Discgate: what does it mean for Brown?

From the announcement of a £40BN public sector deficit to revelations of the sheer ineptitude of HMRC and the mess that is Northern Rock, it's been a disastrous week for the government.

"Discgate", as several papers have dubbed it, is the latest in a series of financial disasters threatening to make Chancellor Alistair Darling's tenure one of the shortest in recent history.

Half of the UK population has been put on fraud alert after two discs containing the personal and bank details of 25 million child benefit claimants got lost between HM Revenue & Customs and the National Audit Office. The slip up cost HMRC chief Paul Gray his job, and capped a disastrous week for the Chancellor.

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