I was planning to make a post congratulating Gordon Brown on his plan for constitutional change. Unfortunately that's been overshadowed by his disastrous performance at his first PMQs.

Brown had the ideal opportunity to break with Blair's plan to impose compulsory National Identity Cards and an invasive National Identity Register (NIR). Asked by Cameron about a border police force Brown could have said that in the light recent events the best use of resources was being re-evaluated. Unfortunately Brown failed to do this and chose to give his strong support to the dangerous ID scheme.

All Brown's positive constitutional reforms will count for nothing against ID Cards and the NIR. Their introduction will bring about a change in the relationship between citizen and state that sees the government issuing us with a licence to live.

That would be a constitutional change for which he would never be forgiven.

Gordon Brown ID Cards Identity Cards NIR UK politics ukpolitics

Labels: Gordon Brown, ID Cards, NIR