How Gordon Brown has ensured Alan Johnson will be no threat to him

You are a prime minister under pressure. What do you do? Give your most attractive rival a job which ensure that everyone will soon hate him.

Since becoming home secretary, Alan Johnson has become the most prominent public defender of identity cards and of the extradition of Gary McKinnon. You may say that in both cases Johnson could have fought to be allowed to take a different line if he wanted to, but it does underline what a thankless job being home secretary is.

By appointing Johnson to the post, Gordon Brown has ensured that the more libertarian elements amongst Labour voters and (just as important to the prime minister) amongst Labour MPs are rapidly going off him. Johnson now looks far less like the man to recapture this important constituency for Labour at the next election.

You may think that this is just a Liberal Democrat complaining. Surely, I hear you asking, Labour should worry more about its core voters staying at home or voting Tory or UKIP?

Ah, I reply knowingly, just wait until the next scandal about paedophiles or escaped prisoners or asylum seekers. See how popular Alan Johnson is with them after that.

John Reid like to think himself as tough as they come, but his career did not survive 12 months as home secretary.

Very cunning, that Gordon Brown

Nick Clegg on Gary McKinnon

The Lib Dem leader has an article in this morning's Daily Mail on the failure of the British government to prevent the extradition of Gary McKinnon to America.

After a little purple prose - "doomed to pass out the rest of his days in shackles on a foreign shore" - and a good nationalistic point:

You can be sure that if the situation was reversed, American politicians would be moving hell and high water to protect one of their citizens from such a gross injustice.

It is an affront to British justice that no one in the Labour Party has the courage to do the same.

he puts the boot in on Gordon Brown's government very nicely:

Yet this case is about more than legal technicalities and political treaties. It is about compassion, knowing the difference between right and wrong - and the sorry truth is that the Labour Party lost its moral compass long ago.

It tried to stop Gurkhas who were prepared to die for Britain from having the right to live here. It is embroiled in allegations of complicity in torture of British citizens abroad.

And now it shows no sympathy for a man with an autistic spectrum disorder who committed his crimes on British soil, confessed to British police, and simply wants the chance to face up to British justice.

And well done, incidentally, to Nick for getting into the Daily Mail. Its the paper that many of our voters read.

Too often these days attacking the Mail serves as a substitute for political thought on the left.

Gary McKinnon: The passport as school uniform

Having a passport - and particularly a British passport - used to mean something:

Her Britannic Majesty's Secretary of State Requests and requires in the Name of Her Majesty all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely without let or hindrance, and to afford the bearer such assistance and protection as may be necessary.

It said, in other words, "Don't mess with me. I've got the British government behind me."

These days it is hard to resist the impression that governments have more in common with each other than they do with their own people. Hence the enthusiasm for extradition, whether within Europe or across the Atlantic.

A passport now fulfils the function that school uniform once did. It tells the observer which authority they should complain to if they don't like your behaviour.

Labour turncoats on Gary McKinnon

Tomorrow's Daily Mail tells us:

Eighty-two Labour MPs signed three Parliamentary motions, dating back to 2005, opposing the Extradition Act and sending Gary McKinnon to the U.S. for trial.

But only eight of them had the integrity to back the Tory Opposition Day call for an 'immediate review' of the one-sided treaty. Of the other 74 Labour backbenchers, 59 displayed rank hypocrisy by supporting the Government. Another 15 abstained.

And the paper's website helpfully goes on to list them all.

House Points: Calder's Second Law of Politics

My House Points column from today's Liberal Democrat News.

Dyed in the Wool

Calder’s First Law of Politics is that if all the parties agree on a new law it is bound to turn out to be a disaster. My Second Law is that the more power the government takes for itself, the more arbitrary the exercise of that power becomes. This is why, with Labour’s effective nationalisation of childhood, we see children taken into care on apparently flimsy grounds whilst others die at the hands of their parents despite countless visits from public-sector professionals.

The same thing happens in the legal system. Labour has created numerous new criminal offences, yet this week we learnt that nearly 1000 offenders released on licence, who should have been sent back to prison, are still at large. They include 19 convicted murderers.

A word of advice to Alan Johnson, the new home secretary: concentrate first on keeping murderers locked up and spread your wings only when you have got that right.

Certainly, Johnson gave no sign that he offers a break with the recent past at home office questions on Monday. There was no sign of his being the fresh new face some Labour optimists still believe can win them the next election.

He washed his hands of any responsibility in the case of Gary McKinnon – the Asperger’s syndrome sufferer facing extradition to America for computer hacking. And he offered a dogged defence of identity cards, including the unconvincing claim that the “need to prove identity is a constant daily occurrence”.

Nor – to continue this column’s new theme – should you expect any better from the Tories. Angela Watkinson, wanted firmer action against antisocial behaviour. As Matt Foot recently pointed out n a letter to the Guardian 99 per cent of applications for an ASBO are granted:

they are extremely difficult for anyone to stop, as the only test for the court is whether there is evidence that someone behaved in a way "likely to cause alarm", and hearsay or gossip is allowed as evidence. An ASBO can then ban you from doing anything anywhere for the rest of your life. If you breach the order, you face up to five years in prison.

It’s scary to think what Watkinson may have in mind.