Slaine said it
Incompetence is not only limited to the government but combined with endemic complacency in the UK as whole it is or will become lethal. Not so long ago "journalists" use to ask a question and then at least make an attempt to tease an actual answer out of politicians (Paxman where are you now?). Andrew Marr was a compete damp squid when he interviewed Brown a few weeks ago. If the BBC are looking for redundancies they need look no further than Marr as he has clearly proved himself redundant and in that particular case could be replaced with an auto-prompt.
I have been waiting since the start of the "lost data" saga for someone to actual question the statement "it would have been too expensive to exclude certain data". Staggering! What exactly does it cost these days for a line of SQL? And why has no one used the obvious logical argument that the situation was either systemic or the result of one or several individuals to demonstrated that no data is "safe" and equally applies to ID data? Worse, why are politicians that are clearly IT illiterate making such decisions or even asking each other about the ramifications?!? We all know the answer.
Back to complacency and it being endemic. I was mildly worried about things like the number of camera's in the UK a few years back but I'm extremely concerned about what now seems to be one on every corner, especially with the plans to hook up to computer recognition systems for face identification and gesture monitoring. Add in ID databases, draconian laws, restrictions on "crowd gathering", excessive so called "discrimination" and "anti-terror" measures and it all looks like a failing political system embedding itself in preparation for an almost guaranteed civil uprising. I use to blame the government for this trend but the longer it is allowed to continue the more the blames falls squarely on us, the general public... those who vote them in and continue to do so.