July 11, 2008
Has Davis really won the argument?
David Davis believes public opinion has swung behind him. Maybe, maybe not. Certainly, one opinion poll suggests he now has public sympathy over what he sees as an erosion of human rights. Davis told me on Wednesday that another poll - which has been withheld - gives a similar picture.
But what does the by-election prove?
Perhaps nothing.
1] Haltemprice is only one of 646 constituencies in the UK.
Imagine a different subject: fox-hunting. A by-election on this single issue would give you a totally different reaction if you were in a] Exmoor or b] Islington. It would not be a proxy for a national referendum. Neither was this poll of little over 20,000 folk.
2] No one else was up in Hull giving the counter-argument with both barrels. The government chose instead to pretend to ignore this surreal event.
3] Two-thirds of voters in the constituency didn’t vote. We still don’t know what they think.
4] We still don’t know if those who DID vote did so because they disagreed with the terror bill. Many of them - I was up there on Wednesday chatting to the locals - simply like Davis because they believe he is a good chap.
5] In fact, I spoke to several who said they would vote for him DESPITE his views on 42 days.
Perhaps it proves that neither the government nor the Liberal Democrat party is willing to face that electorate on a platform comprising “we want to lock people up without trial”
Posted by: John | July 11th, 2008 at 8:41 pm | Report this commentThe candidate who came second was even more opposed than David Davis - she opposed the 28-day limit. The three candidates who supported the government’s proposals for permitting detention for 42-days without being charged gained 835 votes between them less than one-twentieth of the vote for Mr Davis and Ms Oakes.
We obviously don’t know what the other two-thirds think but there is NO, repeat NO, reason to suppose that they are enthusiastic supporters of detaining people for 42 days without charging them of any offence as they had three candidates to choose from and any Labour supporters who felt strongly on that issue would have voted for Miss Saward.
Winning election would probably require more efforts and no corners left unseen. Younger generation is internet savy. If one wants to get his message across, he would need to put more efforts in to getting in thouch with the next genereation of voters. For instance, I don’t know where were the Tory PR guys when the new .me Internet domains launched few days ago? I hope DavidCameron.Me was bought by one of the Tory members. These things may be percieved of less importance now but will definitely prove to be vital for a futuristic way of getting your message across a wider Internet community where one blog is never enough.
Posted by: Trevor | July 19th, 2008 at 5:30 pm | Report this comment