The gift which lasts-incompetence

With over 10,000 comments on the BBC Have your Say page, the Beeb is catching on about the scale of the data-loss scandal.
Now they're actually quoting some experts:

Children whose personal data has gone missing could be at risk of identity fraud for many years, credit reference agency Experian has warned...
Compliance director Helen Lord said this could have a "catastrophic effect" on their ability to buy or rent a home or obtain a loan or credit card.

According to a director of RSA security:

What also made the data attractive to fraudsters, said Mr Moloney, was that much of the data in it, such as names of children and birth dates, cannot be changed and will be valuable if it reaches criminals in the next week or the next year.

No doubt we'll be told again that there's no evidence that the data's fallen into the wrong hands. It's equally clear that the Chancellor's career hangs by a thread. The PM will cut that thread if he thinks it will help him at all.