These idiots are an utter disgrace. They daren't give us an election because they know they would be out instantly.

Liz, London,

sk..... It was Gordon Brown who was responsible for nurses having to meet targets, nobody else.......

Phil, Preston,

Why is there no apology and mention of this on the HMRC website?

Why hasn't somebody taken the completely open stance and published all internal communications on this under FOI?

Mark S, London,

I read with dismay about all these things that this labour Goverment has done to the country,but they have done a lot more than we hear about. So much has been pushed into the background that has been forgot about. We dont realy get the truth about so many things. they think leave it alone and we will forget about it. How much these days do we hear about the Pensioners that have all the savings that were taken from the by stealth. they put their money into pensions trusthing this goverment to look after them in their old age. Th e paltry amount they got in budjet has been lossed with the pace of the cost of living. They made sure that they would be ok with what they awarded themselves. But we have only got ourselves to blame for trusting them. The rest of the world must think we are a joke. Brown is strutting around like Blair done saving the world when he cant look after his own people, Talk about GREAT BRITAIN. Dont make me laugh.

G Barker, Crawley,

Malcolm C, Edmonton,

The people who put Labour into power are the ones who do not read the Times, the ones who are spending more than they receive, the people whos children achieve ASBOs and the ones who take no responsibility in life for their actions- Sun, Mirror and Daily Star readers....

Jon Doe, London, England

Gordon Brown is keen to emphasise the problem has "only" been caused by a very junior official . Surely this is a lot more serious than if a senior manager was involved !
It suggests that any employee could obtain a post in the Revenue and in a short time could download details of half the countrys population and sell the disc to criminals.

r williams, hampton , london

This is another example of the Civil Service's incompetence. As usual it wants the pay of the private sector but accepts none of the attendant responsibility. Our country's problem stems from politicians, of any party, who are afraid to get tough with a Civil Service because the staff know too much about the trickery that politicians get up to. Brown is just an exploiter of this, after all he created most of the non-jobs' to deceive the people into believing the economy was healthy. It can never be so when there are more people spending than generating revenue. As is becoming clear.
This data loss is Gross Misconduct at the top but will anyone be fired? Never. The Civil Servants have a strong Trade Union and it buys politicians. Expect a fudge by the imoral leading the incompetent. Transparency in this Brown Government is a dream.

Henry H Love, Nailsea, UK

I didn’t want Gordon to hold an election this month ... I could see the huge flock of chickens coming home to roost on his desk, where they belong. Lo and behold, the economic bubble of debt (personal, corporate, and governmental) is beginning to collapse, and the colossal scale of New Labour’s incompetence is starting to get through to the general public (as opposed to only those who’ve suffered from it).

Janet, Maidstone, Kent

Sorry NuLabour apologist Jeremy Trevathan but brows sticky,nailbitten fingerprints are all over this. He merged two massive. inefficient and overstaffed departments against the advice of many experts. He is the meglomaniac control freak that has turned every piece of gold he touches into lead. The general public have at last seen that The Emperor has no clothes and all the mealy-mouthed government supporters can't blame it on the civil service. The quality might be lower than ever but Brown has been responible for the decline.The chickens are coming home to roost with a vengeance.

Roy , knebworth,

I would like to know from Jeremy Trevathan, London, UK, how he thinks that an ID Card will help us "find the culprits" of a "7/7 crisis".

Brian Leeming, HUNTINGDON, UK

I keep reading in all these "Have Your Say" columns, how much people in the UK dislike Blair/Brown and the the Labour Government. Who put them in power in the first place, did you really believe Tony et al, that they really could do all they promised at little or no cost to the country/electorate?

I did not vote for the Labour party and never have, as I remember H.Wilson and his cronies from the 60's and 70's doing their uncontollable worst, until a certain lady came to power and broke the power of the unions. Now there you are, 20 some years later going right back to the same party that almost bankrupted the UK previously.

Does nobody remember the last melt down in the UK, when people were walking away from their negative equity mortgages. This time it will even worse, I've seen weekly groceries being bought with credit cards??? but paying your mortgage??? I don't know how people sleep at night with that sort of lifestyle.

Malcolm C, Edmonton, Canada

Mr Trevathan from London needs to get his facts right. Many "civilised "Countries have identity cards and it is difficult to find one that doesn't. Perhaps he could describe what he means by "civilised"? I fear racist undertones.

Pedro Tam, London, U.K.

