+++ David Davis Finally Gets His Debate +++

Sky is tentatively reporting that Boulton will host a debate between David Davis and Tony McNulty at 1100 this Sunday (tomorrow). Surprising since it was reported that Downing Street had decreed that Davis was not to be debated against, all the more to marginalise him.

Tony McNulty went to the same school as Guido. He learnt logic from a fearsome maths master in the Jesuit tradition (though our old school was Salvatorian not Jesuit). Davis is not renowned for his oratorical ability, McNulty has a bit of a steam-roller style of debate. So even if McNulty has the fundamentally more difficult case to argue, he won't be easily bested by Basher....

The Most Unlikely Civil Liberties Defender of All!

These David Davis supporters are brilliant, guitar strumming punks for liberty. The band - Billy Ruffian - are very good. Wack up the volume:

Courtesy of www.billyruffian.co.uk

Fantastic lyrics:

I think that maybe I've been taking pills,
'cos David Davis is acting like John Stuart Mills,
And in taking on Brown, Dacre and Murdoch,
The establishment are in a difficult spot.

"I'm making out my political will,
By opposing the anti-terrorism bill,
But the government wish to rid us of Habeas Corpus,
So if you believe in freedom you'll have to support us."

The most unlikely civil liberties defender of all
What about Magna Carta? Did she die in vain?

The full lyrics lay into all the liberty stealers...

DD 2.0, Now With Added Diversity

The hastily cobbled together DavidDavisforFreedom site has been revamped over the weekend. Guido is told that Basher will be blogging daily his thoughts. The whole panoply of Facebook links and Twitter feeds are going into place as well.

The thing that struck Guido most though was the addition of diverse faces - the original site was hideously white - this version is multi-cultural. Election day is July 10, turnout is expected to be low. Basher needs to increase his proportion of the vote to justify his campaign - if he reduces his absolute share of the vote he will have humiliated himself.

On the ground the campaign seems a little chaotic, word is that he wants to emphasise advancing a national debate. The trouble is finding someone willing to debate with him...

More Haltemprice Innuendo

Is there no end to the innuendo laden demeaning of politics? David Davis is calling on Gordon Brown to "come out": "Mr Brown likes to talk about Britishness - fundamental to Britishness is being free. He should come out and argue the case." Something the co-conspirators have wanted Gordon to do for a long time.

A Love That Dares to Send Writ Threats

The mini-furore over Andy Burnham's amusing innuendo-rich suggestion of some kind of seduction of Basher Davis after “late-night, hand-wringing, heart-melting phone calls with” Shami Chakrabarti is not something of which Guido would approve. Guido is responsible for Westminster innuendo and Burnham should stay off his turf.

Shami is not happy either, here is her letter to Andy:

I am writing in relation to your recent article in the ironically titled "Progress" magazine. In that article you set out to smear my dealings with the former Shadow Home Secretary. I must say that I find this behaviour curious, coming as it does from a Cabinet Minister; let alone someone with a partner and family of his own.

By your comments you debase not only a great office of State but the vital debate about fundamental rights and freedoms in this country. Indeed you seem reluctant to engage in that debate except in this tawdry fashion.

I look forward to your written apology as I’m sure does Mrs Davis. If on the other hand you choose to continue down the path of innuendo and attempted character assassination, you will find that the privileged legal protection of the parliament chamber does not extend to slurs made in the wider public domain. The fruits of any legal action will of course go to Liberty(the National Council for Civil Liberties).

Shami is getting a bit up herself here, Guido is something of an expert in this area and can see that she does not have a leg to stand on. Any reasonable person can see Burnham was clearly teasing, not really suggesting they were having an actual affair. Shami should hit back with an attack on Andy's mascara looks. Any way, good to see that the Guidoisation of politics has reached cabinet level...

UPDATE : Burnham's office has released a statement "An interpretation has been placed on Andy’s remarks that he did not intend. His comments related to politics and nothing else. He regrets if any personal offence has been caused."

Via : Brogan

Egotistical, Moi?

