Deputy information commissioner David Smith says the loss of 25 million people's personal details is a wake-up call for the government. Data protection laws must be better enforced, the watchdog says.
The chair of the all-party parliamentary group on ID fraud, Tory MP Nigel Evans, says the questions go way beyond procedures at the HM Treasury and Customs department.
Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland says this may be an ominous turning point in the public perception of the government - but Gordon Brown will not want to sack Alistair Darling.
Technology editor Charles Arthur assesses the adequacy of state's IT systems.
Observer columnist Henry Porter says that - unfortunately - the government's ID cards scheme is not quite dead in the water.
Matt Weaver's papers review has yet more gloomy reviews of the chancellor.
In other news, Rachel Williams reports from Accra, Ghana, where two British teenage girls were found guilty of cocaine smuggling.
John Hooper in Rome tells me the latest on the Meredith Kercher murder inquiry.
And Maev Kennedy visits London's Science Museum, where a new interactive gallery opens on Saturday.
