Well then, three cheers for now former Shadow Home Sec David Davis who has had the bottle to resign his seat and force a by-election on the issue of the 42 Day detention Bill. I caught the BBC’s PM coverage on this and reckon Eddie Mair must have been sneering all the way throughout the coverage. The BBC is stunned that a politician might, just might, do something on principle. Davis’s evocation of Magna Carta seemed to send the BBC into a particular spin this afternoon. Davis will need to be prepared to withstand attacks on his personality in the coming days and you can all be sure which broadcaster will lead the attack. Question Time should be interesting this evening as the “Get Davis” campaign gathers momentum. Brown’s pyrrhic victory, care of the DUP political whores, has been put in the BBC bag of our great leaders’ accomplishments but I trust that this new front opened up by Mr Davis causes Brown and his media courtiers a lot of anguish!
AN EXTENDED SNEER.
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This came up at the end of the last ‘General’ segment, but look at this page for Beeboid Sneerathon at its very, very worst.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7450983.stm
To quote from that article:
“Then, out he came, and made what can only be described as a most bizarre statement justifying his decision.”
I ve jus been watching News24, and waiting breathlessly for the ‘bizarre’ bit, when I realised the statement had ended. It seemed fairly sensible to me.
Mind you, at 5.11 pm, we had (I think) James Langdale commenting on the whole thing. ‘Marvellous news for Labour’ apparently. David Cameron is going to be caught on the hop and ‘Having to support Davis’ during the by-election. Can’t see why that’s a problem.
And, according to James, other parties will be staying away, including, rather oddly, the SNP.
He claims to have seen Labour Ministers shaking their fists in triumph at the whole thing, because the whole affair is such a triumph for them. But he furrowed his brow when explaining that 99% of the ‘BBC audience’ seem to be firmly behind Davis. ‘It seems Westminster are slightly out of tune with the rest of the country.’ Understatement of the year?
Yep: In the general thread I commented on the sneering Emily Maitlis and her joke about Who dares wins.
The BBC will really go for Davis on this. Oh and has ANYONE else noticed who the BBC haven’t interviewed?
Good old Shami Chakrabarti. How come the BBC haven’t had her on every news programme? After all they are never short of a soundbite off her normally are they?
Well let’s be honest. The BBC is in full protect Gordon at all costs mode here. So even though the BBC itself would normally be opposed to the 42 day detention thing, their top priority is to defend McBean.
But it looks as if Labour won’t put a candidate up either, so Davis is going ot be left high and dry. The BBC are already trying to make out Cameron is weak here.
Oh and notice that the BBC keep bigging up the poll that says 60% of people agree with them. What about the polls that show 45% of people would vote Tory tomorrow? Or the Poll that shows Broon is a worse leader than IDS? No mention of those!!!
It looks like our business as usual system is in for at least a little shake up..lets enjoy it while we can.
davis is a former member of the regiment, so, who dares wins is appropriate.
anita anand is very sneering with her snotty stuck up posh accent regarding the matter on 5lite
They had that bald Cnut Robinson gamely trying to hold back the tide on the BBC1 6 O’Clock news.
He even tried to say this is the one policy which Gordon Brown is in tune with the people on. As if that matters.
If the Liberals don’t stand and Labour won’t play ball do they really think the Tory voters will vote UKIP?
Shameful bias.
only me: Yes. But they were taking the piss on BBC News 24. She was sneering that it didn’t sound good when Portillo said it.
George Pascoe Watson (Sun political editor) is on Questiontime tonight. Would normally be sound, but today’s Sun is right behind Brown on 42 days & Watson’s appearances on SkyNews ealier today will have him shoulder to shoulder with the BBC line on Davis.
David Vance
You oft quote from the Daily Mail, the bigots daily.
Funny how you missed this one:
gay-bashing, Pope-hating DUP!
“Hundreds of good British soldiers died saving Northern Irish Unionism over the past three decades. Now its MPs return the compliment by killing Magna Carta.”
Now guys Whaco Dave will tell you he hates the DUP, but that’s only since last year; as he’s even more to the Right, and despises peace.
But the comment on the gay-bashers, anti-papists still he supports.
