A British Hero

13 June 2008



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Senior Tory Resigns to Fight 42-Day Terror Law

Regular readers of this journal will know that the British Conservative Party is held in rather low regard here. However, this journal is endorsing the candidacy of arch-Tory David Davis, MP, in the upcoming Haltemprice and Howden by-election. He has resigned from that seat in order to use the resulting by-election campaign to challenge a proposed increase the time a terror suspect can be held without charge to 42 days from 28 days. Mr. Davis said, “I will argue this by-election against the slow strangulation of fundamental British freedoms by this government.” Quite right, what can’t be proved after 28 days probably can’t be proved after 42.

In his resignation speech, the Right Honourable Gentleman (who finished second in the recent leadership race and who is Shadow Home Secretary) said that the 42-day rule, which passed the House of Commons earlier this week, was but one example of the rise of an intrusive proto-police state. He added:

because the generic security arguments relied on will never go away - technology, development and complexity and so on, we'll next see 56 days, 70 days, 90 days. But in truth, 42 days is just one - perhaps the most salient example - of the insidious, surreptitious and relentless erosion of fundamental British freedoms. And we will have shortly, the most intrusive identity card system in the world. A CCTV camera for every 14 citizens, a DNA database bigger than any dictatorship has, with 1000s of innocent children and a million innocent citizens on it. We have witnessed an assault on jury trials - that balwark [British spelling] against bad law and its arbitrary use by the state. Short cuts with our justice system that make our system neither firm not fair. And the creation of a database state opening up our private lives to the prying eyes of official snoopers and exposing our personal data to careless civil servants and criminal hackers. The state has security powers to clamp down on peaceful protest and so-called hate laws that stifle legitimate debate - while those who incite violence get off Scot free. This cannot go on, it must be stopped. And for that reason, I feel that today it’s incumbent on me to take a stand.
The Liberal Democrats’ leader Nick Clegg, MP (who voted with the Tories against the 42-day rule) spoke with Mr. Davis shortly after the resignation speech. As a result, the LibDems have decided not to put up a candidate of their own. This means that, apart from some fringe candidates, the campaign will be a head-to-head fight between Mr. Davis and a Labour candidate who will have to stand in favor of longer detentions and against Magna Carta, which coincidentally turns 783 years old on Sunday.

Here is politics at its best, and a politician acting like a statesman. Mr. Davis concluded his speech saying that his move “may mean I’ve made my last speech to the House – it’s possible. And of course that would be a matter of deep regret to me. But at least my electorate, and the nation as a whole, would have had the opportunity to debate and consider one of the most fundamental issues of our day - the ever-intrusive power of the state into our lives, the loss of privacy, the loss of freedom and the steady attrition undermining the rule of law. And if they do send me back here it will be with a single, simple message: that the monstrosity of a law that we passed yesterday will not stand.” Makes one wish one lived in his constituency – lucky people up in Haltemprice and Howden. Vote Tory!

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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