In power but not in office — yet

Peter Oborne says that Gordon Brown’s utterances on terrorism and ID cards indicate that he now sees himself as prime minister in all but name

It has finally become accepted both in the inner Blair circle and the wider Labour movement that Gordon Brown will inevitably be the next prime minister and must be treated as such. The Chancellor would be the first modern prime minister not to have a driving licence, and the first intellectual in Downing Street since A.J. Balfour surrendered office in 1905. No previous prime minister has been able to boast a doctorate.

The substantive concession of power took place on Monday. Tony Blair was stranded in South Africa unable to attend the 100th anniversary meeting of the parliamentary Labour party, where he was due to speak. Engine trouble in South Africa, which one would like to imagine may have been provoked by Keir Hardie’s ghost, was the trouble.