For all Brown’s shallow rhetoric about devolved power, his plan amounts in practice to a charter for yet more bureaucratic intervention.

Among the planned extensions of the quango machine, there is to be a new Marine Management Organ­isation, a National Coroners’ Service and a network of so-called Parents’ Councils in schools. As if the Human Rights Act was not bad enough, all public bodies are to be given a new statutory duty to promote absolute equality in their work, providing ample scope for a widening flood of frivolous litigation.

A classic example of Labour’s habit of trying to cover up political failure with organisational tinkering can be seen in the absurd plan to establish a new Sentencing Commission, whose job will be to ease prison overcrowding by tailoring jail terms to match the space available. 

That is completely the wrong way of looking at the problem. The number of prison places should be dictated by the length of custodial sentences, not the other way round. Instead of creating yet another expensive quango, Brown should build more prisons.

The same absurdities can be seen in many other proposals, such as the plan for a Savings Gateway. This is meant to encourage people on benefits to put some of their cash into savings accounts, with the Government topping up the deposits with matching funds.  

It is hard to think of a more outrageous misuse of public money. Effectively the taxpayer is being asked to pay twice over, first to underwrite the benefits and second to boost the savings of claimants.

What is sickening is that while an army of scroungers are subsidised for their refusal to work, hard-working, low-paid job holders receive no such treatment but are instead hammered by tax hikes, which means they struggle to have any savings. Again, Brown would do better to lift the tax burden on the working poor rather than featherbed the idle.

Labour has also been trumpeting its promise to give more parents the right to request flexible hours from their employers. This is a meaningless gesture, another example of trying to use law to “send out a message” rather than achieve anything concrete.

Employees can already request flexible working simply by opening their mouths and asking their bosses. They don’t need another burst of legislation to give them permission to speak, especially because, as the Government admits, employers will not be under any obligation to meet such requests. True to its meddlesome spirit, Labour is attempting to nationalise workplace conversations.

A destructive cocktail of vacuity, hypocrisy and fatuity can be seen throughout the programme.

In another move Brown announced that the Govern­ment is to create a £200million fund to buy up new, unsold homes which will then be rented out by the State.

But if there are so many new homes on the market which cannot be shifted except by expensive official action, then why is he forcing local authorities to plan for the building of three million new homes across England over the next 12 years?

Brown is just as unconvincing in other areas, like his pledges to crack down on welfare abuses, tackle failing schools, tighten immigration and give patients more choice over healthcare. We have been hearing such hollow promises for more than a decade, yet nothing has been done.

Indeed, on immigration, Labour has presided over the wilful destruction of our borders.

Similarly, Brown boasts of his commitment to “constitutional renewal” to enhance the rights of citizens; this from a premier who refused to honour his pledge to give the public a vote on the latest EU treaty. 

Everywhere we see more intervention, whether it be in new powers to monitor people’s use of the internet or in new local taxes on businesses.   

Brown’s programme will not revive the fortunes of his party. It can only drag our once great nation deeper into the quagmire of waste and bureaucracy.