Be quite clear, I wish Andy Burnham every success in his role as British Prime Minister. What I have read about him, what he has achieved in Manchester, and the sometimes rather neglected North of the UK, is encouraging. His demeanour on being precipitated into a job he may well want but most of us certainly wouldn’t, has been confident but humble. You can’t ask more from a new PM on Day 1 of his office.
Then I get a jolt. He cancels the embryonic ID scheme whereby the citizens of the UK would, like most other people in the world, be required to have an Identity Certificate. Why? To save and redistribute GBP 600M. Bold, for sure. In a country whose succession of recent votes has spoken unequivocally against immigration, daft. We are all public people now, partly because we need to account for ourselves in order to be taxed in order to receive the handouts that result from that taxation, partly because we expose ourselves voluntarily or inevitably on social media. Like it or not we are public people. It is our duty to have a public identity.
Distributing GBP 600M to the deserving is a worthy aim. Depriving the immigration, border control, police, courts, civil administrative services of a quick, controllable and today essential tool of law and order, is to invite more immigration problems. Britain, with its possibly over-generous social support schemes, cannot function if those responsible for keeping order have to work with their hands tied behind their backs.
I’m not a brutal person. Some would say rather too much the opposite. Events dictate needs. Britain, I am sure, would love to accommodate everyone hard done by in the world. It can neither afford to do so nor should it have the arrogance to think it is still marshalling a grand empire. It’s an island of 65 million wonderful people that has cut itself off from the European Continent in a move unidentifiable as sane.
If the scrapping of the ID scheme is a ‘popular appeal’ I dread to think of how the tough leadership decisions that must be made will be achieved. If the decision is a mis-step, step back quickly. We all forgive mistakes. We never forgive intransigence.
Here’s my offering to the now British Prime Minister. Everyone knows it’s going to be tough. Please start by supporting those who are trying to make a too-soft system work.
ID is only step one. Let it be a firm, unequivocal, statement of support for law and order. Not a MAGA, testosterone claptrap sort of brutality.
Just a calm, decent British firmness to make it clear who is in charge.
It’s about time, don’t you think?
Good morning
John Bittleston
Please tell us what you think at [email protected].
20 July 2026