There is an awful of hot, illogical and silly air blowing around these comments. This is not an error of the government's making, this is an error that has occurred within the civil service - this error would have occurred under a Tory or Liberal Government just as eaily. And what is this irrational paranoia about an ID card system? Britain is virtually the only civilised nation in the world that does have an ID card system. Next time we have a 7/7 crisis and cannot find the culprits or another racist media storm blows up about not knowing how many immigrants we have in the UK, the same people who have written above will castigate the government for not having the information. For God's sake grow up and stop the playground antics.

Jeremy Trevathan, London, UK

I am still awaiting the return of some financial documents from Revenue and Customs sent many months ago at their request.

Despite several requests for their return I never get any response
nor indeed the documents and now I know why - they have lost them!

D. Hardy, Manchester, UK

Richard, Bexhill, UK

What do you mean sooner rather than later !? This goverment is way past the crossover point. It is dead from the neck up. Everyone is turning on them. And rightly so. They don't appear to be able to do simple things properly. Just look at the personel involved Gordon Brown, Alistair Darling, Jacqui Smith !! Harriet Harman !!! Hazel Blears !! David Milliband !! They hardly inspire confidence do they ? We might as well have Steve McClaren and the over payed and overated England footbal team in charge.

Richard, Nottingham, England, UK.

For those who think that this disaster could only happen in a Brown-led government, think again. Personnel haven't changed and the same inefficient systems remain in place. Nobody takes the blame at an appropriate level and the same old excuses are trotted out.
'A junior's mistake', "We must learn from this experience', "Immediate reviews are being carried out', blah blah blah.
Blair got out just in time.
The Labour government is a Fred Karno's army, completely unelectable, promising everything, doing nothing and ignoring our demands for a referendum on the EU constitution.
Is Guy Fawkes still about?

trevorjd, Torbay, UK

"... if forced to have a biometric id card the first thing i will be doing is putting it in the microwave, in the vain hope of wiping any data on it off."

MR Jones, Liverpool

Vain hope? With our Government's techonogical capabilities I'd suggest simply waving a small magnet over these cards should be enough to completely wipe them clean!

Anyway we wont get ID cards - I'd put money it.

Rod Munch, Northampton, UK

Will you now start to hound this unelected Prime Minister out of office.

John Pemberton, London, uk

Can't we get rid of this idiots?

Why does this country keep voting them in?

For God's sake people, please vote Tory this time - or anything else. Labour have ruined this country.

How much worse do you need things to get?

C. Matar, London, UK

This wretched, wretched administration has taken incompetance to new heights. They worship stupidity, employ people who can't do the job and then pretend it is someone else's fault when it all comes out. The 'chancellor' is a joke, the Home secretary is pathetic and we spend more bailing out a broke bank that we do looking after our servicemen and women who are putting their lives on the line - not their bonuses.
Election please!!

A J Cannon, Bracknell, Berkshire

Are we forgetting these incompetents also have a DNA database with millions of our records in it?

It is clear that we have been lied to. It is clear that the mismanagement is systemic. It is clear that the Government themselves have no regard for our Data Security.

This is the result of the culture of fear in the public sector, driven years of cost cutting and an obsession with targets and measures that Tony B Liar and Gordon Brown are totally responsible for.

We need a total clear out of these imcompetent fools, and strip them of the over generous pension plans that they awarded themselves over the years, at out expense.

Go be gone and do not darken our door again.

Neil, Worthing, West Sussex

Our goverment can have a vote of no confidence and the person in question has to go, why then can the people who vote for them , not have a vote of no confidence in Darling and Brown and make them step down. We could then have an election and get some decent goverment in power and sort the country out.

Sandra Mallinson, Huddersfield, ENGLAND

Am I the only person who dearly hopes that a senior official HAS been involved in the data transfer? The thought that some 'junior' employee could access and download such sensitive data suggests that there is no internal control system built in to the software to limit potential error and sabotage. Surely this kind of system of checks and audit trail is fundamental to any data processing system and if it isn't there then we should know why.

Trisha , Cornwall, UK

Anybody with any knowledge of database management techniques understands that it takes a just few minutes to setup a trawl through the database to produce a file containing the data file that is actually required. The fact this was not done suggests that the level of people employed in protecting our data have little or no skill.

Allowing the Government to pontiifcate on data protection when they have no means of controlling its use is a lie that all British people should object to. A referendum is needed on the ID card so we can vote it out of existence.

