David Davis - Political Stunt-man or Hero to the Cause of Civil Liberties?

Well he made his way to the Treasury and resigned as an MP, but unlike the last high profile resignation (Tony Blair) he fully intends to continue as a career politician at least. I'm talking about Conservative (former) MP, David Davis and his bizarre method of making a stand against the Government's newly won legislation which allows authorities to detain suspects up to 42 days without charge.

I am a huge believer in freedom and particularly civil liberties and in general the need to hold someone without charge for 42 days I believe is a massive erosion in civil liberty. But when used in the context of terrorism and its prevention, I think it requires more flexibility. I do ask the question, what can be found out in an extra few days that cannot be found out in existing detention time but I understand the potential need. I also think that we need to allow more forms of evidence to be used such as phone-tapping and in some ways would this negate the need to hold someone that long?

Political Stunt

But you cannot help feeling this is just a self-seeking political stunt by Davis designed to embarrass the Government and bloody Gordon Brown's nose. As I write, Labour have confirmed they will put no candidate against Davis in the by-election. So he will be just running against a few other candidates as the Liberals have also withdrawn.

It is also a weird system that allows an MP to resign and then fight the by-election again. It's an expensive and wasteful use of energy, time and money. Initially I thought he had voted with his true conscience and actually stepped away from politics in disgust, instead it seems to be just some puerile gesture to gain publicity and wound the Government.

Is the Cause the right one?

In reality, there are a lot of issues worth debating with this Government in a by-election. On a day when 4 British soldiers died in service in Afghanistan, bringing the toll in the last week alone to major levels, should we not be asking why are we risking the lives of our young, brave professionals in an increasingly bloody and futile war? The aim was originally to find and capture Osama bin Ladin but it appears that was never an agenda item. And to Iraq as well, a far more questionable war indeed. So when Davis considered that the detention of terrorists was worth staking his political career on, did he not think that the public may be equally concerned about civil liberties as terrorism? It is arguably a balance betwen freedom and security when used properly.

In my opinion, I think this is not where the fight against the Government should be. I think this is personal grandstanding and headlining designed to increase Davis' own popularity and try to further his career. My opinion of him, such as it was before, has gone down appreciably.