Feeding The Fish

Sitting wherever I was sitting in a far away land looking up the home news, I was a tad disappointed to see the 42 days legislation had managed to slip through, it’s hopelessly unnecessary destruction of certain civil liberties proved once and for alll that Gordon Brown is a strong capable leader and doing a good job. It was a little more of a shock and then seeing the Home Secretary had resigned because of it was downright shocking, I’d never seen anything suggesting Jacqui Smith opposed it or was principled enough to resign over the matter…wait Shadow Home Secretary ? How does that make any sense?

Looking into it a bit more, it seems that yes, David Davis had resigned to fight a by election on the issue. On the surface it’d seem the only way it really works is if Labour stands in opposition which it never seemed likely they would (ignoring the fact the candidate for the area was opposed to 42 days) for several reasons:

1) They didn’t do that well in 2005 and even if they didn’t they’re still amazingly unpopular at the moment.

2) They’ve already won the vote, any attempt to refight it would just give them another chance to lose.

4) The party finances are in such an awful state it’s suggested they flat out couldn’t afford it.

Labour is not going to spend money they don’t have to redo a fight that they’ve already won when the battleground is so inherently hostile to them, that should really have been obvious from the start. I almost wonder if the Lib Dems should have stood a candidate to lure Labour in, but still there’s no guarantee and that’s almost a worse situation. A by election seems a really ineffectual way to go, but on the other hand I can’t think of many other big moves that were available and it has giving oxygen to the issue and kept it in the news, so maybe it’s doing all it needs to.

The next government will be a Conserative government, if Labour is not interested in being champions of civil liberties we are best served if there is a significant faction in the Conservative Party that is.  I don’t for the life of me think Cameron would try (or be able) to rein in elements of his party that made it clear they wouldn’t vote for a reduction from 42 days, so standing with David Davis and ensuring the Conservatives see there is a strong groundwell of support if it gets sent back down from the Lords (also shaming a few more Labour MPs into changing their votes) is still the best chance we’ve got.