Inaction now has its price: your freedom

AS LABOUR leader, Tony Blair liked to pose as a moderate, but in truth he was a dangerous revolutionary whose decade in Downing Street transformed our country for the worse.

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His premiership saw our borders eroded, our heritage trashed, our institutions politicised, our nationhood weakened and our solidarity broken.

Yet almost 20 years after he fell from power, Blair could be on the verge of achieving another significant triumph. He might be loathed by much of the public but he remains a dominant figure within Labour, as reflected in the gang of Blairite politicians and officials ranking highly in Sir Keir Starmer's Government.

This influence means No10 is now highly receptive to one of Blair's most cherished policies compulsory identity cards for all British citizens. In office, he advocated the scheme with his usual messianic fervour, presenting it as a weapon against terrorism and a tool to improve the accountability of public services.

Such was Blair's enthusiasm that he even pushed legislation through Parliament in 2006 that established a National Identity Register, to oversee the rollout. But after his departure in 2007, the momentum was lost. Under Gordon Brown, the project never moved beyond the pilot stage, before being scrapped by the Tory-led coalition.