Summary
Gordon brown looked grim as the Chancellor Alistair Darling made his Commons statement yesterday on the loss of child benefit details relating to 25 million individuals. Outside Westminster, the evening newspaper headlines were equally gloomy for the Government, "Disaster Day for Darling" and "Darling's Black Tuesday". It was an echo of Black Wednesday in September 1992 when John Major's government lost its reputation for economic competence as sterling was forced out of the European exchange rate mechanism. In vain did Mr Darling seek to reassure MPs and the public that there was no evidence to show the data on the two computer discs had fallen into criminal hands or been used fraudulently.
Millions of families up and down the country will spend anxious weeks checking their bank and building society statements to check whether anyone has accessed their accounts. And, if the discs are not found quickly, a nagging doubt will remain for months.See the full content of this document
Extract
Black Tuesday for Chancellor Darling
The Northern Rock crisis - which led to people queuing round the block to withdraw their money - showed how the public can be spooked and confidence undermined in financial institutions.
But if HM Revenue and Customs, right at the heart of Whitehall, cannot be trusted to l...See the full content of this document
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