Politics

[altariel]

Blimey, David Davis has resigned to force a by-election over the issue of the 42-day six week detention limit.

Hey, but at least we are all SO MUCH SAFER now!

Comments

[communicator.livejournal.com]

I must in all honesty say that it's a shrewd political move, and for a good cause

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

...which puts him in a very strong position if Cameron slips up, as Cameron clearly realises...

Nasty situation for the Labour candidate, because who in their senses is going to want to fight a by-election defending 42 days?

[altariel.livejournal.com]

No, I didn't get the impression Cameron was thrilled with the decision.


who in their senses is going to want to fight a by-election defending 42 days?

Well, they could always ask Anne Widdecombe.

[communicator.livejournal.com]

The shrewd counter-move for Labour, speaking purely from a position of political strategy, would be to dismiss it as a stunt, say that he's demeaning/trivialising the electoral process, and refuse to put up a candidate.

I imagine his motives are internal party politics, but the banner he has chosen to make a stand under is a liegitimate one.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I think it's quite possibly both; even Tories can take a principled stand, and if that happens to advance his own position, win-win. Which is why I'm aghast, because I regard Cameron as the lesser of two people-I-really-don't-want-in-No.-10.

And yes, I'd just about come round to "don't fight the by-election" myself. I fear they won't have the nerve.

[iainjcoleman.livejournal.com]

But can Brown really afford to bottle another election? I don't think Labour have any good options here.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I just faxed Downing Street to tell him, anyway. Wonder if I'll get a 6 a.m. phone call.

[iainjcoleman.livejournal.com]

If the only people to stand in favour of 42 days at this by-election are the BNP, how will that make the Goverment look?

[iainjcoleman.livejournal.com]

Actually, belay that last comment. It turns out the BNP opposes 42 days too.

[julesjones]

They were already doing that an hour or so after the speech, or at least one MP was doing so in a manner that suggested to me it was a put-up job.

I think his motive is at least partly genuine principle-of-the-thing - I get the impression this is an issue he feels strongly about, and there's a significant chunk of the Tory electorate who will be all for banging up those dirty terrorists without trial, the innocent have nothing to fear, yadda yadda.

[iainjcoleman.livejournal.com]

Nasty situation for the Labour candidate, because who in their senses is going to want to fight a by-election defending 42 days?

But the Prime Minister keeps telling us how popular it is! Surely a golden opportunity for a bold and principled socialist to defeat a bleeding-heart, soft-on-terror quisling.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

The awful truth is that a significant portion of the electorate are to the right of David Davis. I don't think they'd actually go as far as not voting him back in, though.

[iainjcoleman.livejournal.com]

Has Labour suddenly got shy about attracting votes from right-wing authoritarians? That would be a welcome development.

[hafren.livejournal.com]

But IIRC, YouGov polls have shown that a majority of the electorate actually want the 42-day limit. So it seems a dicy issue for him to fight on, if that's really what he is doing (and not just making a leadership bid). Furthermore, constituencies are notoriously averse to being called out to vote for what may seem to them, if those polls are true, insufficient reason. Furtherfurthermore, if as I heard rumoured, the LibDems nationally are telling their local party not to stand against him, they are risking an enormous raspberry from said locals (and again, possibly, from the electorate, who tend to get iffy about team orders).

I doubt Cameron wanted this. Why, in any case, do it now - since we all know it's liable to be stopped by the Lords and if not by them, by Europe?

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

He knows his constituency - he's got to feel he's safe there to make the gamble.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I honestly can't think of another example of a resignation like this.

[iainjcoleman.livejournal.com]

The Ulster Unionists did the same thing en masse in protest at the Anglo-Irish Agreement.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Nick Robinson's blog supplies me with this nugget: "George Lansbury, 1912: The Labour MP for Tower Hamlets, Bow and Bromley resigned to fight a by-election on a platform of votes for women. The Labour Party disapproved of his resignation and Lansbury lost the contest to the Conservative candidate by 731 votes."