A senior judge, Lord Justice Sedley, has made the extraordinary suggestion that DNA samples from every citizen in the United Kingdom and visitor to our shores should be stored in a database.

You can certainly see that if this were to happen, it would make it very much easier for courts to reach their verdicts and judges to deliver their sentences.

Terrorist suspect arrested. Circumstantial evidence shaky, but some trace of DNA on a stolen car found near the scene of the crime. DNA matches something found at the database. Suspect tried and proved guilty - hey presto!