No2ID, the national coalition against ID cards, is to hold a free public meeting about the UK government's controversial ID card plans next week. The seminar will be held at 7pm on 29 June, the day after the second reading in the Commons of the ID Cards Bill at the Old Cinema of the University of Westminster on Regents Street in London's West End.

Speakers at the event come from across the UK's political spectrum: political firebrand George Galloway MP, of the Respect Party and veteran Labour politician Tony Benn will line up alongside Dominic Grieve, MP and shadow attorney general, and Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael. Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, will also speak at the meeting which will be chaired by Mark Littlewood, the original founder of No2ID. The Home Office, which has always declined invites to previous No2ID events, wasn't invited.

Michael Parker, No2ID press officer, said that he hoped the meeting would move the debate about ID cards on from purely centering around questions of costs onto wider issues such as the creation of a national ID registry. Details of the event and how to register can be found here. Although the meeting is free and open to all, seating in the venue is limited to 300. ®

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