Gordon Brown To Resign – Where Now the LibDems?

Gordon Brown has done the honourable thing and announced that he will resign as soon as his current caretaker role has been completed. He’ll be out of Number 10 by autumn at the latest. The theory is that by pre-announcing his resignation Brown will “unlock” a possible Rainbow Coalition with the Lib Dems. So, would a Labour-LibDem coalition without Brown be acceptable? Or would it remain a deal with the devil?

Personally I’ve never had a great problem with Gordon Brown the man. I quite like Mr Grumpy. My problem has been the way he has continued authoritarian Blairite policies to trash our civil liberties. It’s the policies I object to, not the person. So whether or not I can support a deal between the LibDems and Labour depends on the policies that’ll be followed be whoever replaces Brown.

There seem to be two names in the frame. One is Alan Johnson, the other – by far the favourite – is David Miliband. What are their views on issues such as ID cards and the National Identity Register (NIR)?

According to theyworkforyou both voted strongly in favour (see: Johnson’s record and Miliband’s record). In addition Johnson voted strongly for New Labour’s general anti-terrorism laws, as did Miliband.

That’s not a good start. Of course this might just be loyalism on display, but it makes it difficult for either of them to scrap the scheme. Johnson as Home Secretary has said that ID Cards will never be compulsory for Britons – a misleading formulation that ignores the real problem, the compulsory register.

I’m afraid I really can’t see either of these two presiding over a repeal of the Identity Cards Act 2006 and some of New Labour’s other appalling illiberal legislation. At best they might agree not to make things worse.

Maybe I’m wrong. I’d like to be – I have no love for the Tories. Maybe an outspoken Labour “rebel” will unite Labour under an anti-Blairite banner – but who?

Unless Clegg can get a guarantee that (as a minimum) the ID Cards Act will be repealed by any new leader then I still, reluctantly, oppose the Rainbow coalition.

Addendum: Since posting this I read about yet another abuse of Labour’s terror laws. Add scrapping Section 44 as one of my prerequisites for accepting a Labour government.