David Davis the Lionheart? Maloney!
There are some who say that the past is a different country and they do things differently there; those people aren’t involved in politics. For people who are, there are valuable lessons to be learnt from the history books — not least when deciding whether or not it is advisable to eject one’s Parliamentary toys out of one’s pram.
On 20th November 1997 a by-election was held in Winchester. It was technically a re-run of the General Election that May which the Liberal Democrat candidate Mark Oaten (of later infamy) won by a mere two votes. The deposed Conservative — one Gerry Malone — had contested the result and the voters of the area duly returned to the ballot box. They weren’t the only ones who were returned: the Conservative vote collapsed the second time around leaving Oaten with a majority of 21,556, a swing of 19.72 percent from the Tories to the Liberal Democrats.
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Will New Statesman run a candidate against Davis?
Word reaches me that the New Statesman editors have been looking for a candidate to run against David Davis in the by-election.
You may already be aware that today New Labour announced they wouldn’t stand anyone against Davis. Part of the problem apparently was that the Labour PPC for the area himself was against the 42 days.
Yesterday I was told that New Statesman magazine has been actively looking for someone to stand to the left of David Davis on a platform of even more civil and social liberty.
Its not clear whether they’ve found someone yet. The current edition will go to print today or tomorrow and we’ll know when it hits the news stands.
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How do we respond to David Davis?
David Davis’ resignation has generated a huge amount of debate on how the liberal-left should respond. Conor Foley said we should support him, and was met with stiff resistance by Jennie Rigg and Unity on here. On OurKingdom, Anthony Barnett openly welcomed his move.
In our internal email list too we’ve been having a raging debate, especially since the talk has moved on to discussions of what action we can take.
The dilemma is painfully obvious.
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Casting the Net: Firefox, Vibrators, and the Police
Tomorrow is Download Day. I’ve been using the Firefox3 beta for some time now, and I’m very impressed with it. If you’re using IE and fancy giving it a shot, you may as well do it tomorrow and be part of a world record attempt. Click the button for the link:
Lynne Featherstone talks about the difficulties of relying on the NHS to provide you with independent movement.
Spirit of 1976 has suddenly discovered an urge to try Khat – why? Because the Tories want to ban it.
The Times has a fascinating article on the history of Vibrators, and how the humble Personal Massager reflects the changing attitude of society to women.
Smash Boredom has a convincing argument that Robert Mugabe is right about something.
PC Bloggs has a very affecting tale of police resources spread too thin. I can’t recommend her blog enough.
And finally, Feminist SF reviews the weekend’s episode of Doctor Who in a rather weary manner.
Rush Rush Rush Busy Busy Busy
Am in a bit of a rush this morning as am the the Fantastic Films Weekend in Bradford and overdosing on Peter Cushing. And possibly booze also. With that in mind, today’s Casting the Net might be a bit rough around the edges… All views expressed are the views of the author, not of the site, etc.
Andrew Ducker links to a very interesting article about how people read on the web. Everybody who writes for the web ought to read it, and the comments. Yes, even the contributors to this fine site. I felt the tl;dr reaction coming on me about half way through it, which is a bit ironic, but that’s because this is mostly stuff I have heard before.
Adrian Sanders MP has news that we are subsidising the aviation industry to the tune of £10bn a year. Yes it’s a MySpace Blog. No, I don’t get why his constituents like it either, but apparently they do.
Jonathan Calder has the same point of view as me on the Davis situation. Of course, we’d be screwed if we ran as well, but which way are we MORE screwed? I suspect Lib Dems will be arguing about this for some time.
Norfolk Blogger meanwhile, thinks that if the polls are right, Labour should run. Of course, he is relying on the pre-Davis resignation polls…
Political Betting reports on the predictable Lib Dem poll squeeze (and much smaller Labour poll squeeze) on voter intention for a general election after we stupidly supported David Davis we didn’t field a candidate in a single issue election.
Not the right sort of person
Yesterday, on emerging from the bowels of the Picadilly line as is my wont at half six on a Thursday, I was dismayed to see a wall of armoured police surrounding a pair of electronic weapons-detecting barriers through which the good residents of Wood Green were being made to walk.
So I took it upon myself to engage a couple of members of Her Majesty’s Constabulary in conversation.
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In the interests of balance: Why we shouldn’t support David Davis
What David Davis did today was not unprecedented, but it was something quite rare. However, I would urge caution on rushing headlong to leap into bed with him and give him our support.
