David Davis 'is to resign as MP'

[muriel_volestrangler]

Shadow home secretary David Davis is set to resign as an MP, the BBC understands.

It is thought he wants to trigger a by-election in his Haltemprice and Howden seat.

Mr Davis has been a passionate opponent of plans to extend the terror detention limit to 42 days.
...
News of his planned resignation came as a complete surprise in Westminster - and speculation is rife about his possible motives.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7450627.stm

BBC radio suggested that Cameron didn't like Davis's pledge to reverse the 42 day rule; - and that the Tories wouldn't be sending resources to the by-election. He's making a statement now:

Says it's not just 42 days - also ID cards, DNA database ... but no indication why a by-election is needed, rather than him being the shadow Home Secretary. :shrug:

[emad]

1. David Cameron's days are now numbered.

This puppet of the Astor family that he's conveniently married into bears a more than physical resemblance to blackshirt leader Oswald Mosely.

Davis has some guts to play this card which if not exactly a blinder still a shrewd move against the Thatcher-sucking elements of the Tory party.

AND from The Sun today:

In a statement Mr Davis called the 42-day detention plan a "monstrosity".

He said he wants to force a by-election for his Haltemprice and Howden seat which he will fight on the issue of the new 42-day terror detention limit.

He said: "I will argue in this by-election against the slow strangulation of fundamental British freedoms by this Government."

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.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1283253.ece

[moggie]

2. It looks like a safe seat for Davis

In the 2005 GE, he got 22,792, the Lib Dems 17,676, and Labour trailed behind with 6,104:

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/hoc/constituency/0,,-991,00.html

Nick Clegg has said the Lib Dems won't field a candidate this time around, so Davis will bury Labour. Could they be looking at a lost deposit?

Maybe Davis hasn't given up his leadership ambitions. He's 59: still time for him if it goes pear shaped for Cameroon.

[truebrit71]

3. Good for him. A shame that a tried and true conservative had to be the one to stand up for civil...

...liberties and not the cowards supposedly on the left...

I predict he will win HUGE (it is after all a 'safe seat' and the Libs won't run a candidate) and this will put him in an amazingly strong position to run against Cameron, seize the party leadership and win the next GE...all because he had the balls to say out loud what many were whispering under their breath....

Gordon Brown is toast..in the next GE...

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. If the official Tory position had been more ambivalent, I could see that

but he's their spokesman on these matters. The only one in the party who voted against him was the awful Widdecombe. I can't see what he thinks he'll achieve. His constituency chairman said on Radio 4 that Davis had talked to him about this earlier in the week - which means, I think, that this pre-dates his pledge on 'Today' to repeal the 42 day law as a matter of urgency when the Tories get in. Unless he's been saying privately for a longer time to Cameron that's what he wants to do, and Cameron was against it, but he said it anyway yesterday morning ...

[truebrit71]

5. I think he will achieve what I outlined in my post...a much stronger position within the party..

...and an invaluable tool if/when he takes over the party leadership because he stuck his neck out when nobody else would against in increasingly unpopular government...

Not only should Gordo be worried, if I were David Cameron I would be shitting myself...

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. I don't understand "he stuck his neck out when nobody else would"

All but one Tory MP voted against the 42 day detention. Cameron attacked Brown about it in PMQs before the debate - http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2008-06-11a.298.7 . The Tory party was with Davis on this. :shrug:

[truebrit71]

14. "he stuck his neck out when nobody else would" ...which other conservative MP's resigned..

...I must have missed that...

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. Resigning because your party supports the same view as yourself

in public, and you're their chief spokesman on it, is a novel move. Even more so when the party most likely to be able to beat you agrees with you too. The only possible way it would make sense is if, behind the scenes, Cameron disagrees with him. But Davis won't say that. So he's not sticking his neck out about that.

[truebrit71]

17. The legislation passed correct? So regardless of whether you were on his "side" or not..

...unless you resigned your post you did not, in fact, stick anything out...least of all your neck...

[muriel_volestrangler]

18. So you expect all opposition politicians to resign from the Commons

each time they lose a vote?

Or just the senior ones? It'd keep the shadow cabinet turning over, I suppose.

His position on detention, ID cards etc. is the right one, for me; but I still can't see what this will achieve. Cameron has now said he won't get his old job back after he wins his by-election.

[truebrit71]

19. What will he acheive? See may other posts about this...

...He felt strongly enough about this abrogation of civil liberties that he resigned in protest. No-one else did...they just shook their collective heads and said "what a shame"...David Davis stood up and said enough was enough...

Good for him.

[muriel_volestrangler]

22. But that's not an achievement

that's a feeling. He'll get re-elected - quite possibly with no opposition from anyone who actually supports 42 day detention. He won't have the job that has the most power in the country to fight the government on these matters any more - and that also means he's unlikely to be the Tory Home Secretary, if they win the next election - from where he would have been able to abolish that law.

[T_i_B]

23. Kelvin Macenzie standing?

:puke:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7452264.stm

[emad]

11. "if I were David Cameron I would be shitting myself"...Bullseye!