Know this guy is a racist supremacist, and note the Daily Mail gives two fingers to his ilk.
Unionists .. British? or
Bigoted Monarchy Arse-lickers
You decide.
“If the Liberals don’t stand and Labour won’t play ball do they really think the Tory voters will vote UKIP?”
no, if nobody stands against davis then his ‘point of principle’ will end up looking fairly pitiful which, whilst I wholehearted agree with his views on the issue, is a risk he seems to have failed to appreciate.
“no, if nobody stands against davis then his ‘point of principle’ will end up looking fairly pitiful which, whilst I wholehearted agree with his views on the issue, is a risk he seems to have failed to appreciate.”
True – but what is the procedue for the by-election if no-one else does stand? Is it a walkover?
That link posted by Chuffer shows the BBC reporting at its worst, written in a juvenile, breathless, gossipy style full of colloquialisms and conversational slangy expressions, more suited to some celebrity gossip rag or chatroom than a grown-up news organisation reporting on a political development.
You are not gossiping among yourselves and sniggering in the corner, while having a fag break; you are writing (well, should be) for a wide audience of the public and we are entitled to expect a degree of rigour, discipline and attention to style and language in how you write.
Someone, plese get a couple of decent sub-editors into the news department of the BBC. It is frankly embarrassing and unprofessional, as it currently is.
I think NuLabour will have to put someone up, otherwise the cries of chicken and frit will be heard all over the country, NuLabour and Brown have just been crowing over their 42d victory but an’t summon up the courage to defend their own policy….
Pray tell me why the Beeb have asked the question:
Will Davis resignation help protect ‘British freedoms’?
They could have asked “Is Davis resignation principled or political?” which has a good argument, but NO they chose a question that can’t be answered with a yes – because they are not in government,
Also gotta love the way the Beeb put ‘British freedoms’ in quotes, as if David Davis was the only person ever to say this.
Good on the chap.
And on America, Matt Frei:
“The world peddles in symbols which never convey the complete picture and ride roughshod over nuance.”
Wow, it took them (him?) all these years to figure that one out…
It is quite possible that Davis has found out that Cameron wouldn’t reverse the 42 days detention if he came to power.
As Daivs would have been Home Secretary it would have made him look two faced.
It’s quite possible that rather than resign, Davis has done this to give a way out that doesn’t damage the party and everyone saves face.
Shami C was on PM and I think she may be in love with DD!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/7451178.stm
“David Cameron heckled in Cornwall”
Utter bollocks. To heckle is to “interrupt (a speaker) with critical or abusive shouts and jeers, especially at a public meeting” (Chambers Online)
This guy was actually critical of the Government’s performance and was asking Cameron to help.
Nice of the BBC to spin it as an attack on Cameron though.
Richard Bacon on Radio 5 right now. Slaughtering David Davis. The BBC are lapping this up.
No sign of Shami Chakrabarti I see. She was on ITV though. Normally she’s all over the BBC. Perhaps because she supports Davis?
Cynical of the BBC, moi?
BBCb now fully on attack. Where Blair had Brown, Cameron has Davis. Cheer-leading for Mr Broon like you wouldn’t believe. Nick Robinson in Yes Minister reference mode – it’s a tory disaster, apparently.
It is quite possible that Davis has found out that Cameron wouldn’t reverse the 42 days detention if he came to power.
Martin | 12.06.08 – 9:41 pm |
Dominic Grieve was pretty explicit on PM: the policy to reverse 42 days still applies and was discussed before DD’s interview with Today.
I couldn’t believe Nick Robinson on the 10 o’clock News continuing his theme of how bad it was for the Tories. There’s definitely an argument for that view and I haven’t made up my mind yet which is correct, but the view that it could put Labour in a corner was simply never aired. Cetainly Davis appears to have struck a chord with many of the publc judging by comments I’ve read which is at variance with what we’re told the public view is.
This subject simply doesn’t follow a left/right divide and it will be interesting to see what sort of knots the BBC ties itself in.
Roland,
You make an interesting point. The BBC, and Labour, suggest overwhelming public support for 42 days. But is that a media invention? A by election on the issue is an excellent idea – it’s not right/left, it’s right/wrong.
