Hope to see you in Manchester this Saturday

Applications for ID cards can begin on Tuesday 20 October 2009, at a fee of £30. The lucky residents of Manchester were to be the first people to be offered this opportunity to have their private details held by the government. However, we now find that there is to be a special 'early bird offer' for staff at the Home Office, the Identity and Passport Service and elsewhere who are engaged on work relating to the issue of identity cards.

It will be interesting to know how many take up this offer but any FOI request would probably take some time.

This means that residents of Manchester and workers at Manchester and City airport will be denied the honour of being the first UK citizens to get ID cards.

The lucky Mancunians will get their chance "later in 2009", while "other locations in the North West" will be able to apply for the cards next year.

Why not go to Manchester tomorrow,17th October, to help publicise the guinea pig campaign and tell the people of Manchester why it is not a good idea to be on the National Identity Register, the ID database which will involve: numbering and tracking you, indexing your relationships (your tax, your NHS number, your passport…) and passing your information around Whitehall. Once on the database, you can never get off.

Stop the ID Card Con – inform yourself, and tell others: