A recent article in the BBC revealed that “Councils in England and Wales have used controversial spying laws 10,000 times in the past five years, figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats show.”

As a result of this the Southampton NO2ID group decide it would be interesting to see how Southampton City Council have been using RIPA laws. I have submitted a public FOI request to the Council to find out more. The request can be seen here. Watch this space.

More on what will be discussed at the meeting…

The year is getting off to a flying start. The Convention on Modern Liberty in London this Saturday received considerable interest and support from the media. The issues that will be emerging over the coming months are becoming clear. This month’s meeting will be especially important in clarifying where we are and what we all need to do next.

1) Reports from the Bristol Convention on Modern Liberty

2) A new council motion: Investigate with local parties a new motion to the Full Council, including the following: no use of fingerprinting in schools no support for Airport to demand ID cards no fingerprinting of punters in pubs refusal to provide consent to share any data under clause 152

3) Action in support of BALPA.

4) Clause 152 of the Coroners and Justice Bill must be stopped! Clause 152 will allow the government to share your personal information and your family’s personal information howsoever gained with anyone they want within or outside government in public and private bodies This is the official document (http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmbills/009/09009.100-106.html) Please read it, but doing so does carry a health warning! This one clause enables any Minister to issue orders that do away with legislation and create imprisionable offences, all to ensure you loose your privacy. There is no requirement nor opportunity to ask for a debate, let alone vote, on the orders in parliament. The Information Commissioner will be allowed only 21 days to submit a report that will, along with the order, be filled in the library. That’s it; no accountability, no appeal, no oversight, nothing. It is truly horrifying. that is why I urge you all to read the full cold text.

*** IMPORTANT *** I will make this call again at the meeting, but if you are unable to make it, for any reason, then please write to your MP saying, and this is very important, that you “refuse your consent to permit anyone the arbitrary power to share your information under any information sharing order.” You can also urge your MP to vote to have Clause 152 removed from the bill, but please make sure that you tell your representative that you “refuse your consent”. You can write to your MP online (and it will be treated as if you sent the letter in the post) using http://www.writetothem.com/

Information on the Convention including videos can be found at http://www.modernliberty.net/ There is a very good keynote speech by Lord Bingham here (http://ms.groovygecko.net/groovyg/clients/dowie/lord_bingham_700k.wmv)

The Guardian has a lot of comment and debate available here (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral)

Please feel free to use these to help you write your own letters to the local paper (http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/yoursay/lettersubmit/)