Within the referendum should be a vote on whether the Government has the right to offer data collected through the Census on the British people to third parties as this is yet another gross misuse of our peronal information.

The politicians do not own us or anything else, we own them and all British people should make sure they see themselves as our servants and not our masters.

Ray Winter, London, England

Like the Norwegian parrot of Monty Python fame, this is a dead government, it has ceased to exist, it is no more.

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Election-year/

Rick, London, England

Surely, if we have nothing to hide, we have nothing to fear... isn't that what we've been told all along. Funny that this argument isn't being used now.

Joe, brussels, belgium

At least people can change their bank accounts, what happens when the goverment cocks up ID cards and my finger prints and retener scan gets "lost in the post" I only have one set of them and have no way of changing them surley now is the time to drop ID cards and be done with the whole horride affair.

The goverment has proved time and again that it can not be trusted, what happens when the "lose" this new childrens database or the new medical data base?

I will ofc be optting out of all of these, if forced to have a biometric id card the first thing i will be doing is putting it in the microwave, in the vain hope of wiping any data on it off.

MR Jones, Liverpool,

Please dont forget that your personal medical history is about to be uploaded to a national database that hundreds of thousands of NHS staff and civil servants will have access too....

...and rather than asking your permission first the government are assuming that that's ok with you!

Dr J Ward, Lichfield, Staffs

Just another blunder out of many from the people in power controlling our lives unanswerable and imune. But if Jo Public makes an error we PAY.
Ray.

Ray Nipper, Portbail, France

Sorry Stuart of Worcester you seek the impossible.
The party system and the concentration of power in the office of Prime Minister means that the concept of truth has ceased to have any relevance in the minds of politicians in the UK. Radical constitutional reform is required to restore genuine democracy. I can remember when the use of inside information was an admired talent in the stockbroking world. It is now a criminal offence. How about making membership of a political party a criminal offence for starters.

Stephen Green, Correns, France

It is beginning to look as if mr. brown has not got a grip on it, neither on the operations of the state and its agencies nor on the behavior of his own cabinet members. mr. blair made the labour party electable and they are going to regret his absence.

bruce, CERESTE, france

Gordon Brown will be blamed for that irresponsible nurse not washing her hands next - what to people want old style Soviet control over everything. Clearly, a junior messed up and should have had more sense than to do what he did - sack him and get over it.

sk, Eastbourne, East Sussex

Gordon Brown needs to watch out. Sooner rather than later he could arrive at that crossover point, where he will be seen in the same light as one of his predecessors, John Major, reacting to disasters and not in control of events. By such time, no amount of good intentions or re-launches will have any effect

Richard, Bexhill, UK

I wonder if Gordon Brown was misleading the HOC on Wednesday. In one of his answers to David Cameron he inferred that costs were a factor behind the missing CDs. This suggests that Mr Brown was aware of the email exchange that has since come to light. If that was the case then he was wrong to say that it was solely the blame a junior official in the way that he did.

Chris W, Liverpool,

What does one have to do, to, either resign, or be sacked?
It appears, the answer to that, is, lose a football match!

prudence eely bond mcguire, London, UK

Sharon - yes. They have failed in their duty laid out under the act, to .... protect the data!

Jeremy Poynton, Fromeville, 51st State

This would be a good time to bang on about the benefits of ID cards curtailing identity theft..... But Mr Brown missed his chance yet again........... or does he realise the damage has been done to his governments sad handling of recent events.

Next year we will be in the grip of a credit crunch, or so we are told. Therefore the chances of getting credit will reduce for many, even more so if we are to believe our identities are already cloned.

keith nichol, London, UK

Yes , please let us have the truth , the paths of history are littered with the reputations of politicians who were " economical with the facts " .

Stuart, Worcester, United Kingdom

I really can't wait come general election time, for that hopeful, smiling Labour candidate to come to my front door and beg me to vote for them. For that amounts to what they're going to have to do, beg. All you prospective Conservative candidates, don't get too cocky, you still have to earn your votes. Even so in all honesty, Labour is a dead duck, unless of course they rename themselves (again) and adopt a further raft of conservative (small "c") policies. Sorry Lib Dems, general elections are out of you league now.

Nick C, Devon, UK

Are Revenue & Customs in breach of the Data Protection Act?

Sharon, Oxford,

At last the public is waking up to the danger posed by the wasteful and power driven ID scheme.
This is a wake up call for all of us.

edwina rigby, Blackburn, England