Another scandal has hit the government. It was revealed earlier today that the personal details of around 25million child benefit claims went missing from the offices of HM Revenue and Customs.

The Chancellor Alistair Darling was forced to admit these damning findings in Parliament. The information, which included bank details of around seven million families, were lost. Darling said that it was “…. an extremally serious failure”, and blamed mistakes by junior staff for the problem.

Before the news had broken of the scandal, the Chairman of Revenue and Customs, Paul Gray, resigned his position. There had been reports that government ministers had known of the situation for around ten days but didn’t take any action. There are also heightened fears that the lost personal details may fall into the wrong hands.

This is more bad news for Darling. He has been criticised for his role in the Northern Rock bank debacle (which I posted earlier), the increase in petrol tax… and now this. More mismanagement and incompetence. This scandal goes far beyond the mistakes made by the government….. many claimants, particularly the poorest, will suffer great hardship as a result as officials try to recover some of those lost records and reclaim any money paid out to them.

The government’s fiscal management record is finally being exposed for the sham that it really is.

A new high-speed rail service from Eurostar began earlier today. Trains will now depart from the newly-refurbished St Pancras Station in London, with quicker journeys to major European cities now possible. For example, the trip from London to Paris will be cut to an average two hours and 15 minutes.

This has been a rare celebration for those in the UK who would like to travel on the railways. However, some problems will arise from this, the first is the shutting down of the service from Waterloo. It would have been better if new tunnels were constructed to link the station with the new-look St Pancras.

Sadly, this is yet another example of poorly-planned transport policy in the UK. The government, despite giving extra public subsidy, has always treated the railways as an afterthought. They seem more concerned with expanding airports and building more roads for motor vehicles.

Are there any plans to refurbish every rail station in the country? Are there any plans to expand the high-speed rail-link beyond St Pancras to cover every major UK city? Are there any plans to encourage people to leave their cars to travel by train, even for leisure journeys? As usual, there’s silence from the government.

Unlike in most European countries, where there has been sustainable and planned investment over a long period of time, UK rail policy has typically been stop-start. That’s why our trains, compared to motor vehicles and planes, will always be stuck in the slow lane.

The government’s poor handling of foot-and-mouth and avian flu outbreaks on UK farms this year is threatening the very existence of the farming industry.

News of the latest outbreak of avian flu on one farm in Suffolk, which contained the deadly strain H5N1, would almost certainly lead to the animals being culled. Ever since the devastating foot-and-mouth outbreak in 2001, farmers have suffered a decline in their standard of living . Many fell into debt because the financial help given from the government was inadequate, and others were forced out of the the industry altogether. Despite being criticised by independent experts, the government continues to make basic mistakes when dealing with the problem.

It is increasingly likely that farming would certainly disappear as an industry within twenty years unless proper measures are put in place to prevent further outbreaks.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has once again followed the United States’ line and called for further economic sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme.

In a major foreign policy speech in the City of London, he said:

“We will lead in seeking tougher sanctions both at the UN and in the European Union including on oil and gas investment and the financial sector……. Iran should be in no doubt about the seriousness of our purpose.”

Whose purpose?

There have been stories about the US government putting pressure on businesses to pull out of Iran ahead of a planned military invasion. The UK, as usual, puts its relationship with its Big(ger) Brother ahead of its friends in the EU, making any genuine European solution to the crisis impossible.

‘Hard-headed internationalism’? More like ‘bully-boy tactics’!