Another data disaster

It is as well for Gordon Brown that everything is relative. Consider how damaging yesterday's disclosure about the details of three million driving theory test candidates having gone missing would have been for the Prime Minister and his government had it not been for the earlier revelation about the loss of 25m people's particulars by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). Yesterday's Commons statement by Ruth Kelly, the Transport Secretary, does not constitute an improvement. Only an unbalanced optimist would think so. Mr Brown does not fall into that category. Indeed, the gloom enveloping him since the humiliation of the election that never was must have darkened with the latest disclosure.