Principle and 42 days (2)

Most observers are surprised at David Davis’ decision to fight a by-election on the 42 days issue and some are condemning. ‘David Davis's behaviour is a pure piece of political theatre’ (Actor David Blunkett); ‘David Davis sounded slightly unhinged.’ (David Hill, former Labour Communications chief) ‘This forced by-election is a farce’ (Hazel Blears)

I opposed David Davis as leader of the Conservative Party (not that my opinion, having resigned from it in 1990, counts for anything) partly because his verbal delivery was so poor that people would not connect with him. I turned on the radio shortly after the beginning of his speech, to the staccato, disjointed mumbling and said ‘that sounds like David Davis, but no, it can’t be him resigning...’

Davis mentioned other attacks on our freedoms: ‘42 days, ID cards, more CCTV cameras and the DNA database. This cannot go on. It must be stopped and for that reason I feel it incumbent on me to make a stand.’

Poor communicator he may be but this looks to me not like a piece of theatre but the principled stand of a decent man. For me to vote for Cameron in the next election I would need to be satisifed that he had thrown Conservative resources behind Davis’ re-election. Anything less would be a disgrace.

I salute Mr Davis. His stand contrasts with that of Labour MPs who disagreed with six week detention of citizens without even a charge against them but nevertheless voted for it, just to save their jobs. At a time when we are desperately short of politicians with any principle at all, this is very, very welcome