The chairman of HMRC has resigned, as they have lost two CDs which contained the dates of birth, NI numbers and bank details for what appears to be the majority of UK taxpayers.
Two reactions:
Firstly, surprise that the chairman has actually done the decent thing and resigned. In fact, I'm absolutely amazed, given the incompetence that those in government and close to it generally get away with.
Secondly, it's just further evidence for me of the absolute insanity of the ID card project. A massively expensive project with absolutely no practical benefits, a gross invasion of civil liberties - and all proposed by a government that has shown absolutely no sign of being implement any major or minor IT project with any degree of competence. Sadly, though, I think that the project has now gone far enough that it's pretty much a macho thing - the loss of face for the government should they see sense and rethink would be unacceptable to them.
Hilariously, the Chancellor has tried to claim that this incident strengthens the case for ID cards, as they would provide a further layer of biometric security that would not have been on the CDs in question. Quite rightly, the reaction to this claim in the Commons was derision.