Thinktanks
I suggest
this idea, to increase the population of Oxford and Cambridge to something like 2.5m each through an influx of Northerners (previously the preserve of Manchester Grammar School) is what you come up with when you've been told it's your job to come up with something eye-catching and haven't the faintest idea where to start.
I wonder what the prospects of a Conservative government implementing it are? They get panicky in Cambridgeshire when a new town of 10,000 people is suggested.
Update: Having read the report, I'm still not persuaded by its contents. I do agree we need faster commuter trains, and that the S.East around Hastings needs some motorways. But I'm not sure they've really allowed for the fact that things don't scale up as easily as they think. THe idea behind the political opposition is this: offering current residents money, i.e. you live in Guilford, you will be offered £15,000 per head to accept 10,000 new houses, paid for by the profits gained from building them. Time to invite 20 close friends to move in with you.
Labels: Odd decisions
What Davis should do
There are various non-Conservative and anti-42 days people in favour of supporting David Davis's campaign in the forthcoming by-election, for example
Conor Foley over at Liberal Conspiracy.
I think this is misplaced, for the simple reason that Davis is standing as the Conservative candidate, with the same policies, many of which are not particularly friendly to civil liberties, as he did in 2005. Supporting him there will buttress the anti-42 days argument within the Tory party, but at the cost of boosting those views of Davis which are not positive, and indeed on which Cameron seems the better choice, which is partly why he won and Davis didn't, and Davis is doing this.
It would be different if Davis were to resign from the Conservative Party and stand as an anti-42 days and pro-other civil liberties candidate, perhaps as leader of a new political party with that as its core message, and one which would invite other MPs to join them, much like the SDP.
That would show real courage and dedication, and I advise any supporters he has to urge that upon him.
Labels: Odd decisions
David Davis - Stupid yet glorious, or just stupid?
It's difficult to know what to make of David Davis's decision to resign from the Commons only to stand again, and on the issue of civil liberties. The cause seems just, but the idea just plain bonkers. It would make sense if:
1. The Tories had voted for the 42-day measure and he was quitting the party and fighting as an independent, 'Bring back 28/14 days' [1].
or
2. If David Davis has changed his mind of these issues since he was elected in 2005, i.e. back then he had stood on a 'longer detention without trial for suspected terrorists' and now feels he has to seek a new mandate.
But neither of these apply. He seems to be saying it is an attack on Parliament itself, hence the talk about 'until yesterday' being proud of it, but if that was really the case then surely he should just quit, rather than stand again for exactly the same parliament?
So either's it's just a misguided way of making a good point, or there must be something else to it. There might be something in this
story , but Davis has presumably has had other issues on his conscious in serving in David Cameron's cabinet, and he seemed happy enough and in any case he could have just resigned. Perhaps the aim is to show to Cameron that it is not an unpopular meaure.
Will it work? He can't lose, clearly (which rather undermines the above suggestion aspect) and I suppose it gets to make a nice contrast with Gordon Brown's not calling an election. But it might have been more dramatic to set hiself on fire on the Commons terrace, or at least quit the Conservative Party and stood as an independent.
[1] Did Davis support the 28 day extension? [2]
[Update] Actually I think I've worked it out. The idea is that Cameron cannot backtrack on his opposition to 42 days if he has 'Mr 28 days (but not 14)' on his backbenches. Maybe.
[2] Yes he did, and worse, he
argued for it on the same grounds that Labour now argue for 42 days. This makes his whole position ludicrous in my view. I have no idea why 42 days destroys the Magna Carta, but 28 didn't. It's a stunt. The idea that David Davis wil protect your civil liberties is a fantasy. One might argue that's he changed his mind, but to me the issue is this - we can talk about and once every 4/5 years have a 1/40m say about it, but he had a 1/600 odd say and chose an extension - worse he argued in favour of it. The voters of wherever it is in Yorkshire should choose whoever else they get, unless he/she is even stranger which looks possible.
[Update2] The Telegraph suggets it is leadership positioning, which is really odd, as if there is a consituency in Britain that so prefers Davis to Cameron.
Labels: Odd decisions
