Passing the buck

I'M STILL in shock after listening to the excuses that continue to flow from Number 10.

Gordon Brown's attempt to turn the loss of 25m records on David Cameron just shows the cowardice of this Prime Minister. Highlighting a 2005 Conservative Party manifesto commitment does not excuse the single largest breach of trust between government and citizen in living memory. Is it not rather bizarre that Brown obviously got his advisers to plough through the Conservative Party manifest this morning, rather than defending his government? Mr Brown, this may work by repeatedly tarring the Leader of the Opposition with Black Wednesday, but it won't work now.

In the past, Brown has attempted to state that individuals like Jacqui Smith were "doing their jobs". Alisdair Darling attempted the same excuse on Sky News this morning.

I'm slightly surprised that Darling kept referring to the 'junior civil servant' who made the mistake. However, as Cameron pointed out, there is now way that a 23-year-old would decrypt 25m records, pop them in a jiffy bag, and then send them off. In any organisation there is a process. If you're handling confidential information you register the delivery - or even deliver it yourself. This is an example of a systematic failure by the government. Passing the buck to a civil servant is reckless and cowardly.

Finally, I don't believe for one second that this process is not endemic. How many times have sensitive records been popped in a jiffy bag?

... and they're to be trusted with ID cards?