The madcap Bullingdon Club dream ticket of Boris Johnson and David Cameron is a nightmare for those who might think of voting Tory one day - perhaps, maybe, just possibly etc, etc.

David Davis is an ex-SAS man, state school background, extremely well connected to both security/intelligence top brass as well as megabux Bigoil sources.

Politically there's not much difference between him and Lord Strathclyde, Tory leader in the Lords, whose own Bigoil connections are quite extraordinary.

Both are vociferous on the sovereignity of Parliament, Magna Carta/Habeus Corpus and the rule of law.

David Cameron may not last much longer.

David Davis winning a landlide by-election on Habeus Corpus issues could be the smartest move he ever made.

[truebrit71]

15. He may very well be doing this out for some of the right reasons..

...but to my thinking, and the points you made, this could very well be the shrewdest move of all...

[non sociopath skin]

20. It has "publicity stunt" written all over it ...

... and my gut feeling still tells me that even if Young Dave hadn't a hand in it, he knew more than he's letting on

The gesture is spurious in the extreme. I lived in the constituency many years ago and it was then, as it is now, one of the safest of Tory seats - in my time it was held by Patrick Wall (those of you who are long in the tooth may remember "Major Wall," as he liked to be known, as a mainstay of the far-right Monday Club and a die-hard apologist for apartheid).

No chance at all of less than a landslide for Davis - as ever - so his bold gesture was entirely without personal risk. Would be interesting to know if Nick Clegg was invited to give the stunt his blessing before it was officially announced that the Lib Dems would be giving Davis a free run, however.

Having said that, I cannot but feel that Brown and NuLab richly deserve being on the receiving end of it.

The Skin

[muriel_volestrangler]

21. Clegg said Davis told him last night, after the vote

and that they both brought up the Lib Dems not putting up a candidate at the same time - and I think Clegg said he didn't promise it, but told Davis his inclination was not to put up one.

[fedsron2us]

24. Maybe but it has been gifted to him

by a Government that claims it is defending 'Freedom and Democracy, by locking up people without charge.
Frankly, I find that IngSoc logic even scarier than Davis. Anyone who is deluded enough to think this legislation is just going to be used against terrorists is in for a nasty surprise.

[non sociopath skin]

25. As is anyone who expects a Tory government to repeal it.

And look "soft on terrorism"? Bless yer 'eart, guv.

The Skin

[fedsron2us]

26. Which Tory Government would that be

The one currently led by Brown or the future one led by Cameron.

Would n't it be better to give Davis the benefit of the doubt as he is at least making some sort of stand on the issue or do you want the Murdoch fascist state party candidate Kelvin Mackenzie to win ?

Frankly, some of the snide comments about Davis I read in the Guardian made me puke. This is the paper that always touts itself as the supporter of freedom but has a habit of caving in when the state sends the 'heavies' round as Sarah Tisdall found to her cost. It is time that the friends of Liberty took a stand.

[non sociopath skin]

27. I can't speak for the Guardian ...

... but I don't feel any inclination to give Davis - a man with whose political philosophy I agree no more than I do with Brown, Bush or Blair's - any more kudos than any of the other MPs who voted against the 42 Days Bill, just because he's decided to pull a publicity stunt on the strength of it.

And it's a bit daft to ask me who I want to win when I think the contest is unnecessary in the first place. And why would I favour the ghastly McKenzie over Davis?

However, if you do decide to take a stand, give my love to Cottingham if you go leafletting for Golden Boy there. Spent three very happy years there in my golden youth.

A final thought. Do you think that your new hero would have been quite so keen to put his head on the block if he'd been sitting for a Tory marginal?

The Skin

[LeftishBrit]

6. Just wow

If someone had told me during the 1997 euphoria that one day our Labour Government would do something so right-wing that *a right-wing Tory* would resign as MP to protest about it....

My head is really exploding at this moment.

ETA: I realize this probably reflects some internal Tory politics and if he wins the by-election he may have a chance of toppling Cameron, and that's probably why he's doing it. But still: wow.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

8. I suspect it's a message to David Cameron

that the 42-day detention law shouldn't be kept by the next Tory government. Despite the Tory grandstanding over civil liberties, I think the Tory right would love to keep New Labour's more authoritarian measures but as long as there's a Tory government in charge.

I'm just watching Jon Snow interviewing a Tory spokesman on Channel 4 now, and the spokesman is being careful in not giving a yes or no answer on repealing 42 days if they come to power.

[moggie]

9. Set Paxo on him! n/t

[tjwmason]

10. The Tories have both authoritarian and libertarian wings

I can well imagine that the almost unanimity of voting (and Anne Widdecombe is an exception to almost any rule) is more connected to bashing Gordon Brown than to any great love of civil liberties - which isn't to detract from those who genuinely hate this measure.

[emad]

12. Nope, new Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve told Snow

that the 42-day detrention terror law would be repealed when the Tories get into office.

Ditto on FiveNews and Sky.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

13. On the Channel 4 interview

he was careful to say "we would repeal the law unless the evidence is there to support its necessity"

This is far from a straight "no", but it allows the Tories political room to keep the law if they so wish.