I got this email this morning. I am sceptical that calling in the pledge will work at the moment, for several reasons…

1) – Why now? There’s no strong rationale to support coughing up now. If people were being told “Fill in this form for a compulsory Identity Card or else” the need for a legal fund would be more apparent. As it is, No2ID hav picked a time when ID issues have a low profile in the media.

2) – Why NO2ID? What safeguards are there that my £10 will be spent on paying legal bills, rather than NO2ID’s running costs?

3)- Email is basically quite a weak way to raise money. Email fundraising campaigns generally only get a few percent response.

So I’m not optimistic…

Well, I’ve paid up. So there’s a reason to be optimistic. A pledge is a pledge. While E-fund raising has been very limited, there’s no reason why we can’t start to change that now. It was a brilliant campaign, I’m happy to pay my whack! If any of you are similarly minded, but prefer online payments – the procedure according to Phil Booth, NO2ID National Coordinator is as follows:

Hi Peter,

Unfortunately it is not possible to make direct transfers into the defence
fund deposit account *sigh* but if you use the following details and send a
note to with full details of your donation we should be
able to get your money to the right place:

Bank: HSBC
A/c name: NO2ID
Sort code: 40-28-15
A/c number: 91339427

Cheers,

Phil

At my own place, Cleanthes points out that it is “price elasticity” not “supply-and-demand”…

As I say, if any economists want to weigh in…

Direct online pledge payments can now be made according to Phil:

Hi Peter,

I’m very sorry, I was incorrect about donations direct to the deposit
account. HSBC *have* now given us an IBAN, so the details for a direct
donation are:

Bank: HSBC
A/c name: NO2ID Legal
Sort code: 40-28-15
A/c number: 81377965

Many apologies for the confusion,

Phil

Chris:

1) Why now? Well, you pledged to contribute the money if at least 10,000 people signed up. This has happened.

2) Why No2ID? I suppose you could fulfil your pledge by giving the money to some other legal defence fund, if it existed. Which it doesn’t. And which would in any case have the same issues about safeguards as No2ID.

3) There is (at least in principle) a difference between email campaigning and calling in a specific pledge that someone has already made in public. The latter can be reasonably expecte to have a much higher response rate – but I guess we shall see.

Hi all,

Just to answer some of the questions raised, and thanks to Peter for posting the bank details. More info and updates can be found at http://www.no2id.net/pledge/

Chris,

1) Why now? I don’t agree that the ID scheme has a low profile at present – we’ve just seen both candidates for the Liberal Democrat leadership very publicly commit to non-compliance, as well as least two mainstream commentators (Philip Johnston in the Telegraph and Joan Smith at the Independent) and Baroness Shirley Williams on last week’s ‘Any Questions’.

After all sorts of delays and procrastinations Gordon Brown’s government is clearly pushing ahead – pre-announcing its commissioning of the first scheme elements – while David Davis (a little while back) has written to prospective suppliers warning them that a future Conservative government would abolish the scheme, and David Cameron has, for the first time, used the word “repeal” with regard to the scheme.

Calling in the pledge – which was, you may remember, achieved in a little over a month back in 2005 – is a necessary precursor to the next and future phases of the campaign. We believe 11,000 pledgers to be just the tip of the iceberg. As Robert rightly says, it’ll now be as much about building mass opposition as any amount of money. At the time, £100k seemed like a reasonable target to kick things off – but we’re fighting a government that is now set to spend billions. What’s most important is people’s refusal to comply with the scheme.

[FYI, NO2ID actions to date have shown significant growth - Renew for Freedom in May 2006 had 30-40,000 people renewing their passports that one month alone, and TheBigOptOut (the related database state campaign on medical confidentiality) had over 100,000 people fill in and download the letter to their GP in Nov/Dec 2006.]

2) The pledges are for a legal defence fund. All monies donated from the pledge go into a seperate bank account (as you can now see from the details above and on our website) and will be spent only on the legal campaign. The figures will, of course, be published in our annual accounts which are presented to the members of the association every year at our AGM.

NO2ID’s general activity is supported by membership subscriptions, grants (when we can get ‘em), merchandising and donations. We absolutely rely on the trust and generosity of our supporters so we’d be absolutely nuts to mix funds.

3) We use what we can. NO2ID doesn’t have hundreds of thousands of pounds to spend on newspaper advertising or TV telethons – and, even if we did, it might not be the best use of that money. What we try to do is get bang for your buck, and a 30% slide in public opinion against ‘ID cards’ and the controversy that we have helped cause to date is just the start!

Phil Booth
National Coordinator, NO2ID
http://www.no2id.net/pledge/

Safe-guards? Because it is held in a trust fund, and there are quite specific laws about money held in trusts and what it can be used for. Take it from me, I know.

But actually, if you are against the introduction of ID cards and you want it stopped, who cares how they spend your ten quid as long as it gets the job done? With this sort of mealy-mouthed attitude, if ID cards are averted, it’ll be no thanks to the likes of so-called sceptics.

In any case, you should have thought about safeguards before you signed the pledge, shouldn’t you? A pledge is a pledge, so why sign up if you’re not going to keep your word? It’s worse than welching on a bet, if you ask me, but anyway. I hope your scepticaemia clears up.

@Phil: All of those answers make sense to me. However, the nature of fundraising is that the other 10,000 people who got the email will be asking the same or similar questions, which will put them in just enough doubt not to get around to posting a cheque. (Which is the only way the email asks for the money – no clear ‘donate now’ link). So my scepticism about the amount you’ll get in remains, though I’m hopeful.

Of course, hopefully some people will give more than £10

@Clarice: Oh, grow up. There’s no point responding to intelligent questions with insulting name-calling.

Chris, I see no name-calling. What I notice you have no answer to my points:
1. The money goes to a trust fund with a specified purpose, that is safeguarded in law.
2. If you support the campaign to halt the introduction of the scheme, then what does it matter which aspect of the campaign your ten quid goes towards?
3. If everyone took your attitude, the campaign would be doomed to failure from the off. My point is that some of us enter into the spirit of it; some of us behave in the way we wish others would. It’s a shame that some people don’t.
4. But as others have said, all this is irrelevant, because you signed the pledge. I presume no-one forced you to sign it. So either you put your money where your mouth is, or you renege on your commitment, which is not very honorable, is it?

Clarice, my post was about reasons why I’m sceptical it will work, not reasons why I am not personally going to take part.

Ah, ok. Well, I for one can’t wait until your skepticism is proved wrong, and shall be watching with interest.