Quote of the day

"This is the sort of daft idea that comes up from the department every now and then, but tagging people in the same way we tag our pets cannot be the way ahead. Treating people like pieces of meat does not seem to represent an improvement in the system to me".

Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers, on the Ministry of Justice's plans to implant chips in prisoners for identification and tracking purposes. It really does sound like something out of '1984' or a Philip K Dick novel...