Davis' first interview after resignation

alexhilton Thu Jun 19, 2008 at 12:40:36 AM GMT Print-friendly version Facebook




Tory maverick David Davis spoke to Labourhome after resigning from parliament this morning.

tags: (all tags)

Display: Sort:
Davis' first interview after resignation | 9 comments (9 topical)

Re: Davis' first interview after resignation (#1)

by gibbajibba on Thu Jun 19, 2008 at 02:51:57 AM GMT

The man thinks that defeating a Labour candidate in a Tory seat would reflect public opinion? I'll let you in on a little secret Dave, you would win it because the numbers are in your favour, it's like me challenge someone on a pushbike to a race, as long as I could drive my car - and the good journalists of our country wonder why he has had his nose broken four times? Jesus Dave, that tell me nothing apart from the fact you annoy people and can't duck very quickly.


Re: Davis' first interview after resignation (#2)

by TonyH on Thu Jun 19, 2008 at 10:00:57 AM GMT

Right, a couple of observations.

Firstly, his position on the 42 day detention without charge limit is sound and I fully agree with him but have serious reservations about his actions.

He seems to be rewriting the rules about elections in that he wants the vote to be on wholly and exclusively on the narrow issue of the 42 day limit. If so, surely he can’t stand on the entire Conservative platform?

What’s more, since he wishes to be opposed wholly and exclusively on the issue, then his opponent can’t stand on the entire Labour platform either.

The other reservation is the issue about gays. I have no doubt that Davis is a decent man and cares very much about Iain Dale and was very happy for him personally etc etc

By Davis’s own admission, he is a legislator, not just for people he knows and loves but for the country which includes gays he doesn’t know. He can’t walk away from that record by his personal affection for his friend. He undermined the freedom of the gay people in this country with support for Section 28 (And if he didn’t believe in it and only voted the Party line – we go back to the issue about standing on a Conservative platform).

I’m reminded of my own prejudice of the right-wing in which anti-gay sentiment is soon forgotten once a friend or family member turns out to be gay – a la Dick Cheney. Or religious reservations about stem cell research is forgotten once a family member is sick – a la Nancy Reagan.

Incidentally, I DID read that piece on Iain’s blog and a load of people take him to ask on the hypocrisy of his position on freedom.

Secondly, a mandatory sentence for misuse of CCTV would be a brilliant idea if it could be implemented. While we’re at it, we could dump all the authoritarian baggage nonsense with fines and reprimands for local councils who misuse of the powers they’ve been given.

How much better would the political conversation become if we were to remove all this nonsense about bin men taking a bone headed view about one teabag in the wrong bin? Or if there were none of these distractions about Christmas lights and St George flags offending foreigners?

I support Davis in the sense that he’s correct in this particular position. This election is a stunt and we should not bend over to take the kick from him – especially not since he’s carrying the Conservative platform with him.


Re: Davis' first interview after resignation (#3)

by NorthernMonkey on Thu Jun 19, 2008 at 02:30:34 PM GMT

To sum up why this whole thing is a farce:

  • Davis is resigning and standing in his own safe seat which he has won for past 5 general elections - this seat is not in any way reflective of UK general opinion
  • He already did a deal with his main rivals, the LibDems, beforehand to ensure he eliminated the main competition
  • Labour only got 13% of the vote last time round, yet he's trying to pitch this as though if he wins it would be a catastrophic defeat for Labour
  • There is no sound reason for this by-election given no-one has died and no-one is resigning without re-standing - but it will be wasting over £80,000 of taxpayers money to massage his own ego
  • Davis is certainly not a civil liberties campaigner - he wants to bring back capital punishment and is fiercely against gay rights (he voted against the repeal of Section 28, against civil partnerships, against gay adoption, against an equal age of consent and against allowing gays to serve in the military).
Yet despite all of this, Davis expects us all to dance to his tune. The Labour party does not exist to be at the beck and call of David Davis. Neither does it exist to provide cannon fodder for his own personal ego-inflating battles.

Let him battle it out with Miss Yorkshire and the Monster Raving Loonies - and anything less than 90% of the vote for him will be deeply embarrassing. It's probably best to ignore him from now on - we don't want to provide this stunt with the oxygen of publicity.


