Gordon Brown’s alleged government thrashes around like a large blindfolded beast trapped in a small dark room, unable to find the small door that would enable escape.

The latest revelation that data on 5,000 justice staff has been lost might have at least led to a statement from Brown saying, ‘Ok, enough is enough. It’s clear we cannot, as a government, be trusted with sensitive data. It’s clear that having government departments awash with expensive consultancies leads to loss of accountability and credibility. It’s clear that progressing with the ID card scheme will be a senseless waste of tax payers money; not only a waste of money, but probably dangerous to the public as a whole as more and more data is collected, and then subsequently lost’.

Such a statement has yet to be released. We wait, unfortunately, in vain.