*thank you*, David Davis

[ramtops]

Speech is here.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if more MPs did this? - then perhaps we could have a proper debate about the destruction of our civil liberties.

I'm not a natural Conservative, but I admire him tremendously for this.

Comments

[wruf.livejournal.com]

Absolutely, people in this country need to realise what a horrible state of affairs we're in.

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

Of course Labour are saying that it's a safe seat and that it's just a publicity stunt ... but then they would say that wouldn't they? :-)

And of course it is an excellent publicity stunt as a by-election gets lots of press and as it's on a point of principle, I'd hope that anyone who stood against him would do so in a particularly (and deliberately) bad way so that he gets an overwhelming vote of support for civil liberties.

Of course elections cost money, even by-elections, and that's money that could have been spent elsewhere, but still, the price of freedom is either eternal vigilance or £50,000 :-) [1]

[1] I went to the Alamo the year of the San Antonio worldcon ... they have an IMAX screen there, showing a historical documentary on The Alamo (unsurprisingly) ... somewhere I think I still have the ticket which says something like "The Alamo - The Price of Liberty - $6.50"

[loveandgarbage.livejournal.com]

The cost of the by-election will roughly equal the cost the government agreed to pay the innocent people detained without charge between 28 and 42 days. There's a nice irony there.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Agree entirely with your last - hope he gets back in, all things considered.

[etriganuk.livejournal.com]

I don't at all. It's entirely gesture politics. He shouldn't be going to the public on this - the public support 42 days. Like they support hanging and so on too. But the public's general apathy will let him return and claim some form of "victory". It's clever, but wrong in fact.

The best thing that Labour can do is not field a candidate against him.