DNA database: proven guilty

Four months have passed since the European court of human rights landed a unanimous and unusually pointed judgment damning the "blanket and indiscriminate" DNA database in England and Wales, which keeps genetic tabs not just on criminals but on anyone falling under police suspicion. Save for a vague promise to consult on possible changes in several months' time, ministers have said almost nothing about what they will do, still less taken serious action. It is even rumoured the spirit of the ruling will be circumvented - by taking innocent people off the system but holding on to saliva samples, so they can be put back on as convenience requires.