Sorry but Davis has badly miscalculated over an issue that is as Heseltine put it on Newsnight inexplicable.
Spinning can’t turn it into anything else.
Why resign your seat and stand for a by election over 42 days, why didnt you do it over 28 days?
Don’t give me principle.
What principle destroys Magna Carta over the difference of 14 more days?
It is something the public will not see.
The liberal democrats and labour even the BNP will refuse to stand.
It won’t be a walkover, some minor candidates will stand.
There will be a low turnout, the voters of his constituency won’t appreciate being forced to vote again.
But it will do little but touch the sides for the Tories, no disaster. Just a personal one for Davis.
None of it will save Gordon Doomed Brown.
Only thing is everything was going well for the Conservatives, this needlessly rocks the boat and disrupts a successful team.
David,
Normally I’m quite supportive, but I couldn’t think you are more wrong here.
“Not right/left but right/wrong”.
How can 28 days be ‘right’ and 42 days ‘wrong’?
Is 32 days a bit right?
38 days a bit wrong?
If it was right/wrong then oppose it alltogether.
Of course in reality almost no-one apart from the Liberty and Chakrabarti and some at the BBC would go for that.
Watching This Week the view seems to be that Davis didn’t get on with Cameron and was just using it as an excuse to get out of the shadow cabinet.
Also the BBC may be overegging its biased pudding but it is not alone in questioning Davis’ actions and possible consequences, across the political spectrum they nearly all do.
Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1025992/Tories-turmoil-Cameron-fears-Daviss-protest-42-days-backfire.html
Daily Star
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/latestnews/view/40665/Tories-in-shock-as-Davis-quits/
Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/jun/12/daviddavis.conservatives
Times
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article4124674.ece
Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/conservative/2118657/David-Davis-stuns-Westminster-with-resignation-over-42-day-terror-law.html
Sky
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91211-1318867,00.html
Maybe David Davis knows that time is running out for the political and media class.That 40 years of these people trashing our history ,our culture and our way of life and our attachment to a very English concept of freedom is ending.That an unpredictable and perhaps extreme reaction is coming.If so then he has done a brave thing by trying to refocus the debate in parliamentary terms.The media is way way out of it’s depth and will now flounder.of all the media the BBC is the least well equipped to understand.Davis spoke very clearly and directly in a way many of us instinctively responded to.Nick Robinson and the rest of them must realise that it is about a lot more than 42 days.But what it is about they just will not know until it starts to happen.
The media seems surprised by people who act on principle.
Perhaps, I suspect, because few in the media have any of their own.
The BBC’s coverage is appallingly pro-Brown. How can someone making a stand on an issue they feel strongly about be “bizarre”?
I do feel Davis does not trust Cameron to reverse 42 day or ID cards. Davis is passionate about this and for him it is more important than his political career.
I happen to think that Melanie Phillips is right about ’42 days’, and about Magna Carta:
“Huhh??”
http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/770146/huh.thtml
“The death of Magna Carta has been much exaggerated”
http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/770731/the-death-of-magna-carta-has-been-much-exaggerated.thtml
Apparently neither Davis in his politics, nor the BBC in its reporting, is able to see the loss of free for British people, re-
1.)UK national sovereignty v. European Union;
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1024863/Like-gold-coin-dunghill-truth-EU.html
2.) Labour’s continuing stealth mass immigration’policy’:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1026097/England-squeeze-10million-quarter-century.html
The ‘Sun’ has a lively piece on Davis, Chakrabarti, Lord Carlile and ’42 days’, under headline:
“Who dares whinges”
It includes this speculation about Davis, and the the BBC’s chum:-
“Many Tory MPs believe Mr Davis has become dangerously under the spell of rights campaigner Shami Chakrabarti.”
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1286612.ece
Many believe that The Sun has become far too big for its boots
The MSM can’t cope with someone bypassing them and talking directly to the public
I think people are missing the point about 42 days. It’s just another step.
In a couple of years it will be 90 days, the a couple of years after than 120 days. What limit is acceptable?
We will never go back from 42 days. Also, it’s quite likely that 42 days will be extended for other “crimes” as well.
