Freedom Isn't Free

The Ministry of Splitting in Two has published its six-monthly update of the estimated costs for the Surveillance Makes You Free Scheme more than a month late and on the same day as somebody or other announced his resignation.

The estimate has risen a bit since the last estimate - a small matter of four hundred million pounds or so or, to perspective things a bit, a mere £6.67 for every man, woman and child in the United Kingdom. The total cost of the scheme is now estimated at £531,000 million over the next ten years, or a mere £885 per year for every man, woman and child in the United Kingdom. That doesn't seem so bad, considering the many and varied miracles which the Surveillance Makes You Free Scheme is supposed to achieve - cutting through red tape, preventing identity fraud, battling terror and illegal immigrants wherever they may be found, and no doubt fostering an atmosphere of respect and social responsibility and combating climate change into the bargain.

According to a spokesbeing from the Ministry of Splitting in Two, the increase and/or the delay is the result of "extra staff carrying out vetting, as well as extra anti-fraud measures". So they're taking on more bureaucrats in order to cut through the red tape, and they've just discovered that their much-vaunted anti-fraud scheme isn't quite anti-fraud enough.

Nevertheless, a few nasty, suspicious people have accused the government - the Vicar of Downing Street's government, of all things - of breaking the law in order to bury bad news.