the government with real, effective resistance. Please tell all your friends to act now."