Nothing to offer but fear itself

Blair and New Labour seem to have learned absolutely nothing from their reduced majority; TB's appetite for confronting Parliament and his own party with unpalatable, illiberal legislation appears to to unabated.

The War On Liberty continues with proposals in the Queen's speech to introduce ID cards while the Tories "are in disarray". The religious incitement bill is also to be re-introduced. The government has expressed its intention to use the Parliament Act (Blair had, by the end of his first term, already used the Parliament Act more times than Thatcher in her entire tenure in office) to overcome opposition in the Lords.

This has been a government that has been hyper-active legislatively - although if bills associated with criminal justice were excluded, the hyper-activity would evaporate and perhaps people would then see that New Labour has spent a comparatively little time doing the sorts of things one associates with a Labour administration.

Given that Blair's reduced majority now means it would take only around 30 MPs to rebel, do you think the Parliamentary Labour Party will take this opportunity to show they are no longer willing to be pushed around?

I'm not holding my breath.