Turnout in Haltemprice and Howden was a measly 34 per cent, less than half of what it was at the general election.

No doubt DD’s apologists will claim that this is all the Labour Party’s fault for not standing a candidate (shame on us for not jumping when DD clicks his fingers!). But no amount of spin or argument can disguise the fact that the Haltemprice and Howden by-election has been a colossal waste of time, effort and money.

More importantly, it has had not the slightest impact on public support for (or opposition to) the policy of 42 days detention.

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I wrote a letter to DD and his team on the freedom website he launched. I didn't totally expect a reply but given the hu-ha he made about speaking to people I expected some reply fobbing me off. As it is I got nothing, so I decided to post the letter here.

So David Davis stands on a platform opposing ID cards, despite only abstaining when Michael Howard ordered his MP's to vote for the legislation.

He opposes the DNA databases and CCTV cameras that his dear leader came up with, as an adviser to Michael Howard.

But his real scandals aren't just supporting capital punishment and Section 28. The real civil liberty scandals are much, much worse.

Why do the Tories say not a word on the government attacking legal aid? Because the government has created 3,000 criminal offences, the legal aid budget soared. So they are attacking it. Of course, the Tories probably want to cut it, but not for the same reasons.

Or, what about the fact that in the last 30 years, around 1,000 black men have died in police custody? When the MacPherson report recommended measures to prevent racism in the police forces, the Tories denounced it as "political correctness". These are small measures, like logging the ethnicity of those they stop in the streets, to stop police harassing black men. That is the kind of 'paperwork' the Tories want to rid us of.

Howard was challenged by Doreen Lawrence about his opposition to these reforms at the last election. He stuttered "I didn't know I was going to be asked about this".

And the piece de resistance. Last year, a cause of mine was brought to the forefront of the attention of those here in Britain. It was that of the Burmese opposition. The crime of Aung Sun Suu Kyi is to have won an election.

At the last election, David Davis admitted, and yet kept a policy to be elected on, that is the greatest butchering of civil liberties. Jeremy Vine asked him, whether if the Tories proposed to withdraw from the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees, would mean turning away Aung Sun Suu Kyi if she turned up on our boarders seeking asylum.

He was forced to admit that yes, it would mean turning her away.

The so called leading libertarian in this country, so concerned about civil liberties admitted that he would turn away one of the world's leading fighters against tyranny.

Wow.

Start giggling now. There are 25 independent and wacky candidates who have decided it is a good use of their money to stand against Davis in Haltemprice and Howden.

74% support CCTV, 51% think police should be able to build up the DNA database so that eventually they hold DNA on every citizen and 61% support detention of 42 days

The beeb is asking people who are planning to stand against David Davis to notify them via their website.

Labour MP, Bob Marshall-Andrews, is an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society and a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association, but despite this, I like his maverick style. He has some honour and sense of fairness: traits not normally associated with many of his colleagues of late.

On his official website at epolitix.com, we are reminded of the unceremonious ejection of Walter Wolfgang from the 2005 Labour Conference with an article entitled, "Our PM Is Nothing But A Bully - Just Ask Old Walter."

The frail 82-year old Mr Wolfgang, who has devoted his life to the Labour Party, had the audacity to propose that Jack Straw was being less than honest about Iraq.

Mr Marshall-Andrews writes: 'For this offence Mr Wolfgang is seized by a massive, apparently anonymous "steward", physically manhandled from his own conference and detained by police as a suspected terrorist. A nearby delegate, attempting to intervene, is himself assaulted by another massive example of New Labour's finest. Hours later, Blair delivers an apology wholly typical of the man. "I'm sorry," he says, "but I wasn't there."'

Hat-tip to Political Hack for flagging this

David Davis and the Conservative blogosphere have made much of how they hate CCTV and the DNA database - conveniently forgetting that these things were introduced by the last Conservative government.

We should not stand a candidate against David Davis as doing so will not be to the benefit of the party nor the electorate.

According to a pole by ICM for the Mail on Sunday the Sun's ex-editor Kelvin MacKenzie would attract only 14% of the vote in Haltemprice & Howden compared with 67% for David Davis. Apparenty MacKenzie is having second thoughts about standing. Wot a shocker!!

Labour should not stand a candidate against David Davis in the Haltemprice and Howden by-election to show the stunt up for what it really is - a waste of the electorate's time, and taxpayers' money.

My old class mate (college class, that is, not social class) George Pascoe-Watson, the Sun's political editor, just said something on Sky that's taken me by surprise. Referring to Dave's commitment to campaign for David Davis in the forthcoming self-inflicted by-election, George said this might mean that the Tories "might not stand a candidate against him". What on earth does that mean? That DD has resigned as a member of the Conservative Party? That he won't be the Tories' official candidate?

Davis's own claim that this by-election will give his electorate an opportunity to pass judgment is perhaps true, but what happens if and when he arrives back at the Commons with his new mandate? That the 70,000 voters in Haltemprice and Howden should have a veto over policy agreed by the House of Commons, a policy supported by an overwhelming majority of citizens (including, presumably, a similar proportion of Haltemprice and Howden's voters)?

The rather magnificent Denis MacShane is on Sky at the moment, being gloriously patronising about DD's "little by-election". At least half of the Labour MPs I met in the tearoom in the past hour have told me they think Labour shouldn't stand a candidate. Not sure yet; we should probably let the dust settle before that decision is taken.

I had lunch a few weeks ago with a good friend of DD's who said DD had given up any hope of leading his party. If rumours about an irreconcilable split between Dave and DD are true, could this be DD's last throw of the dice, a chance to attract some attention after years in Dave's shadow? He says he wants to take a stand against government infringements on civil liberties. Does that mean he feels that no-one else in his party (aka Dave) is willing to do so?

What is fascinating about Dave's most recent pronouncement in this is his statement that "I wish him well" in his by-election campaign. He sounded like a disinterested commentator, not the leader of the Opposition and the Conservative Party.

Visit Tom's blog (but only if you've nothing better to do). 

Haltemprice & Howden MP and Shadow Home Secretary David Davis has resigned from parliament triggering a by-election.

It seems that Davis was committed to repealing 42-day detention as a manifesto pledge, yet was over-ruled by David Cameron. Other members of the Shadow Cabinet were believed to be briefing against Davis this morning over the issue.

From the BBC:
He is to force a by-election in his Haltemprice and Howden constituency which he will fight on the issue of the new 42-day terror detention limit. Mr Davis told reporters outside the House of Commons he believed his move was a "noble endeavour" to stop the erosion of British civil liberties. The 59-year-old is one of the best known Tory MPs and his resignation came as a complete surprise in Westminster. He told reporters outside the Commons: "I will argue in this by-election against the slow strangulation of fundamental British freedoms by this government." Conservative sources have told BBC Political Editor Nick Robinson Mr Davis told Mr Cameron of his decision on Wednesday evening. His by-election campaign would be "personal" and not backed by the full resources of Conservative HQ, the source added. It is also thought Mr Davis has spoken to Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, who also voted against 42 days, to secure an agreement that his party will not field a candidate in the by-election.

Reid has drastic solutions to a drastic problem, but is he right?