This has to be one of the most audacious pieces of political rebranding ever: David “Big” Blunkett, perhaps the most authoritarian Home Secretary in living memory, is trying to position himself as a champion of civil liberties.

No, don’t laugh - the guy’s serious!

An article in The Independent trails a speech Blunkett will give tomorrow. In it he’s expected to attack Gordon Brown’s government for taking us towards a Big Brother state and oppose the latest data sharing plans saying:

It is not simply whether the intentions are benign, undoubtedly they are, but whether they are likely to be misused and above all what value their use may have

That’s one of the arguments made by Blunkett’s critics when he was in the Home Office. Has the arch-enemy of airy fairy libertarians had a Damascene conversion? It sounds like it, but let’s look at the small print.

The biggest issue is today, of course, the threat of compulsory ID Cards and a huge, intrusive National Identity Register (NIR). This was Blunkett’s baby, so what does he think now?

Well he now says that ID Cards should be voluntary - but instead he thinks passports should be compulsory for everyone! This would, of course, involve everyone being on the NIR with all the legal obligations that would bring. If everyone had a passport then it would become a de facto ID card - the worry has always been more about the database than the piece of plastic. As Phil Booth, National Coordinator of NO2ID, said:

His ‘opt out’ means nothing, but at least Mr Blunkett is being honest about compulsion, which current ministers have spun and spun to pretend isn’t there. The issue is not, and never has been just the card – it’s coerced registration, and lifelong surveillance by database.

Will this new look Blunkett at least accept that he himself contributed to the erosion of British civil liberties? Of course not. This is a man whose idea of reasoned debate is to dismiss his opponents as intellectual pygmies.

For example, Blunkett also attacks creeping use of anti-terrorism legislation for “trivial” uses, such as the 2000 Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) being abused by local councils. However he seems to forget that it was he who in 2003 introduced the “snoopers’ charter”: the controversial extensions of the Act that allowed such snooping to become widespread.

As expected Blunkett not only fails to apologise but gives himself an implicit pat on the back for bringing about the current situation, saying that Labour have got the balance between liberty and security broadly right. That’s like saying the Daleks have struck the right balance between compassion and power.

So long as David Blunkett shows no remorse he can expect no parole from the prison of public opinion.

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