Clearing the decks

The British government is expected to drop plans for ID cards and a ban on inciting religious hatred as it clears the decks for the election. There's no doubt this is a victory, but before anyone gets too excited, they are still planning on removing the ban on double jeopardy and hearsay evidence. Not to mention lobbying or canvassing for votes. Even dropping the headline sections, the Blair government's "justice" policy is still highly regressive... but this is what happens when you allow justice policy to be dictated by a bidding war between politicians over who can be "tougher", more vicious, and more vindictive.

As for the election itself, given his outright deceit over Iraq, its one Blair deserves to lose. But the Tories aren't any better, and their utter collapse and infighting looks set to guarantee New Labour another term. But what rescues this from being a boring contest are the numerous public campaigns to punish Labour over Iraq. There's a lot of anger out there - sadly reflected in the number of people refusing to enrol - and the are numerous attempts to harness it to send Blair a message. There's also an effort to put the boot in to the Tories while they're down. It will be interesting to see how well these efforts work, and whether they can be duplicated elsewhere.