This is one of those stories that Richard Littlejohn would classify under "You Couldn't Make It Up". I'm sure White Rose will have more to say about it than this one posting. For now I hardly have time to do more than flag it up before going to bed.

The national DNA database containing more than two million samples could end up in the private sector under Government plans to sell off the Home Office Forensic Science Service (FSS).

This is toxic. You gather information about people without any consent (because being arrested isn't that kind of deal) and then you turn the management of the resulting database into a business. Objections? Where do you start? How long do we have?

Call this whatever other names you want, but don't you dare call it "pure" capitalism, or the "extreme" free market.

Last night, the proposed sale threatened to become the most controversial since the privatisation of the air traffic control system.

I'll say.