Itchy and scratchy never ends well

How can Gordon Brown hope to cultivate a sense of Britishness when there is so much disenfranchisement in the Union? One has to wonder about his motives and motivation for this initiative as it cannot have escaped his notice that the current devolution settlement can do nothing but entrench the opinions of any of the English who have taken it upon themselves to learn about their current unequal place in Britain.

To talk of Britishness in the current climate carries with it a little risk as it only serves to confirm that the democratic deficit being faced in England is considered by Brown as unimportant or of little consequence.

The risk will increase with each and every awakening to the unfairness faced by every student, child, pensioner … everyone that calls England home.

Brown is a man that is ignoring an itch because it is not his own. Sooner or later the scratching in the audience will demand his attention and, if he doesn’t give it, the audience will turn to someone else who will. That is where a real danger to society and Britishness lies. How can a big man asking big questions be ignorant of that?