Leaky Vessels

The Royal Navy, protector of our island home, guardian of the Freedom of the Seas from time immemorial, and a top class employer with top class people, has managed to lose the personal details of six hundred thousand people who "had expressed an interest in joining the armed forces". Unlike the disks containing twenty-five million child benefit records which were lost by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs a couple of months ago, the Royal Navy's records were definitely stolen. They were on a laptop which was removed from a vehicle in Edgbaston, apparently while the officer in charge was otherwise occupied. The Ministry of Defence has known about the theft since it occurred more than a week ago, but decided not to tell anyone in case the police investigation was hampered by the publicity: witnesses coming forward and getting in the way, all that sort of thing. The part-time Secretary of Defence, Des Browne, will be trotting out the excuses next week, and no doubt hoping volubly that this little hiccup will not prevent anyone expressing an interest in joining the armed forces.

Meanwhile, documents bearing people's personal details have been found near Exeter airport by a motorist who found similar documents in the same place a few weeks ago. Devon and Cornwall police said that the documents would be returned to the Department of Work and Pensions, where doubtless they will remain safe and snug hereafter.