Rabbit Thought of the Day

Twenty minutes before the off, it’s been a great day and I have achieved loads. Plus I have sorted myself for next week; all the arrangements for my trip to Scotland have been completed. Just a few things need to be done before I leave, I need to check out some floor loading calculations and then switch off my computer, dead simple.

Not long too now, before the weekend officially starts, well it does in this office. In approximately 90 minutes this place will empty and the weekend can start. It’s been a busy morning once again. I am happy now that I am doing something interesting and meaningful, unlike the last job, where I spent most of my time, twiddling my thumbs, or counting light fittings over and over again. It certainly wasn’t interesting and it definitely was meaningful.

The government has been defeated in the House of Lords over the issue of keeping people's DNA and fingerprints on the police national database. Peers backed a Tory amendment calling for specific guidelines to help people seeking to have their details removed from the database by 161 votes to 150. But ministers are unlikely to redraft the legislation, arguing that existing public safeguards will be sufficient.

The defeat is the latest inflicted by peers on the counter-terrorism bill. Last month, the House of Lords overwhelmingly rejected the government's call for the length of time terrorist suspects could be held without charge to be extended from 28 to 42 days.

The UK has the largest police DNA database in the world - with more than four million people on file. Under current laws, the database holds DNA records from suspects arrested in England and Wales, regardless of whether they are subsequently charged or convicted. And innocent people who volunteer to give a DNA sample during a police inquiry also have their details kept on record.

The Home Office argues the database helps to secure convictions for a range of violent crimes, often many years after they are committed. In Tuesday's debate, security minister Lord West said adequate safeguards already existed to protect the public, as chief police officers had the discretion to delete information from the database in "exceptional cases" after a request is made.

But critics point out that, under the government's proposed guidance, such cases will be extremely rare. The Conservatives described one example in which details might be destroyed - when the residents of a building in which an apparent murder is committed have samples taken but then it is concluded the death occurred by natural causes - as "laughable". Peers backed a call for the government to publish new guidelines for procedures enabling people to discover what information is held on them and their family and how they can seek to have it removed.

These would also require the police to explain to people why information should not be removed in individual cases. Baroness Hanham, the Conservative home affairs spokesman who drafted the amendment, said it should be made much easier for anyone to question why their details were listed on the database. "What we are looking for is statutory guidelines," she said. The Home Office said it would produce "appropriate national guidance" on how the police handle and retain DNA information. But a spokesman said ministers did not plan to change the provisions of the bill to reflect the amendment when it returns to the Commons.

Civil liberties groups welcomed the outcome of the vote, arguing that the retention of DNA was "out of control". "If the government wants a universal DNA database it should say so, not smuggle one in through the backdoor," Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said. Ministers believe such guidelines could hinder their plans for a counter-terrorist database as releasing details of material obtained covertly, through surveillance, could be dangerous. Before 2001, the police could take DNA samples during investigations, but had to destroy the records if the person was acquitted or charges were not proceeded with.

But the law was changed in 2001 to remove this requirement, and changed again in 2004 so DNA samples could be taken from anyone arrested for a recordable offence and detained in a police station. The database also contains profiles from some people detained in Northern Ireland, and in Scotland - but in Scotland records of those innocent of any crime are deleted after a time. A study published earlier this year concluded that guilty people who have served their time should eventually have their DNA records erased because retaining the profile "continues to criminalise them".

Home secretary Jacqui Smith on Thursday will invite high-street businesses to tender to be biometrics enrolment centres for the National Identity Scheme, which the government will use to issue ID cards.

The Home Office wants to use the tender process to gauge whether businesses such as post offices and banks would be interested in participating in taking fingerprints from people for the scheme, ZDNet UK understands. It also hopes to formulate a document, called the Frontline Services Prospectus, outlining how biometric enrolment would be carried out by businesses.

ZDNet UK also understands that the Post Office has not been approached directly by the Home Office to submit a tender.

Anti-ID cards campaigner Phil Booth told ZDNet UK on Wednesday that the government was trying to sell high-street firms an idea that would not work. "The Home Office is selling businesses a pig in a poke," Booth said. "What company would want to invest millions in a service that will be scrapped at the first opportunity?"

Booth added that the Home Office proposal "absolutely undermines security". "If they're taking fingerprints on the high street, they simply cannot guarantee locking prints to details," he said. "The only way they could have done that is in an interrogation centre, with some official scrutinising documentation, then walking you over to the scanner to take your prints." Booth suggested that a high-street-based system would be open to fraud and systems error, and could lead to chaos.

The Home Office declined to comment on the scheme.

BA half year profits are down a massive 91% to £52 million. The cost of fuel and economic down turn has been blamed for the fall. Can I also add another factor? Just recently I had to fly to Aberdeen and I will be doing so again this week. While checking flights for this coming week, we were unable to get the exact flight we required. So we checked BA from Heathrow, who were also unable to offer us the flights we needed, however, both BA and Easyjet had later flights that would have to do and we could change schedule.

Now here comes the maths. Easyjet, £39.99 each both there and back giving a total of £159.96 plus taxes, for two people there and back and the flight was from Luton Airport, about 30 minutes drive from here.

BA costs, £322 plus taxes, one way for one person from Heathrow. Guess who we are flying with?

They shall not grow old as we who are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

Good morning and welcome to Friday, the best day of the working week. It definitely is in this job, dress down and finish at lunch time, life just couldn’t be better. A quiet weekend ahead, with no particular plans, if fact I doing bugger all, apart from my usual exercise that is. Anyway the weather forecast is not looking too good, wet and windy I’m afraid. Still we should be used to weather like this.

Everybody is arriving in the office and they are all wearing the new company T shirts, everyone except me that is. Even though I do have a couple I didn’t wear one because I wanted to be an individual and not a sheep who has to follow everyone else.