Friday, June 13, 2008



David Davis

Well, that was unexpected. In the wake of yesterday's Commons vote in favour of 42-days detention, UK Shadow Home Secretary David Davis has resigned from Parliament, with the aim of fighting a by-election on the issue. Labour has already announced they won't be running a candidate, as have the LibDems (for entirely different reasons), but as gesture-politics goes, it's pretty significant.

Meanwhile New Labour seems intent on treating detention without charge as a matter of political virility. "We're willing to lock people up without evidence or trial for longer than you, therefore you must be 'soft' and unmanly". Can't these people just get some Viagra and stop taking out their sexual hangups on innocent people through the judicial system?

(The same comment can be applied to Phil Goff, Simon Power, and the rest of those apes competing to be "tough on crime" in New Zealand).