His DavidDavisforFreedom.com campaign site has come in for some criticism for being "too white", and his blog is without a facility for comments. That's nothing, he is having an election without opponents.

UPDATE : Fraser Nelson has an article in tomorrow's Spectator which basically says Basher Davis was bored. So this is, as Harriet Harman says, a bit of a "frolic". Why not just get a young mistress for a bit of excitement?

Change of Address

Basher's office needs to let go:

From: KRANTZ, Caroline

To: XXXX
Subject: RE: XXXX


Many thanks

Caroline Krantz, Secretary
Office of the Rt Hon David Davis MP
Shadow Home Secretary
House of Commons
Westminster SW1A 0AA

"DD for Freedom" Campaign Launches Tomorrow

Word is that www.DavidDavisforFreedom.com launches tomorrow and that he is going to wait until after PMQs to jab a question to the clunking fist before he stands down as an MP. Do hope this campaign site is going to be better than his leadership campaign site. That went under the title "Modern Conservatives" and looked ten years out of date...

Freedom Fighter v Bottler Brown

David Davis on Today, "If the Labour party refused to defend it's own policy - they are going to show that they are ashamed of their own policies - just another piece of cowardice on behalf of Gordon Brown."

Labour claims there is massive public support for taking away British freedoms. Prove it. Or will this be yet another election that Brown bottles?

UPDATE : Sir Michael this morning kind of gives the game away "Most politicians dislike the sort of behaviour Davis has displayed. It may please those voters who want their MP to stand up and be counted, but such unpredictability unsettles the trade." Yes, the political class doesn't like it, even if voters do...

Labour PPC "Opposed to 42 Days"

Danny Marten, Labour's candidate for Haltemprice and Howden last year, is the chair of East Yorkshire Young Labour and by all accounts firends and foes say he is a likeable and committed activist. They also say he is opposed to 42 days detention without trial...

Locally David Prescott, son of John, is urging Danny to run. He argues that if Labour don't run "we would be complicit in turning this stunt into a greater farce and show that we're too scared or embarrassed to stand. That'll allow the BNP to have the oxygen of publicity. Would we really want that?"

Well? Do Labour actually have a candidate and activists willing to campaign for locking up muslim lads without evidence for 42 days? Perhaps not...

Davis Invited to Stand as Libertarian Party Candidate

The UK Libertarian Party has invited David Davis to join them, after he resigned as an MP over the 42 day detention law.

Patrick Vessey, party leader says:

"The Libertarian Party is the only UK political party which prioritises freedom and civil liberties above all else. As such, we feel sure that Mr Davis would be right at home in the Libertarian Party and invite him to join us... In this day and age, with spin and political corruption so commonplacet hat it's taken for granted that all Members of Parliament are simply in the job for what they can personally extract from the taxpayer, a man of rare integrity has reminded us all of the long democratic tradition in our nation. The Libertarian Party will not be standing against Mr Davis in the coming by-election, and will rather offer our total support to Mr Davis'campaign,
whether he stands as a Conservative or Independent candidate."

So perhaps Basher Davis could get to lead a parliamentary party after all...

DD for Me!

David Davis plans to stand in a by-election where he wants to makes this a referendum on liberty - the Liberal Democrats have already said they will not stand against him.

This is very interesting...

UPDATE : Sky reports that David Davis told Nick Clegg of his intentions last night. Clegg's statement:

"David Davis’s decision to resign his seat and fight a by-election over the issue of 42 days is a dramatic move. I am grateful to him for having informed me following the vote of his intention to take this step.

"The Liberal Democrats have consistently opposed this unnecessary and illiberal proposal which poses a threat so serious to British liberties that it transcends party politics.

"I have therefore decided, after consultation with the Party nationally and locally, that we will not stand a candidate at the forthcoming by-election which will be contested by David Davis solely on this issue.

"The Liberal Democrats will of course fight the Haltemprice and Howden seat as vigorously as ever at the next General Election."

