Lies, damned lies and actually just more damned lies

I am overjoyed by the proposal contained in the Queen's speech to subject benefit claimants to lie detector tests. Not that I have any particular axe to grind with benefit claimants, nor any real hope that that lie detectors are more than pseudoscience - I'm just delighted by the precedent it sets that it is acceptable for dealings between citizens and the state to be monitored by lie detector where there is a reasonable expectation that one party is lying at the expense of the other.

So I look forward to extending this precedent to all my dealings with the government: with my local authority ("so you're quite sure I need to pay this bill again even though I paid it last month and you seem to have simply lost the cheque?"); with the police ("just hold this wire officer while you tell me precisely what law I'm breaking and under what authority I am being detained"); and of course PMQs and all other Commons debates ("so these weapons of mass destruction, Tony. Really sure?")