"The Lives of Others"
I thought I'd take a break from politics on Saturday night and go to see a film. That film turned out to be The Lives of Others at the GFT. Excellent film - subtitled German but don't let that put you off. (official website with Flash trailer).
Well, I didn't get away from politics and I hope Gordon Jackson - spotted in the audience - took away from it some cautionary points to discuss with his Labour colleagues in Westminster who seem wedded to the idea of big ID databases and collecting and keeping DNA on file from people whether or not they are found guilty of anything and possibly sharing it with foreign governments. You see the film is about the Stasi - the East German internal security service, a vast apparatus which spied on the East German population to root out dissent.
Go see it. If, as a politician, you came away from that film not realising how important it is to control a government's use of personal data then you wouldn't deserve to be elected. As a voter, next time you are at a hustings ask the panel members "What is a police state?"; anyone who can't describe it, its problems and the way to avoid it: boo them off stage.
The Greens have a track record of protecting civil liberties. In the Scottish Parliament they actually united Tories, SSP, SNP and a Labour rebel to defeat the Scottish Executive and passed a motion on ID cards (LibDems abstained). (Have a search for "ID cards" on www.scottishgreens.org.uk for more information about our track record.)
If you want to learn more, look at and get involved with No2ID...