5.4 billion!!!!

So, North Korea has exploded a nuclear device, and even China, their only friend in the whole wide world, has condemned the action. It's acts like this that make me wonder what the hell dictators think they are doing. Has it made North Korea more powerful? I'd say that the chances of Kim staying in power have just plummeted.

The government has finally released cost figures for the proposed id card scheme. Apparently the first cards become active in 2008 and the cost for the first ten years will be, wait for it, £5.4 billion. That's £400 million more than the initial budget for the Iraq war, if memory serves me correctly. Of course, this is an obscene amount of money, especially when one considers that the current administration is taxing us to choking point, but the really horrifying thing is, everyone apart from the Labour party seems to think the cost is going to come out nearer to £20 billion.

As a country, we should be very scared because the government has painted iteself into a corner. It can't be seen to back out over id cards even though they know full well that they haven't got a hope in hell of delivering anything within budget. We know they are aware they will fail to make budget because they are already attempting to cut corners by using existing databases instead of building a new one. They haven't realised it yet, but they will soon find out that attempting to integrate incompatible databases is a bit like trying to stick your elbow up your own arse. In a way I'm pleased that the id card scheme is doomed to failure before it even starts. It just irritates me that it's going to cost me £ billions anyway.

David Cameron is 40 today apparently. That makes me feel inferior. He's just 9 months older than me and in line for the role of Prime Minister.

We have perfected a new feeding routine. The late feed has been cancelled. The 8pm feed has been moved forward to 9.30, and he gets solids at 6pm. It means we get a couple of hours to play inthe evening now. I should write a book about this stuff.