Move Over, Darling

This is the sort of thing that Fantasy Government was made for.

The Government, bless it, has managed to lose the personal details of every family claiming Child Benefit in the UK. That's 25 million of us. And it includes children's names, National Insurance numbers and bank details.

Apparently a junior official at HM Revenue & Customs sent two non-encrypted disks with all this data on to the National Audit Office via their internal post system - unregistered and unrecorded. And then it took three weeks for the fact that the disks hadn't arrived at the NAO to be brought to the attention of senior management at HMRC.

In the game that celebrates incompetence, this deserves a party all of its own. From a government that lectures us continually about data security and the dangers of identify fraud, this is barnstorming botchery.

The Chairman of HMRC has done the honourable thing and resigned. No such hope from anyone in the Government, of course. The Chancellor simply tells us that we should all monitor our bank accounts "for any unusual activity". Marvellous. Thanks for that, Alistair; it's always good to receive advice from an expert. Meanwhile, Womble On Tour will continue to monitor this government for any unusual activity. Like competence, for example.