ID & KPMG

Now this is a little strange. A report by academics at LSE claimed the ID bill would cost £19bn, three times more than the government estimate. The Government replied that it's figures were OK as they were endorsed by KPMG.

The outstanding lesson from Blair's administration (Americanism intended) is that whenever he has ignored due process and the advice of established government institutions, he has come unstuck. Here again, Blair prefers a private company to the National Audit Office.

Departments of state, for all their supposed inefficiency, are receptacles of vast accumulated learning, their culture and routines refined to provide correctly balanced information as needed. KPMG, for all its prominence and expertise, does not have the experience in government program auditting.

Most worryingly, however, the records of KPMG are not subject to the same scrutiny as the NAO, which is responsible to the Freedom of Information Act.

Once again, we're not being told something and once again, it'll all end in a crying biometric shitheap.

Now read these fellas.