James Avery’s blog

When I first saw the news headline about David Davis resigning, my first thought was to wonder what sort of scandal he had been caught up in.  Then it turns out that he had resigned entirely voluntarily, and that he was going to stand in a by-election of his own making.  This move has clearly stunned the Westminster insiders, and put Tory leader David Cameron in a difficult position. So, what the hell is David Davis playing at?

To a cynic like myself, the 42 day terror laws need to be opposed simply because they look like an obvious way for Gordon Brown to appear macho and appease the tabloid press, and there seems to be little legal merit in them. Does anyone really think that, in his heart of hearts, Mr Brown even believes his own rhetoric about “standing on principle” over this issue?

Until Wednesday evening, the Conservative party were appearing virtually united on this issue, with only one MP, Ann Widdecombe, voting with the government. If ever there was a battleaxe to defy all attempts to whip her into submission, then it was Ms Widdecombe! Reading through Friday’s papers, it looks like David Davis had already done a remarkable job in persuading both his shadow cabinet colleagues, and the rest of the party, that there was no case to support the government on its will to hold terror suspects for up to 42 days without charge.  Notwithstanding this unity in the Conservative party, the government had also had to go through the humiliation of relying on the support of the Democratic Unionist Party, and bribe or no bribe, Gordon Brown was still looking on very unstable ground by the time he came to his press conference on Thursday morning.

Clearly, the fact that this Bill has been passed, by whatever means, has sent David Davis to boiling point.  Right now, with the Liberal Democrats saying that they will support him, and Labour suggesting that they will not play along with what they see as a political stunt, it looks like he has scored a remarkable political own goal.  For someone who used to be a reservist in the SAS, this looks much more like a nose dive than a skydive, but he clearly feels passionate about this issue, and it is far too early to predict how this will play out.  Ultimately though, I have to applaud what he has done, perhaps because I can empathise so much with many of the character traits which he has displayed — recklessness, adrenalin seeking, being ego driven, getting heated up on a single point, but ultimately standing on principle.  I don’t mind how foolish may look right now, he has injected a great deal of sparkle into a debate which desperately needs it.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 14th, 2008 at 9:55 am and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.