Information Commissioner?

Today the History Matters website is asking people to write a diary of their day. The collection will be stored at the British library for future generations to look at. I thought I would do this, but I thought it might be more interesting to do one for the baby. He's not 7 months old yet, so I think he would need some help from his Daddy to type it all in. I'll have to get a report from his Mummy about what he did while I was working.

I read in the Times this morning, that Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, has ruled that three government studies into id cards be made public. The treasury is contesting this. I don't actually know what the information commissioner does, but I am going to try and find out. What bothers me is the fact that the treasury has the nerve to try and keep these studies from the public. I'm guessing that these are cost studies since they are being blocked by the treasury. The question is, how can they justify keeping details of how they spend public money, from the public?

It occurred to me the other day that the cost of these cards is the first absolutely unavoidable tax. All other taxes are, at least in principal, optional. One doesn't have to work and pay income tax and national insurance. One doesn't have to live in a house and pay council tax. In theory VAT is only chargeable on non-essential items. No one has to have a tv, drive a car, or gamble, so those taxes can be avoided also. But the id cards are likely to cost £100, and each person is going to be billed for it individually. This is a tax merely on existance.

Abbey pointed out yesterday that Madonna is is atempting to adopt a boy from Malawi that is not an orphan. It does appear that the boy still has a father, though his mother is dead. His father did however give the boy up for adoption and is still happy for it to go ahead. I can only think this is because he considers, like me, that the child will have a better life in almost every way being brought up in the west. I don't pretend that the arrangement is perfect, adn I can't help thinking that Madonna has more than altruistic motives. It doesn't affect the out come however.

The best story in the news today is that of a British man fined £200 for putting paper in his metal and glass recycling box. The result - the gentleman no longer recycles for fear of another brush with the law. Quite right too. I'm going to stop recycling for a month in protest, You think I'm joking?