Cameron says "we wish David Davis well". Told the BBC he would campaign for David Davis in the by-election. Local Tories say they were in the know, Duncan Gilmour, chairman of Haltemprice and Howden Conservative Association, has told the Telegraph that Davis discussed the plan with him "earlier this week" and that "a number of conversations" has taken place between Davis and his local party officers during the course of this week. "I'm absolutely sure the local association here will fully support and vindicate his stance" he says.

Basher Davis Coughs Up £20,000 to Hush UpSex Discrimination / Staff Bullying Case

Alivia Kratke prised a year's salary (£20,000) out of David Davis following him having her frog-marched out of his office. So even after allowing some £10,000 for legal expenses (Thomas Mansfield are not cheap solicitors) she will be able to afford a few bottles of bubbly. She dropped her employment tribunal case and agreed to a gagging clause.

Working for Basher is clearly not a job for the Tamzin Lightwaters of this world...

N.B. Neither Alivia or her friend Katy Taylor-Richards were the source for this story.

Basher Shoots Another Staff Member

Guido hasn't found the body, but there is circumstantial evidence that yet another David Davis staff member has bitten the dust. Does anyone have an explanation for this puzzling phenomenon?

Come On Then, If You Think You Are Hard Enough

Basher Davis is advertising for a new staff member. He has a high-turnover of staff. The job specification requires that candidates are "calm under pressure". An understatement...

Tamzin Warned About Basher

In her last Speccie diary she predicted that Basher's office would become a warzone with wounded interns and injured researchers. Tamzin blogs the latest casualty report.

What Alivia Did Next...

Basher Davis Reduces Another Staffer to Tears

The Indy's Pandora story this morning (see below) has allowed the inner Basher to come to the fore. Alivia Kratke has been asked to "leave the office". She was reduced to tears protesting that she was not the nameless source of the quote in the piece "He makes junior staff sit separately in a dingy bunker with no natural daylight. Lunch breaks are militarily monitored. Morale's miserable."

Today of all days, Happy Birthday Alivia, poor thing. Give Guido a call and he will buy you a commiseration drink...

UPDATE : Yes, she is the pissed friend of Katy in this infamous video from the last Tory conference.

UPDATE II : Do you think Basher got the Cameroonie Politics of Happiness Memo?

DD Says "NO2ID"

David Davis has written to the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell, giving formal notice that an incoming Conservative administration will scrap ID Cards. He has also written to all the major contractors* warning them of the same.

Guido said, at the time Basher negotiated the delay in the political decision-making watershed on ID-cards until after the election, that is was clever tactics. ID-cards may be popular in some quarters, but one section of the population is 101% opposed to ID-cards. LibDem activists.

Come election time the LibDems will be shoulder-to-shoulder with the Tories on an issue that emphasises their shared ideological belief in the fundamental primacy of individual liberty against state power. New Labour's authoritarians will be the common enemy.

*So all those donations to the Sith will have been wasted.

Of Ballots and Bookies

The end is nigh, if you haven't voted yet, you are too late. The bookies have stopped taking bets on Cameron, the campaigns have drawn to a halt and Guido for one is relieved that the marathon is over.

Basher's campaign team have their CVs out, Davis himself is reading Jane's Defence Weekly, even Wat Tyler accepts that an Elvis comeback is more likely than a Davis victory.

Michael Howard, by design or a stroke of luck, has revived the Tories for his own chosen sucessor. The Tories have benefitted massively from the campaign amongst the chattering / political classes and the media. When the Indy devotes a six page supplement to Cameron, you know that Hampstead is once again contemplating voting Tory. How will he play out with the wider public? My hunch is that he will do better than the polls currently suggest. Gordon Brown will lose to Cameron, because given a choice between dour, tired and old, versus young, fresh and optimistic, Britain will vote for change. But only if Cameron really changes the Tories as promised. The fizzy water is on ice in Notting Hill and invites are out for a we-can't-call-it a-victory-party-yet party on Tuesday afternoon. A smiling Cameron is on the way to 10 Downing Street, and power is a head-rush better than any other he has experienced...