Basher for Liberty news 5

Sparring partners

The Green party has announced that they will stand against DD. Pollsters say that the public thinks that Labour should have put up a candidate too. It is not recorded what proportion thinks that Gordon Brown is a cowardy custard.

Cheering him on

Hull City Council have passed a motion in support of Davis's stand on 42 days. Even Labour councillors have fallen into line, apparently.

Handbags at dawn

Andy Burnham has written a letter of regret to Shami Chakrabarti. That's "regret", not apology. Ms Chakrabarti is being very dignified about it though.

Bemused onlookers

How an American sees the decline of civil liberties in the UK - Richard Reeves for Yahoo News.

The campaign

DD and Tony Benn are to debate civil liberties in Hull. 

The David Davis for Freedom website has undergone a redesign (already!). The masthead picture now includes the requisite ethnic mix.  A debate forum has been added, although don't expect to see Gordon Brown there.

NO2ID have welcomed the Davis campaign and are planning to campaign in H&H in the runup to the election.

The debate

DD has said that Gordon Brown has gagged ministers to prevent them discussing civil liberties in the run up to the H&H by-election.

Guy Aitchison thinks DD has made a decent fist of explaining why he supported 28 days but why 42 is a no-no.  He says that with post-charge questioning and allowing intercept evidence in court it may be possible to reduce the limit below 28 days.  Justin at Chicken Yogurt isn't impressed though.

David Duff wonders if this whole debate is part of a new zeitgeist.

And finally

William Hill are offering odds of 7-1 that DD will start his own political party in time for the next election.

Comments

[Kit]

And it looks as if another ancient liberty will be weakened http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7467058.stm. And the Tories will supporting the government.

[Novus]

Enjoying these collections, thanks, but they serve also to remind me that you used to do much the same thing with climate-related stories. What happened to those? They were really interesting and often useful.

[Bishop Hill]

So much to write, so little time in which to write. Climate science went a bit quiet for a while, and I was busy too. I did think about resurrecting it a couple of weeks back, but then the Davis thing blew up.

[Bishop Hill]

Kit

Yes, I saw that. I'm reading this as Jack Straw spinning. I can't see the government legislating something which directly contravenes the EHCR. The BBC report has interesting use of scare quotes in the article title.