Why the government is in so much trouble

Norwegian Conservative

Could this maybe be more damaging for New Labour than the bottled election?

ken from glos

You are so right.People in the real world are outraged!!!Just read all the blogs and comments.I will refuse to have anything to do with I.D cards

Peter Petrelli

Since labour have gotten away with things that, if we'd read about them happening in some third world country, we'd be demanding action; removal of trial by jury, 28 days and rising detention without trial, 53 questions before you can travel, postal vote election frauds, more CCTV than any other "free" country, microchip spies in our bins, plus a black box in the car monitoring our every journey (this will come back if they get back in), not to mention tax on tax on tax. Perhaps now people will realise that whilst they worry about important issuesMrs two left feet Draper being voted off SCD they have allowed this lot to sleepwalk us into elected dictatorship. But than I'm not holding my breathe, not whilst Janice has another bush tucker trail to face...

AppalledofLondon

Everyone I know who has children is utterly appalled at what has happened. None of us believe a word the Government has said about this, whether about how it happened or about what to do next. We don't trust them and we're not giving them an iota of information ever again. So they can huff and puff and bluster and pass as many laws as they like but pigs will fly before I sign up to ID cards, the Childrens Database, the NHS Spine & the ludicrous amount of information we need to hand over before we're permitted to leave the country. And the two principal reasons why we're furious is that this will affect our childrens' lives for years and that our children have been put at risk from those who would do them harm. Unforgivable. I cannot wait to give this shambles of a government the kicking it so richly deserves. The very minimum Darling now needs to do is to offer to change the NI numbers of all those affected to minimise the risk of fraud. Pathetic apologies just won't cut it: if he'd been made milk monitor he'd have been overpromoted.

Ivana Smokeinpublic

If true, it's a shame that it took threats to the wallet to awaken the slumbering British public to the absurdities of this government and the incompetence of our bureaucrats in Whitehall. The political is the personal, I suppose; but it's a shame that more public ire wasn't roused by their utter contempt for our established institutions, their rape of the Armed Forces, their cavalier attitude to decision-making and accountability, their insatiable appetite for interfering... I could go on, but I'm at work (in Whitehall) and I really ought to be contributing on my own time, not the taxpayers'.

Max Kaye

Nick Robinson's blog entry from earlier today already has over 300 comments - and rising. This subject has aroused passions and anger that go beyond mere politics.

This government may float on for a while, but it is holed below the waterline.

Robert Davidson

I spend several hours in the small hours of this morning reading through the comments on all of the major newspapers and political blogs. I have never read such unanimity of view, nor such passion with which it was expressed. NOBODY had one word in defence of or support for the government, with Brown being fingered at the primary culprit by most. As the details begin to emerge the view of the people is correct. The whole structure from policy, organisation, procurement and working practices is riddled with incompetence of monumental proportion. Even the NAO, who should be on our side to keep the administration in check seem to be as culpable as the rest. The private industry response to such a situation, after firing the guilty, would be to lock down all systems and stop all further development until the problems were identified and understood, and mess was completely sorted out. This lot think that all they need to do is start a new project and all the problems will go away.

Simon Stephenson

"If peoples reaction seems irrational to Westminster insiders now (just as it did with Diana) then it shows how little Westminster understands Britain." On the contrary, I would say. I'm sure that Westminster understands all too well the irrationality of the British public, caught up as it has been in the all-consuming march of tabloid simplisticism. I should have thought a writer or your calibre would have disapproved of such hysterical overreaction, not applauded it. Are you sure you are not just indulging an appetite for scoring party-political points?

David

From broadcast comments by a Labour minister and a Labour peeress, they are either in denial or living in hope it will all boil over. The risk of fraud is very high and could take months, even years, to play out. This data is worth very big bucks to the criminals.

M Fortune

Who wants their entire medical history uploaded to the NHS "Spine" computer system?

Fraser Nelson

Simon, yes I'm quite sure. In my experience, the elites are far more easily led than the general public. I'm a believer in the wisdom of the masses: vox populi, vox dei - as they certainly don't say in No10.

Paul

From personal experience the private sector, particularly the banks, are not any better either. It just gets quietly buried.

Bob

Has anyone put a commercial value of the data lost? It must run into the many hundreds of millions if not billions. It would be a nice figure for the Conservatives to use in highlighting the general incompetence.

J H Holloway

Well. think about it. What would be the best way to threaten every parent and child in the country, and to do it over a period of time?
This has to be even worse than the poll tax, which simply targeted every adult.

Simon Stephenson

Fraser Thanks for your 4.45pm reply. I find this very interesting. What your support for a vox populi, vox dei viewpoint indicates to me is that you are prepared to accept that reality can go up and down like a rat-catcher's dog, just like popular opinion. So, for example, the McCann's can really have been alternately guilty and not guilty about half a dozen times since the unfortunate disappearance of their daughter last May. And, perhaps, pre-Copernicus, that vox populi had it absolutely correct that the earth is the centre of the universe, about which all things revolve. And, indeed, how the French vox populi, along with Monsieur Maginot, had it absolutely correct that the famous Maginot Line was the state of the art in national defence, a work of genius guaranteed to keep out the Huns for ever. It's a very comfortable position, going with the flow, don't think I don't know this. But I think that it is the duty of anyone with a conscience to audit themselves on a regular and consistent basis. Most human progress is as a result of ideas that vox populi would dismiss as ridiculous - don't forget it.

Tanuki

People who have been putting up with a decade of my berating New Labour's 'managerialist' approach to the public-sector are only now coming to realise what I've been getting at. The smell of "I told you so" hangs heavy in the air as the blinkers are at last lifted from their eyes.

Simon Denis

May I defend Andre Maginot? His famous "Line" did work. It was fighting the Germans - and holding them at bay - right up to the 17th June. The blunders of 1940 should be ascribed to Maurice Gamelin, who sent the best allied troops into Belgium, leaving the hinge of the western front - just before the Ardennes - manned by an elderly, ill equipped Dad's Army. As for Mr Stephenson's wider point, it is pure sophistry. Just because the voice of the populace is frequently in error, it does not mean to say that it is always wrong, or that it is wrong now. Indeed, its reaction is too muted for my taste. We should be walking the streets in indignant multitudes until this wretched administration is done with.

Martin Sewell

I have two sons in the Data Processing Industry and they tell me that moving substantial amounts of data securely is absolutely routine and safe if you have any knowledge of the subject. Modern encrytion software is very sound, you encrypt the data, send it over the internet to a pre agreed website to which you are given the entry code, and having delivered the data , you subsequently and separately deliver the code to open the data within the now secure environment. The only time they have heard of a problem in the private is when some idiot put 2 million records of data onto cd's and they got temporarily lost in a move Sounds familiar! The point is this is not just about security but utter systemic incompetence over procedures that are easier to get right than to cock up.

Jack R

Yes, this Labour government is out of touch, and out of favour, with increasing numbers of the British people. The increasing worries of British people about the impact of mass immigration on their society are apparent; but Labour is pursuing multiculturalist ambitions which will increase mass immigration. Brown, Miliband and Straw are all pushing hard still for Turkey's entry to the EU. They do not refer to the mass immigration of Turks to the UK, which would be the consequence of entry. Labour doesn't care about such impact. It is out of touch and unpopular. No wonder. (See Straw's multiculturalism on Turkey, today's 'Daily Mail'.)