PRESS RELEASE

To:

Home Office

OIG (re US-VISIT)

IDABC (re OSCIE)

China (re Golden Shield)

Agencies

Home Office press release misleads the public
6 February 2009

The Home Secretary visited Manchester on 29 January 2009 to promote ID cards and the Home Office issued a press release, Benefits of ID cards for Manchester, which contains at least 10 misleading assertions.

There is no doubt that their press release is misleading.

How can this happen? How can the Home Office issue a misleading press release?

Who knows?

If anyone knows, it must be the Permanent Secretary. BCSL has sent an open letter to Sir David Normington KCB. His public response will, we hope, show how progress is to be achieved – progress to the point where it is all but impossible for the Home Office to mislead the public.

http://dematerialisedid.com/BCSL/Normington.html

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Notes to editors
No chance, you may say, Permanent Secretaries do not make public announcements.

Wrong. Possibly. Sir David is different. The Sunday Times published a letter signed by him and the Home Secretary, On the track of mobile users, on 2 November 2008, a few weeks after calling in the police to investigate leaks at the Home Office.

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About Business Consultancy Services Ltd (BCSL):
BCSL has operated as an IT consultancy since 1984. The past 6 years have been spent campaigning against the Home Office's plans to introduce ID cards into the UK. It must now be admitted that the government are much better at convincing people that it's a bad idea than anyone else is, including BCSL.

Press contacts: David Moss, BCSL@blueyonder.co.uk