Oi, What About That Missing Data?

RECEIVED a letter today from HMRC offering profuse apologies for the fact that some dimwit has gone and lost my family's personal details.

Along with 25 million others, I hasten to add. And I'm bloody furious.In fact, the letter made it worse because if anything it brought home to me the scale of the cock-up. It has a touch of the Carry Ons about it, but it's certainly no laughing matter.

Unfortunately, it appears that the likes of BBC and Sky are now focused on dodgy donations, obviously assuming that the public is getting bored of wondering which scam artists have got their hands on their NI numbers and more interested in some Bob Dylan lookalike's benevolence.

Well, I'm not and I hope the mass media eventually return to the story soon because without close scrutiny and pressure, these data discs will end up like those elusive Weapons of Mass Destruction... quietly forgot about.

The worse thing about it from the government's point of view is that it is now a question of competence. Northern Rock, the floods, Foot and Mouth, Blue Tongue etc are all events which, to be honest, it would be hard to blame any government for.

But the goings-on over the last few days mean it's a whole new ball game, with the government's credibility being called into question for the first time in 10 years.

Somewhere in the Middle East right now, I bet a certain Tony Blair is thanking his lucky stars he quit when he did...

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