Can anyone give an example of where a Government has removed a power from itself or the Police?
Scrapping ID cards after the second world war is probably the only case I can think of and that was decades ago.
The MSM can’t cope with someone bypassing them and talking directly to the public
starfish | 13.06.08 – 8:50 am | #
In that case don’t buy The Sun.
Just like I don’t buy the BBC… oops, my bad. I can’t do that.
I have to buy the BBC whether it’s too big for its boots or not.
Can anyone give an example of where a Government has removed a power from itself or the Police?
Martin | 13.06.08 – 1:24 pm
Yep. In the late eighties and early nineties, before the transfer of power to the black majority, the South African government did away with many – like the Group Area Act, the Immorality Act and the Mixed Marriages Act.
Actually, I support 42 days for terrorist suspects.
The problem is that everything is now used to oppress ordinary citizens. We have the closest thing to a police state in the western world. In fact, I am not even saying that we DON’T have a police state.
Everyone I speak to is cheering Davis to the rafters.
Nearly Oxfordian | 13.06.08 – 10:55 pm |
Actually, I support 42 days for terrorist suspects.
The problem is that everything is now used to oppress ordinary citizens. We have the closest thing to a police state in the western world. In fact, I am not even saying that we DON’T have a police state.
Everyone I speak to is cheering Davis to the rafters.
Well, that’s the key here, isn’t it? It’s not that people don’t want to keep terrorists in jail, it’s that we know all too well that whatever powers we give the government to play with always end up being used for mundane domestic affairs, and innocent citizens get the worst of it. Labour sure as hell can’t be trusted on that score.
And I don’t want to hear any noise about Boooosh and Gitmo, because those aren’t US citizens, and they weren’t exactly arrested just for the hell of it while living in the US, and none of the laws or Presidential legal maneuvers (to be polite) regarding them can be or are applied to citizens. (The FBI, Wiretapping, and RICO laws are another story, but that’s nothing to do with Bush or this topic.) I don’t want to start an argument about Bush versus Labour and “they’re shredding our Constitution” or any of that.
I believe that, regardless of our various political opinions, we all agree that it’s never a good idea to give any government too much power to use against its citizens.
NO: Spot on. As I mentioned before I can’t think of where any Government has taken away power from itself.
Anyone who saw the vile way Walter Wolfgang was dragged from the Labour party conference a few years back should be ashamed. It reminded me of those video clips where Saddam had people dragged out of a hall and shot there and then.
The Police will always abuse a power they are given.
Suppose you’re stopped by the Police on a random basis and in the boot of your car are a couple of gas cylinders. Perhaps you give the cops a bit of lip, hey presto they think you might be making a bomb so they bang you up and can take all the time in the world to decide what to do about you.
I just wonder how the judges will see this? And can anyone actually explain how Parliament is going to work this? Are we really supposed to believe that during the summer months when they are all on holiday that they’d all be called back to hear some case read out in the Commons? It’s just nonsense.
We also know that 42 days won’t be the end. 90 days will be back soon.
Personally I’d rather see legislation that scraps the human rights act and allows us to dump the scum back where they came from.
Again when it comes to ID cards, that would never have stopped 7/7, it wouldn’t have stopped the Madrid bombings and wouldn’t have had any effect on 9/11.
Will every foreigner coming here have to have a British ID card? If not that just blows a hole in the whole thing right away.
David Davis is right that it is a gragual errosion of our freedoms and perhaps if the Government had taken a bit more notice of things like “Underover Mosque” rather than pussyfooting around Islam we wouldn’t be in the mess we are now.
None of these proposed changes will make us any safer. China has already been arresting people who it would appear were planning something for the Olympics and they are one of the most controlled Countries in the world.
I also notice the BBC haven’t made much of this plan to install microphone’s on CCTV cameras so we can be listened into.
What an awful nation we are turning into.
Quick memory jogger for information.
When ID cards came before the Commons in 2005 Davis and the Tories were so ‘appalled’ by the ‘principle’ that none of them voted against it, only liberal democrats and some labour rebels did.
Indeed it would have fallen if the Conservatives had opposed it as the vote was 224 – 64.