Blair and Brown write...

What a strange Monday morning. We have Blair writing about ID cards in the Daily Telegraph, whilst we have Brown writing about globalisation in the Times. Is this evidence of a new entente cordial between the war factinos of Dowing Street? Are we seeing a galvanised strategy seeking to wrest the agenda back on to the grounds that the Government wants it to be on?

Or perhaps they're still fighting one another? Either way, the subjects they've written about place both men, at least at first glance, firmly on the Right rather than the Left. As such the word "triangulation" is ringing in my head.

Political strategy aside though, the content of both pieces are telling of the way each of these men see the wordl. For Blair, the issue of ID cards is a fundamental needs he says for the "modern world", the problem though is that his entire argument is predicated on the assumption that the ID card system will always work and never fail. In fact failure of the system is something thatno one ever seems to mention.

Blair's argument is that the ID card will eventually become an integral means for accessing services, work etc. The implication is a total reliance on technology. What happens if, operationally speaking, the systems fail? What if something get's deleted? Will people become non-entities?

There are some that will dismiss such things as tin-foil hat paranoia, but they're wrong, this is about the operational impact of a system that will, if Blair's vision is correct, will become fundamental to ever individual's actions. The scope of system failure - let alone abuse of the system - is massive, and yet we rarely hear anyone mention it.

Incomparison to Blair, Brown's piece in the Times is all about free trade. Brown argues that protectionism is luddism (I agree), and that globalisation should be embraced and we should remove the tarrif on agriculture in the West (I agree).

However, Brown's argument about supporting free trade and open market falls flat on his face when he says the "we should stake future of our government on getting globalisation right." With that single sentence he effectively negates his claim of being against the planned economy.

To put it simply, the articles this morning from the two men of Downing Street represent the contradictory nature of their thinking. They support the use of technology as a panacea without acknowledging it's weakness. And they support free and open markets whilst also wanting to tinker and direct them. "Triangulation" remains the only word I can hear as a result.