1. Having trouble logging in by clicking the link at the top right of the page? Click here to be taken to the log in page.
    Dismiss Notice

Government to log all our personal transactions

Discussion in 'TalkCeltic Pub' started by Jungle Bhoy, May 19, 2009.

Discuss Government to log all our personal transactions in the TalkCeltic Pub area at TalkCeltic.net.

  1. Jungle Bhoy

    Joined:
    Jun 15, 2005
    Messages:
    12,543
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt
    ID cards could grant the taxman access to your bank records

    Campaigners against ID cards have warned for years that the ID verification process will give the authorities power to monitor a person's spending and draw conclusions about their tax declarations and real income.

    These fears were dismissed by government supporters and journalists as hysterical but now they turn out to be rather well-founded.

    Secondary legislation laid before parliament last week reveals that the taxman will have access to the log of a person's major transactions, hotel bookings, airline tickets, holidays, car payment plans etc. Naturally the subject of this inspection will have no idea that HM Revenue and Customs is examining their spending log or what deductions, false or otherwise, will be made.

    As the Daily Mail pointed out this legislation was quietly introduced to parliament at the very moment that MPs' fraudulent and tax-avoiding affairs were being revealed by the Daily Telegraph. A piquant detail in the long story of how parliament has come to revile the ordinary member of the public.

    It is absolutely essential for civil society and the conduct of our democracy – or what remains of it – that faceless bureaucrats are not given the power to look into individuals' spending. It is another line drawn in the sand that we allow the executive to cross at our peril. I suggest that we should regard it as part of the battle to equalise the power of the government and the people.

    But there are many who do not see the threat and indeed argue for even greater intrusion and data collection by the state. David Goodhart, the editor of Prospect magazine, wrote recently: "If there is too much suspicion of the state and too many data protection rules the state cannot give us what we want. It might be useful if we started to see out data as similar to tax, something we willingly surrender to the authorities in return for various benefits."

    In this newly announced piece of legislation, tax and data become intimately associated in a way that Goodhart no doubt applauds. But it never seems to occur to critics that the state has no natural right to either tax or information. Both are given up only with our consent, which depends on the demonstrable competence and propriety of the state, something that none of us could swear to today.

    Goodhart's is the argument of tyrants and slaves, it urges us to trust the state regardless of the evidence of its fallibility. Incidentally, it seems ironic that this statist line appears in a magazine part–owned by two wealthy financiers, one of whom, George Robinson is a hedge fund manager who made £18m in 2004 on a turnover of £74m, income that no doubt benefited from the favourable tax environment devised for hedge funds by Gordon Brown.

    The supporters of state databases are going to have to campaign very hard over the coming months, not just about intrusion, but also data security. It will be interesting to see how they propose to guarantee the safety of our data after the 11th day of revelations by the Daily Telegraph, which of course all come from a breach of an official database, just like the one that will monitor our spending.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 19, 2009
  2. Batch_CFC

    Joined:
    Feb 3, 2009
    Messages:
    3,810
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Glasgow
    Fav Celtic Player:
    McGeady, Brown, Boruc
    Fav Celtic Song:
    Let the people sing
    Who's going to sit and monitor tens of millions of bank accounts :bbpd:
     
  3. Daver

    Joined:
    May 29, 2008
    Messages:
    9,497
    Likes Received:
    690
    Fav Celtic Player:
    Kyogo. A phenomenon
    "These fears were dismissed by government supporters and journalists as hysterical but now they turn out to be rather well-founded."

    Indeed.:47:
     
  4. DanniGhirl

    Joined:
    Feb 19, 2009
    Messages:
    11,294
    Likes Received:
    4
    Just another reason why people should actively oppose the introduction of ID cards, the supposed benefits of them are fantasy, coupled with the fact that the government has lied about the associated risks and disadvantages every step of the way.

    If they can't even keep details of their own fraudulent activities secure what chances have they got of keeping the personal data of all of us secure.
     
  5. Cash 67

    Joined:
    Jun 7, 2007
    Messages:
    5,161
    Likes Received:
    0
    When I was young I would be raging at this, but see now I don't care, they've got my spit, they've got my prints, my * and a whole * photo album and they can do whatever the * they want with it, I just want off this * island and the sooner the better, it's a shambles, run by and 'safeguarded' by incompetent * fools that sit there in a big house 420 MILES AWAY fiddeling their own expenses and ripping off the people that voted them in there in the first place! What the *? * the * lot of them.
     
  6. Daver

    Joined:
    May 29, 2008
    Messages:
    9,497
    Likes Received:
    690
    Fav Celtic Player:
    Kyogo. A phenomenon

    Brilliant Cashy. "I just want off this * island" - you are not alone there.
     
  7. CrosasRightFoot

    Joined:
    Mar 11, 2009
    Messages:
    964
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Cockplay, Scotland - Real place BTW
    Fav Celtic Player:
    Loovens, Crosas
    Fav Celtic Song:
    Over and Over
    What a load of *! Why the * did they want ID cards, again?

    But am I the only one to get a niggling sense of hypocrisy from the public in this? The average taxpayer makes money that he/she does not declare and therefore will not pay tax on - that is fraud. Is that not what we are accusing MPs of? And is it even the majority of MPs that have abused the expenses system?
     
  8. Mr Nice

    Joined:
    Jan 5, 2006
    Messages:
    11,797
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Under Surveillance
    Fav Celtic Song:
    Always look on the brightside of life
    In the same boat here mate. They've got the lot from me even my * DNA ffs but I'm stopping this intrusion at this proposed eye scanning pish. I've been thinking about getting off this island for a few years now but the kids are what keeps me here for the moment, once they are schooled I'll be off like a jews foreskin :52: :icon_mrgreen:
     
  9. Chappie

    Joined:
    May 26, 2005
    Messages:
    3,395
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Madrid
    Fav Celtic Player:
    Boruc, Maloney
    Fav Celtic Song:
    YNWA, Willie Maley
    I managed to get access to Stephen McManus' file. The Captain's Log!!!!
     
  10. Hadouken

    Joined:
    Dec 24, 2007
    Messages:
    5,730
    Likes Received:
    503
    The government is *
     
  11. faw cough Gold Member Gold Member

    Joined:
    Aug 30, 2008
    Messages:
    35,323
    Likes Received:
    3,808
    Thousands of well paid government employees.