Gordon Brown laments the ‘constitutional revolution’ of his own making

Given that Gordon Brown has hardly been seen in the Commons since losing power five years ago, it was a bit rich of him to say goodbye now. But the SNP uprising has started — it looks set to claim his own seat of Kirkcaldy — and so he’s off. In his final speech to the House of Commons today, he lamented the gradual breaking apart of the UK which was, of course, started by his own party.

After indulging in niceties towards Parliament as an institution, the Speaker and his constituents, Brown promised to devote his efforts away from Westminster to ‘the idea of Britain’ and attacked the Conservatives’ plans to devolve powers to England:

‘I leave this house feeling a huge sense of gratitude, but also with some concern.

‘The UK today is fragile…Whatever the future, in the constitutional revolution that is now underway, I will fight and fight again to renew and reconstruct for a new age the idea of Britain, around shared values that can bring us together and advance a common sense of Britishness.