Thursday, June 12, 2008

David Davis - mad or brave?

I dont usually comment much on national stories, as I have said before, there are millions of other sites better qualified than me to comment.

But this is so bizarre I feel I have no choice but to mention it.

David Davis MP for Haltemprice and Howden (in East Yorkshire, just a bit above Hull) has resigned his seat in Parliament to force a by-election which he then intends to fight, on the matter of the 42 days detention for suspected terrorists.

I suppose he must have already spoken to those of his party membership locally who have agreed they will select him again to fight this seat?

The LibDems have already said they wont be contesting it and tonight's BBC news seems to suggest that Labour wont either.

Extraordinary.

Is this a genuine and heartfelt stance from a politician from a party that was once happy to detain IRA terrorists but now has had a rethink (possibly), is this a stunt, which it seems is already backfiring (also possible)?

I do hope the Labour Party does not stand a candidate. For several reasons really; on a practical level we dont have the money to fight yet another byelection: we would not win H&H in a good year, never mind a few months after Crewe and Nantwich; and finally we dont need to give this situation the oxygen of publicity.

I was dizzy with the implications until I heard about the possibility that we would not contest it. A master stroke, the very best (sorry Mum and Cynthia) "F*** off" message that we could have dreamt up.

It is obvious when you think about it that giving house room to the decision of a politician to stand down and cause a by-election but stand again on a single platform, would, if granted, give succour to all sorts of people to repeat this.

So I hope the Labour Party continues to decide not to contest this and to make a mockery of the election which is what democracy must naturally require. Otherwise, when and where will it stop?

How very very odd.

3 comments:

scouseboy said...

Hi Louise, welcome back, hope you had a brilliant time in Berlin.
Regarding David Davis, i think this is a publicity stunt, and could just be the stroke of luck the Gordon Brown so desparately needs.
From where I am looking at the situation it seems like the Thatcherites(Davis) are at civil war with the old etonians (cameron)
Sooner or later, the wicked witch(Thatcher) will come out of the woodwork. This will be an opportune reminder to the british electorate exactly what the tories are about.

Anonymous said...

Just shows how far to the right New Labour is that a Gobshite like David Davies is fighting for civil liberties.

Anonymous said...

Anything that backfires on the Tories is fine by me.

That said, Labour has got itself to a place it shouldn't be. I'm delighted that some Labour MPs like Peter Kilfoyle had the integrity to vote against.