In Praise Of David Davis
Today was a very surreal day in politics. There are few times in politics when someone can be genuinely surprised by an announcement, but today was one of those days. No-one anticipated the announcement that David Davis would step down from his position as Shadow Home Secretary and fight a by-election on the issue of 42-day detention without charge.
There is no doubt that the decision David Davis has taken is not one supported by the Conservative Party. Nor is it one that is likely to be particularly popular in the country, or even David Davis's constituency. However, that is not the point. The point is that since the events of 9/11 and 7/7, the horror of terrorism has been manipulated as a way of garnering support to infringe upon the civil liberties of people in Britain. This is not on, and something must be done to stop it. It is quite clear that our government has no interest in defending the civil liberties of ordinary people, regardless of the strength of evidence about the effectiveness of detaining suspected terrorists without charge for 6 weeks.
David Davis was right to point out that we must not count on the House of Lords to reject these proposals. Whilst it is more than likely that the House of Lords will reject this legislation, it is equally true that the government may try to force this legislation through using the Parliament Act - and this government has invoked the Parliament Act before, so such a scenario cannot be discounted.
It must also be remembered, during this affair, that the groundswell of support is on the government's side on this argument. A majority of people expressing an opinion on 42-day detention are in favour of such a move. However, this is no justification for pursuing such a policy. Of course no-one wants to be 'soft' on terrorism, but that doesn't mean getting hot-headed and pursuing any old policy. We live in a country that takes pride in believing that, unless proven otherwise, people are innocent. We do not incarcerate people on the off-chance that they *might* be dangerous. We find evidence first. If we can't find the evidence, we can't lock people up. Habeus corpus.
This situation leaves the Labour Party in a difficult position. The Liberal Democrats appear not to be running; the same goes for the BNP and UKIP. If Labour do not run a candidate, then, as Newsnight pointed out, this could turn into David Davis against the Monster Raving Loony Party. Appealing though that is, it would be a travesty. It would also be unforgivable.
The Labour Party must run a candidate. They must take this by-election seriously. If they fail to do so, they will, quite rightly, be portrayed as running scared. They will be portrayed as a party that is not prepared to defend their own policy. The truth is, they're not. Not on this. The more scrutiny this comes under, the more this ship will wobble. David Davis is a good political hunter. His time as Shadow Home Secretary has shown this very well, dispatching three Home Secretarys in his time. He is also very good at pursuing things by himself, and he'll need to be here.
This by-election can do little harm to the Conservative Party. It can do little harm to David Davis - past his own resignation from the Shadow Cabinet. But maybe, just maybe, it can make us have a serious debate about civil liberties and terrorism. There's plenty I disagree with David Davis about, but on this, he's bang on. And if he can secure a lot of coverage over this, he might be able to send Labour's poll ratings further down, and, depending upon Labour's response, he may just get a few free jabs. In the political boxing ring, the government's been knocked down a few times. It's hanging on in there, wobbling violently. At this stage, any blow could be the knock-out blow. 42 days will not, in itself, provide the punch that's required, but if during this by-election, the debate opens to the wider issues of civil liberties, it could be a free-for-all.
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