Re: Davis' first interview after resignation (#4)

by AngryVoter on Thu Jun 19, 2008 at 04:18:20 PM GMT

And then watch as they spin it after he secures his seat again as Labour now being outright afraid of elections after Crewe and Nantwich, they they don't really support 42 days, that they have no ideas to campaign on, that Labour has nothing but contempt for democracy.

 Seriously, Labour should have stood a candidate and taken it on the chin. The Bubble will see it as a stunt and know that Davis would be coming back soon enough.

 The public however, will see it very differently.


Re: Davis' first interview after resignation (#5)

by jkitleft on Thu Jun 19, 2008 at 04:44:04 PM GMT

I sent David Davis a message on Facebook:

Mr. Davis

I felt greatly inspired by your resignation speech after the 42 day detention limit was sanctioned by the House of Commons. I am a hard-core Labour supporter but believe in our most basic freedoms, and was against this extention.

But I have several questions:

1) Why did you (rightly) choose to oppose the 90 day limit proposal from the government in 2005, but then support the 28 day limit?

2) The leader of the opposition was once an adviser to the former Home Secretary, Michael Howard. He oversaw a huge increase in CCTV cameras.

The manifesto which you were elected upon in 1997, had this to say:

"Closed circuit television has proved enormously successful in increasing public safety.

We will fulfil the Prime Minister's pledge to support the installation of 10,000 CCTV cameras in town centres and public places in the 3 years to 1999. We will provide £75 million over the lifetime of the next parliament to continue extending CCTV to town centres, villages and housing estates up and down the country that want to bid for support."

"Our national DNA database - the first in the world - now has over 112,000 samples on it. 3,300 matches have so far been made between suspects and crime stains."

Why did you not raise objections with the Home Secretary, Michael Howard, or ask any questions about these issues?

3) Michael Howard said of ID Cards, "The Party will give its support in principle at this stage", when they were being voted upon in 2005. Conservatives did not vote against the bill, and you chose to abstain. Why did you not vote against?


I am still waiting for a reply.


Re: Davis' first interview after resignation (#6)

by bishophill on Thu Jun 19, 2008 at 04:52:34 PM GMT

Alex

I was intrigued by your statement that the Conservatives statism is just a different kind of statism to Labour's. This is absolutely correct IMHO. 

Do you think statism is a good thing, or do you think that it's a weakness in Labour's platform which you are willing to tolerate?


Re: Davis' first interview after resignation (#7)

by alexhilton on Thu Jun 19, 2008 at 05:34:32 PM GMT

The state should be a tool that should only be used when it is to the benefit of the people.

I would say the same about free markets.


[ Parent ]

Re: Davis' first interview after resignation (#8)

by Diversity on Fri Jun 20, 2008 at 05:35:26 PM GMT

Davis is making all the right moves so far from his point of view. A first interview with the people who are most sure to disagree with him, and conducted forthrightly and reasonably, is hard to fault.

It is less than three weeks to go. but explaining to other people why there is no Labour candidate is going to be hard to do and hard to duck. 


Re: Davis' first interview after resignation (#9)

by Free Radical on Sun Jun 22, 2008 at 02:08:56 PM GMT

Davis position is important, even though he is a right-wing Tory with illiberal views on some social issues.

Labour, my party, could have:

1. Fielded a candidate with pro-Brown Authoritarian views, a supporter of the 42 days legislation, in which case I think we would have deserved to lose, unfortunately - so strongly do I feel about 42 days and civil liberties

2. Fielded a candidate who opposed the 42 days legislation, reminding the public that not everyone in the Party is against civil liberties - in which case we would not have deserved to lose. In this constituency we would in all likelihood have lost, but, remember, we are basically mandated to contest all parliamentary elections under our constitution - we are fighting Henley are we not?

3. Not fielded a candidate - in defiance of our constitution - opening us up to the charge of not having confidence in our policies and fearing humiliation by David Davis. Not a good course for the party in my opinion. Not a good course for civil liberties either as this is such an important debate, and our leadership's strategy is simply to deprive Davis of publicity and marginalise all debate on this.

Howver, this latter strategy has the perverse benefit that, since Labour is not fielding a candidate, Bob Marshall Andrews and other libertarian comrades, can presumably not be disciplined for supporting Davis since they are not damaging a Labour campaign!


[ Parent ]

Davis' first interview after resignation | 9 comments (9 topical)