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David Davis resigns over 42 days
The shadow home secretary, David Davis, today dramatically and unexpectedly announced that he is to resign as an MP and force a byelection over the government’s 42-day terror detention plan. continue reading… »
What a farce
Well, that was the end of any little enthusiasm and support I could muster up for this New Labour government then. Who’s up for an election so we can see this sorry lot get voted out of power?
Jim D at Shiraz Socialist:
The support of the DUP (plus Anne Widdecombe and some UKIP nonentity) is not that surprising, though even New Labour might be expected to feel just a little embarrassed about relying on their support. But what about the capitulation of those heroic tribunes of the ‘left’, the Jons Cruddas and Trickett – and what will their Compass fan club have to say about it?
Isn’t it time to abandon New Labour?
It’s difficult to say anything new about Gordon Brown’s attempts to extend pre-detention charge to 42 days, though if you want to read two accounts made recently, Anthony Barnett at OurKingdom and Martin O’Neill at New Statesman are a great start.
There are those who see the-Muslim-terrorist-threat-that-may-wipe-out-western-civilisation as so big that locking up British (Muslim) citizens for 90 days without charging them is not far enough. I’m not going to bother repudiating them. I’m not even going to bother answering those apparently on the left who are strenuously defending this stupid piece of legislation that, for once, has the entire left-wing and right-wing press united in opposition. Oh, apart from The Sun and the Daily Express, just so you know.
So why is Gordon Brown still stubbornly going ahead with it?
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Inside the ‘war on terror’
This American Life is a class act at any time, but this recent episode is a must-listen. It is an investigative report into what happened to Richard G. Convertino, the Justice Department lawyer who prosecuted the ‘Detroit Sleeper Cell’ case.
Arrested only days after 9/11, the four men tried in the case were meant to have been planning an attack – two of the men were found guilty by a grand jury, only to have the Justice Department voluntarily asked the judge to throw out the case.
It was supposed to be the first terrorist attack planned from American soil. It was quite unusual behaviour for the department to not only throw out its own case, but then go after its own prosecutor.
The podcast considers whether the decision was taken as part of a vendetta against Richard G Convertino, the prosecutor, who repeatedly ruffled feathers, breaching protocol and failing to get along with his colleagues. But the Justice Department’s attempt to bring criminal charges against Covertino failed and he then he sued them.
All of this is fascinating, but more so are the couple of glimpses of the information at contest in the trial – for example, one piece of evidence was a home video shot at Disneyland. In the podcast, it becomes clear that there’s a section of this video filming a duck pond – the prosecutors argued that some singing translated to an anti-US screed – the defence said it was a song about ducks. (The podcast producers don’t get their own independent translation, sadly enough!)
The case rested heavily on some sketches in a day planner – which could be a map of a US air base in Turkey, or not.
Your Mom Had Groupies
Michelle Schwartz was incensed by some very sexist adverts for Canadian Club Whiskey. She did a parody of the advert from a feminist perspective, and then lots of other people joined in. This link is graphics-heavy, but brilliant. I think I like Your mom was a pilot
best…
Lib Dem Jo has been listening to Hazel Blears on the radio. She’s a braver woman than me. I can’t listen to Blears for more than a few seconds without falling into a frothing rage, but Jo managed it for a whole phone in!
Snuffleupagus, an inner city teacher, talks about her incredulity that one of her colleagues is blithely indifferent to her daughter going to a school in Special Measures.
Stephen Glenn has news for the Northern Irish health minister: the “treatment” that she advocates to “cure” gay people doesn’t work. He knows, because he’s been through it. Three times.
Brad Hicks is a big ball of hope and fear when he listens to Obama speak, and thinks that people calling it a “cult of personality” dismissively are missing the depth of his generation’s feelings on the matter.
Cobalt warns American women not to be seduced by the siren song of McCain, with reams of reasons.
And finally, Charlie Stross has posted a “how to behave” guide for commenters on his blog. It’s good general advice for how to behave on the internet.
My Own Little Bunny Rabbit…
Welcome to Casting the net, Liberal Conspiracy’s daily web review. As always, please feel free to share your own recommendations in the comments.
Brad Hicks and Meral Ece have two contrasting reactions to Hillary’s concession of the Democrat candidacy. Brad is full of righteous anger, Meral was more inspired.
The BBC reports that some MPs have realised that ID Cards could threaten privacy. In other news, the sky is blue, and the pope shits in the woods.
Over at my blog, a reminder of what we are actually talking about with the 42 days detention plan. Especially depressing in the light of the ICM poll that we reported here yesterday.
