David Cameron MP (Conservative) is the MP for Witney, the Leader of the Conservative Party and the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Issues

Digital Economy Bill

David is being visited by at least one ORG supporter

Identity cards

David Cameron in a speech to Imperial College London Giving power back to the people 25 June 2009

This in itself bad enough - our most personal information stored in labs and state data vaults. But Labour want to go even further. They want every single person in this country to walk around with an ID card. With that card over fifty pieces of personal information will have been transferred from your private control to state control. Not just your name and address and place of birth but your image, signature, fingerprints - maybe even iris scans and a facial measurement template.

For those who don't get a card there is talk of fines, enforced registration and penalties in public service provision. Scare tactics to herd more disempowered citizens into the clutches of officialdom, as people surrender more and more information about their lives, giving the state more and more power over their lives.

If we want to stop the state controlling us, we must confront this surveillance state.

...

We will scrap the ID Card scheme.

David Cameron in response to a question on RFID and Biometrics in Passports on his blog said 21 February 2007

You raise some important points. Millions of these new passports are already in use, and it’s absolutely vital that this system is secure. The Government says the passports can’t be read at a distance and that you need to know the information in the passport to be able to access the biometric data. But it was worrying to read the report in the Guardian in November of a computer expert who found it was possible in some circumstances to transfer biometric data with a reader costing £174.

Then just a fortnight ago we had the report from the National Audit Office pointing out that the chips only have a two-year warranty, whereas the passports last for ten years. Also, not all UK entry ports even have the required scanners yet.

The Government’s record in bringing in new technology has not been a good one to say the least. As well as campaigning on the security issues you mention, we have also used this experience to point to the folly of the Government’s proposed ID cards – which will be an even bigger project with even more security concerns.

David Cameron answered BBC viewers' questions on ID cards 18 January 2007

"Very clear I am against them I think they are a bad idea."

When asked if he will scrap Identity cards David Cameron replied

"Yes."

"I think its a very expensive idea, I don't think it will work. When you examine the governments claims and say is it realy about cutting crime? You find out it is not. So you ask them is it realy about immigration, well it isn't. And it turns out to be a very expensive answer to none of the problems we have, so get rid of it and use the money on more sensible things, whether its building prisons, or having proper boarder police, or making sure we deal with identity fraud."

While listing differences between Labour and the conservatives

"Identity cards, Labour wants to introduce them, I think they would be an expensive waste of money I would scrap them"

DNA database

David Cameron in a speech to Imperial College London Giving power back to the people 25 June 2009

Nearly five million people are on Labour's DNA database. The Government says it's to help fight crime. But almost a million of the people on it are completely innocent. And tens of thousands of those innocent people are children. It's a situation that would cause concern under the most oppressive regimes in the world, but it's happening right here, right now in Britain. ... And we will remove innocent people's records from the DNA database.

Children's Digital Rights

David Cameron in a speech to Imperial College London Giving power back to the people 25 June 2009

Contact Point is a vast database that holds the details of everyone under the age of eighteen in England, their name, address, gender, date of birth, school and health provider. And the Government doesn't want to stop with the basic information. They want the most complex, important, personal information there is. ... So the next Conservative Government will scrap the Contact Point database of children's details.

Internet Censorship

Signed Early Day Motion 820 Real data services, Romford 04 March 2003

That this House expresses its deep concern at the availability of child pornography on the internet; congratulates the Romford-based internet service provider, Real Data Services, for blocking users from being able to access websites containing child pornography; and further calls upon other internet providers to follow suit, in order to track down the perpetrators of this obscene crime against children.

Adult content filters

"I want to fully explore every option that might help make children safer - including whether Internet filters should be switched on as the default, so that adult content is blocked unless you decide otherwise."^[1]

Adult content filtering regulation

"To me, the fact that so many children have visited the darkest corners of the internet is not just a matter of concern – it is utterly appalling. A silent attack on innocence is underway in our country today and I am determined that we fight it with all we’ve got.

"Some might ask why, then, this Government has not taken the route of ‘default on’ filters for new computers, so that each one that is bought comes with blanket filters for all unsuitable content.

"There’s a simple reason why we haven’t done this: all the evidence suggests such a crude system wouldn’t work very well in practice."^[2]

Privacy

Question for David: Should the UK have new privacy laws to settle concerns about Big Brother? 8 January 2007

I think there are two separate questions here.

Is the Government promoting too much intrusion into people’s private lives? Yes. From plans for a national ID cards database, through chips in wheelie bins to check your rubbish, to council tax inspectors knocking on your door, it’s clear that the liberties and privacy of honest law-abiding citizens are being eroded.

Of course that doesn’t mean people are against CCTV in their neighbourhoods where it helps tackle crime. But it does mean we should listen to the warning of the Government’s own Information Commissioner, who has said the country could "sleepwalk into a surveillance society".

But the second question is whether a new law is necessarily the answer. I don’t think so. Simply bringing in another new law every time there is a problem is one of this Government’s failings. In fact often – like the legislation on ID cards – it is one of its laws which is the problem in the first place. What we need is a new approach, in which we emphasise the principle of liberty under the law and base our policies on that.

Links

News

2008-01-09 - Conservative Party - David asks Mr. Brown to clarify ID Card confusion: Summary: Following their exchange at Prime Minister's Questions, David Cameron has written to Mr. Brown to ask him to clarify his position on ID Cards. The clarification was necessary, said David, as: "Anyone watching will have been left in considerable doubt about whether you personally support compulsory ID Cards and will recommend this approach to the House of Commons." David quoted apparently contradictory statements by Mr. Brown on the subject, and asked the Prime Minister a straightforward question: "Do you personally support a compulsory ID Card system for British nationals?"

2007-08-31 - The Times - Gangs and gun crime rekindle the debate on tighter internet regulation: Author: Dan Sabbagh; Summary: David Cameron called for curbs on violent music and games, as the Tory leader strayed close to the issue of online regulation.

2007-07-04 - BBC - Brown and Cameron clash over ID: Summary: Gordon Brown and David Cameron have clashed over plans to introduce identity cards in their first prime minister's questions encounter. Mr Cameron, whose Conservatives oppose the cards, said they would "cause more problems than they solve" and had not stopped terror attacks abroad. But Mr Brown, who raised the issue, said they were needed as they were "complementary" to other policies. ... Mr Cameron quoted Mr Brown's new chancellor, Alistair Darling, as having said in the past: "Identity cards are unnecessary and will create more difficulties than they will solve. I don't want my whole life to be reduced to a magnetic strip on a plastic card."

References

↑ Automatic bar on net porn considered, BBC, 2012-06-28
↑ Nothing matters more than keeping our children safe, Daily Mail 19 December 2012

[1] Automatic bar on net porn considered, BBC, 2012-06-28

[2] Nothing matters more than keeping our children safe, Daily Mail 19 December 2012

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