Information on our past and present campaigns

Campaign to Scrap Fees

On 10th March 2009, a small group of students went round the University of Cambridge asking students if they would be happy sharing with us their level of student debt.

These were the, quite shocking, results!

As Liberals, we think that education should be a right, not a privilege.

IDday Campaign

ACT NOW: Compulsory Biometric ID Cards to be introduced.

The government wants to introduce compulsory ID cards for all UK residents. The information for these will be stored on a huge government database. The cards will cost approximately £300 each. We believe these cards will be expensive, intrusive and ineffective.

UPDATE: Nearly 150 people signed our pledge to refuse to register for an ID card. Click here to see who they were, and read our press release about the day.

Big Database. Big Mistakes.

No government can’t keep the details of 60 million people safe. There will inevitably be leaks.
The government has not specified what will happen in cases of misidentification, data errors, deliberate attacks on your data, or internal corruption. Will the government deny you access to public services? How will you reclaim your identity?
BUT why should you ever have to reclaim your identity? It’s yours. A national identity database will put it at risk.

Discrimination State.

The government wants to use ID cards to detect terrorists, illegal immigrants, and “health tourists”. We can therefore expect ethnic minorities to be targetted for ‘checks’ more than others. Anti-terror laws are already used disproportionately on minority groups. These ID Cards will lead to increased discrimination and harrassment.

Can be forged, will be forged.

The value of the card as a guarantee of someone’s identity across a range of valuable services will mean it will become a target for forgery by criminals seeking to disguise their true identities. The government claims they will be unforgeable – history suggests they will be proved wrong. Did you know that in 2006 alone, 10,000 fraudulent applicants obtained genuine UK passports from the Home Office (BBC, 2007)? Or that Chip & Pin has now been cracked by Cambridge University reaserchers? ID Cards won’t be an exception!

Lost/stolen Government Data:

* 25 million Child Benefits Claimants details (2007)
* 3 million records of driving test candidates (2008)
* 620,000 personal MoD records including bank account and national insurance details (2007/08)

How long until YOU are one of these statistics?

Police, Not Plastic!

Instead of ID cards, the Liberal Democrats will use the £5.7bn ID cards budget to hire 10,000 extra police officers. Plastic can’t fight terrorism and it can’t make our streets safe: Police Officers can.

“The idea that the card can be used to fight terrorism is completely fatuous”
Colin Langham-Fitt – One of the country’s most senior police officers.