NO2ID

Come on lets get a critical mass of local government opposing ID cards!

Here is the link
http://www.no2id.net/resources/motions/index.php

And here is what you might think of sending

Good morning,
I hope you are well. In light of the governments tragic mishandling of data, possibly affecting the lives of many Yorkshire families, I think the time is ripe for good people to make a stand regarding the Orwellian nightmare that is being proposed by Labour. To that end would you be favourable to the idea of proposing a motion that Leeds city council should oppose ID cards as 12 other cities throughout the UK have. Here is a link to a list of other councils who have already done so
http://www.no2id.net/resources/motions/index.php
As you know the majority of the public are against ID cards and databases and any councillor or party that were to even propose such a motion would benefit greatly from a grateful populace.

I hope this finds you in good health.

Kind regards


Good luck!

Just to let you know I got a positive response from that email within 15 minutes...so its worth doing!

Just an update.

After positive results from the councillors I've contacted I have received a message of support and a confirmation of their action in support from MP. It took/could take a week (I hope because their inboxes will be a lot busier then councillors'). I have, to remain polite, asked if I can post their brief but supportive message on here to encourage others to do the same simple lobbying that I have done (Again hopefully less than a week). But the wheels are in motion and hopefully a positive result (fingers crossed pressworthy too) will soon ensue.

Another point on campaigning advice; if we try to keep ID cards etc in the lime light with local and national papers by responding to this (follow this link) http://forum.no2id.net/viewtopic.php?t=19899 I think that should keep the argument fresh in the letters pages. I am about to send my letters now.


Forgive me mods I have posted the above on my other "stickied" thread also. http://forum.no2id.net/viewtopic.php?t=19709
Please move as needed.
Here is the letter;

We have a motion on the agenda for Ipswich borough council for 12th December. It was originally put forward before the disc debacle, but the councillor proposing it reckons that will have helped the chances of getting it through.

Definitely worth doing this!

Yes as Andrew says it is definitely worth doing. Local councillors whose details can be easily found on local government websites are the first point of call. Then get in touch with either (or both) local MP or sympathetic candidate (press hungry guys, all) and ask them to support your motion and lobby on your behalf.

and his reply...

The Ipswich motion passed. Proposed by Cllr Nadia Cenci (Conservative), and supported by Conservative and Liberal Democrat councillors, several of whom spoke in support of the motion. No-one from the Labour group spoke during the debate, and all Labour councillors abstained on the vote. Full minutes (MS Word): http://tinyurl.com/2vhjcc

I'm planning on lobbying my council, however, I live in a very Labour-dominated area. We have 42 Labour, 23 Lib Dem. What are the chances?

I seem to remember reading somewhere, maybe on this forum, that at least one Labour council has passed a motion. Can anyone tell me which council this was?

Citizen Trin

Find a friendly councillor first before lobbying them all at a distance.

Discover how the council works. What are the mechanics of passing a motion and what the timing?

Labour standing orders apparently have it that council votes are free unless there are financial implications for the council. (Get your friendly councillor to look it up so that s/he is happy pointing it out to colleagues.) So a motion before a council with a substantial Labour group, never mind a Labour majority, shouldn't contain a clause affiliating to NO2ID, which has a cost.

Try and make the manner of introduction of the motion as non-partisan as possible, to defuse the tribal defensiveness that may make Labour councillors stick to supporting government policy even where they have personal misgivings.

Do discuss with your targets. Don't assume we have an open and shut case. A lot of "lobbying" isn't. It just presents a few points and expects conviction and action without intervening personal persuasion. You do need to invest time in the seduction process and match that with the procedural timetable of the council.

Leeds City Council met on 12/12/2007 and passed a motion against ID cards. Links for minutes etc available in ID discussion Iron Is Hot thread.

What is the political make-up of Leeds City council. I myself am dealing with a very Labour-dominated council. Yikes!

The make up of Leeds City Council is 99 councillors, 44 of whom are Labour, the rest; 23 conservative, 22 lib dem, 6 independents, 3 green and 1 BNP. All the abstentions were Labour, there were no NO votes and every other party voted Yes to oppose ID cards.

Now Gateshead is 66 councillors with 42 of them being dyed in the wool Labour (no change in council for 35 years!) so you have a tough task.

Is there a local NO2ID group there?

There's a Newcastle group. Not very many active members though and not really a separate Gateshead group,

Trin

Newcastle might be interested in helping you out with this as their city council has already passed a motion opposing ID cards.

Link to Newcastle group meeting times.
http://forum.no2id.net/viewtopic.php?t=19471&highlight=newcastle

You could PM/email Gareth for more info.

I'm already in the Newcastle group. I think Newcastle City council passed te motion before the Newcastle group even formed, so they don't know anything about it.

It looks like you willl have your work cut out to get a motion through Gateshead council, but Gareth can probably put you in touch with some contacts to get things started.

It is worthwhile having a try even if there is little chance of getting a motion passed. Having the council debate a motion is a good way of generating publicity. It also offers a good opportunity for briefing councillors and building relationships with them while ensuring that they truly understand what we are fighting against.

Hi all,

Here is our experience.

The Southampton Group re-formed in October last year, and has grown steadily. We have held about half a dozen street stalls.

In January we decided to contact all the local councillors in Southampton, Eastleigh and Test Valley councils, with an information pack containing a personal letter and survey form, a draft council motion for each council, the pledge and a copy of the briefing document for councillors, A pdf of a sample pack can be found here http://metscape.co.uk/NO2ID_councillor_complete_mailing_pack_example.pdf

Everything was proof read and checked and rechecked, labels printed, envelopes stuffed, and stamps stuck, and off they went. There was however, one small thing we had all missed, including the person at the Post Office who took the 140 or so envelopes, and that was the fact that A4 envelopes now require more than a 2nd class stamp, 16p more in fact. Or, as we soon found out, £1.16 more if you turn up at the Post Office to pick up your undelivered mail, courtesy of a £1 'handling fee'.

Well, that caused some upset in our target audience! Irritated emails started arriving. As many councillors heard about the postage problem on the grapevine, they did not pick up their mystery packs, so we had no idea who had received them and who had not. We decided to mail them all again to say sorry and offer to reimburse them the £1.16. and took the opportunity include a copy of the survey form on the reverse of the letter http://metscape.co.uk/NO2ID_Grovel_Councillors_Letter_example.pdf.

Interestingly, all the responses to the survey that came back were from the second letter. We received some very helpful replies including a proposal from a conservative to put a slightly amended motion to the full Southampton City Council meeting. One of our members contacted the Liberals, who hold the balance of power, and their leader confirmed that they would be voting with the national party line, and not with their local Labour coalition partners.

The motion was passed yesterday!

So, a good result despite a bit of a shambles. Yeah, we screwed up, but we said sorry and it did not seem to effect the outcome.

The sense I got was that we were knocking at an open door.

So, if you have any political power set up locally that is not an outright labour majority then you should be in with a very good chance of getting a motion passed with relative ease.

One thing, if you do mail councillors, then mail them to the council offices. We used the councillors' addresses on the councils' web-sites, which in retrospect was a mistake. It is a lot easier, and cheaper, to take the letters straight to the council offices where they can be distributed internally.

Ian
Southampton