Jonathan Calder has tactical suggestions for Lib Dems on how to deal with David Cameron – we should hug him, and stroke him, and cuddle him, and sing to him, and call him Dave; PeeZedTee, meanwhile, has advice for Gordon Brown.
Lynne Featherstone, the relentless reformer, wanted to lower the voting age to 16; the Tories had other ideas.
And finally, Neil Gaiman and Philip Pullman are both getting involved with a campaign to say no to age banding on children’s books.
Victim of attack should ’seek help for being gay’
I despair sometimes, why can’t god bothers stop worrying about what others do in bed. Pink News reports:
The wife of the First Minister of Northern Ireland has caused controversy with her born-again Christian outlook on life. Iris Robinson is MP for Strangford and chairs the Northern Ireland Assembly’s health committee.
Reacting to news that a man was viciously attacked because he is gay, she suggested that he should consider therapy to “cure” him of his homosexuality. Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster today she condemned the attack on Stephen Smith but added: “I have a very lovely psychiatrist who works with me in my offices and his Christian background is that he tries to help homosexuals trying to turn away from what they are engaged in. And I have met people who have turned around to become heterosexual.”
This pisses me off in so many ways.
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Where are these Muslim no-go areas?
The story that two Christian evangelicals were stopped from preaching in Birmingham has had tons of bloggers literally creaming their pants. So much so that my article yesterday on CIF attracted about ten comments just posting it so they could derail the thread, or erm, say I must be pleased by it. What?
Melanie Phillips predictably called the story Britain’s slide into dhimmocracy. I’m assuming she didn’t use ‘dhimmitude’ because there were already 47372 posts titled that.
I know this is hard for the bloggers creaming their pants, but let’s work through the logic here.
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In a free state, tongues too should be free
The Declaration of Human Rights (article 19) states that “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” Which looks like a reasonable starting point to me.
Except we’ve never held to this idea in its purest form. It’s generally accepted that it should be an offence to slander someone, to incite illegal acts, to distribute child pornography – most of us don’t believe people should be able to say anything they please regardless of the consequences.
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Seasteading, libertarians and internet millionaires
Rich American Libertarians are planning to live on huge metal platforms out on the ocean. Which is good news. Now if only all of our problems could be got rid of so easily.
Executives from Google and Paypal are financing the creation of new independent ’seastead’ states which will be anchored out in international waters. Once built, anti-social millionaires fed up with those tiresome duties of having to obey laws and pay tax, can sink their millions into the project and rust their days out on the high seas.
Of course founders Patri Friedman and Wayne Gramlich don’t quite put it like that. In their manifesto: Seasteading: A Practical Guide to Homesteading the High Seas they write of new sustainable communities that will serve as models of ‘open source’ government.
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42 days is dead
I have a strong feeling that the government’s plans to extend pre-charge detention to 42 days, which we’ve been running a campaign against, is dead in the water.
There are two reasons for my optimism.
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The journey from Guantánamo
Last weekend, Clive Stafford Smith, the Director of the legal action charity Reprieve, travelled to Sudan to meet the recently released al-Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Haj. He had been represented by Reprieve since 2005 and was now a free man. This is an edited version of Clive’s report, which includes a passage specifically refuting Pentagon claims that Mr al-Haj, who had been on a hunger strike for 16 months prior to his release, and was taken to a hospital on his arrival in Sudan, “seemed like a healthy individual” as he departed from Guantánamo.
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What is the case against government interference?
What has the Liberal Left got to say about obesity? Or parenting? Or green taxes? Or organ donarship? In short, where does it draw the line between public and private issues – and what kind of government intervention, if any, should it support?
We are increasingly aware of the public consequences of private decisions – but where do we draw the line? These are the questions posed by The Politics of Public Behaviour, published by Demos today.
The liberal case against intervention from government in these issues is easy to make.
Libertarians argue that it instrumentalises citizens, reducing politics to the achievement of goals established not by people themselves, but by a small governing elite who believe they know best.
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» Why don’t MPs pay back tuition fees instead of increasing ours?
» Obama is right to slam BP – and why capitalists should too
» Why does Phillip Blond see civil cohesion as a security issue?
» So what if the Labour candidates went to Oxbridge?
» Last night’s Labour hustings: will it get interesting or turn to torture?
» It’s now down to Ken to win London for Labour
» The Labour people need
» Blog Nation: what would you like to see discussed?
» The Labour leadership’s token contender.. and it’s not Diane Abbott
» In defence of these fraternal nominations
» Is this the end for the socialist left?
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