It's one of the basic tools of any magician — control of the audience's attention. It's said that a good magician knows at all times where the audience is looking, and controls it. Misdirect the audience into looking at your right hand, while your left hand palms the coin. Or, if that fails, use the Glamourous Assistant as the focal point.

Today's lesson in stage magicianship comes from our old friends, the Labour Party. While you're all looking at the left hand waving goodbye (or the Glamourous Assistant), the right hand is busy palming £400m of my money and yours.

That 8% cost slippage (that's £2.4bn so far, or 76% of the original budget for those keeping count) came out in the Gateway Review, a month past the required deadline, and just happened to be published within a few minutes of the Dear Leader's Resignation Speech. Mind you, the only reason it came out at all was because the courts ordered to be published.

Yes, it seems that even in its death throes, the Blair Project cannot resist spinning for all its worth. It's another Good Day to Bury Bad News — an open goal so wide that we should have seen it coming a mile off.

Oh, we did.

HMG have been swearing blind for ages now that a main reason why we absolutely must have ID Cards and the National Identity Register is to ensure that we comply with the new International Civil Aviation Organisation passport standards, and remain in the US Visa Waiver Scheme.

The work involved in this would therefore increase the cost of passports to £93 (HMG figures, disputed by the LSE amongst others).

Well paint me pink and call me Nancy, the Home Office has managed to do it sooner, cheaper, and without all the ID Cards/NIR nonsense. On Monday it announced it would issue its first Biometric, ICAO-compliant passports this week. Home Office minister Andy Burnham was quick to point out that the passports would confirm the identity of the individual.

So, all the benefits of ID Cards and the NIR, for the cost of .... (wait for it...) £53, or a supplement of just £11 on current prices.

As HMG is an entirely logical beast, with the interests of the country at heart, we can expect an announcement from the Safety Elephant in the next few days declaring that the ID Cards/NIR objectives met, and the rest of the scheme being abandoned.

Oh, wait...

So, which party's leader came out with the following quote in the last few days?

People don't mind paying tax, as long as they get something in return.