David Davis for Freedom

David Davis's campaign website, David Davis for Freedom, is now live. Looks like there's still a few issues to sort out on the RSS feed though.

Update:

It's not the best website, is it? Quite apart from the feed problem, someone seems to have forgotten to create the links for the Speeches and Articles pages. There's no comments facility on the blog and commenters at Guido's are reporting problems subscribing to the email newsletter (although it worked fine for me).

I suppose there's a possibility that it's not actually live yet, but if it is, then Basher needs to start bashing pretty soon. This isn't good enough. 

The media and David Davis

Frank Fisher has a wonderful article up at the Graun.

The Indy now realises that DD has captured the public's imagination, the Times's William Rees Mogg admits his own failure to grasp the strength of public feeling and here at the Guardian, Jackie Ashley figures out what Cif's punters knew within moments of Davis's announcement – that Davis's main goal may well be to entrench Conservative support for civil liberties, directly confronting the kind of focus-group friendly policies favoured by the other Dave.

Four days it took the commentariat to grasp this simple issue that the online community figured out within 14 minutes.

 Read the whole thing.

My human right to an education voucher

The Human Rights Act says of education:

No person shall be denied the right to education. In the exercise of any functions which it assumes in relation to education and to teaching, the State shall respect the right of parents to ensure such education and teaching in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions.

Personally, I have a deep philosophical conviction that the state should play no part in the education system - standard liberal stuff, per JS Mill. Unfortunately, because the state takes lots of money from me to pay for the education system that I oppose, I am unable to send my children to private school. So it looks to me as if the state is not only not respecting my right to ensure an education in conformity with my convictions, it is actively preventing me from doing so.

The remedy is simple though. I want my money back. Cash or voucher, I care not.

Jack Frost

According to the weather forecast, there's a slight possibility of frost tonight in my neck of the woods. The summer solstice is a week away.

Global warming eh? 

Great illiberals of the past - Locke and Mill

Stephen Tall has added his name to the list of those who think that David Davis can't possibly be a liberal because of his support for the death penalty.

I was amused to see that a commenter on Stephen's piece points out that one of the prominent supporters of the death penalty was none other than John Locke, who opined:

Man being born, as has been proved, with a title to perfect freedom and an uncontrolled enjoyment of all the rights and privileges of the law of Nature, equally with any other man, or number of men in the world, hath by nature a power not only to preserve his property - that is, his life, liberty, and estate, against the injuries and attempts of other men, but to judge of and punish the breaches of that law in others, as he is persuaded the offence deserves, even with death itself, in crimes where the heinousness of the fact, in his opinion, requires it. 

Chris Dillow, a man who is never likely to be mistaken for a Tory, has also posted at length on this subject and, rather amusingly for me, calls in his support none other than John Stuart Mill, who apparently said:

I defend this [the death] penalty, when confined to atrocious cases, on the very ground on which it is commonly attacked-on that of humanity to the criminal; as beyond comparison the least cruel mode in which it is possible adequately to deter from the crime…What comparison can there really be, in point of severity, between consigning a man to the short pang of a rapid death, and immuring him in a living tomb, there to linger out what may be a long life in the hardest and most monotonous toil, without any of its alleviations or rewards--debarred from all pleasant sights and sounds, and cut off from all earthly hope, except a slight mitigation of bodily restraint, or a small improvement of diet?

As I've said in an earlier posting, many people seem to mistake "views commonly held by liberals" with liberalism itself. All these Liberals are going to have to explain to me how a the holding of a view that was shared by the two greatest philosophers of the liberal movement can be diagnostic of not being a liberal at all.

Quote of the day

The politicians need to ask themselves why so many of the public seem to regard David Davis as the only sane man in the asylum.

Andrew Rawnsley in the Observer 

Bigger Bishop

There appear to have been enough people who found the font size 'ere a bit on the small side, so I've upped it a bit. I await a rush of new readers....

We want all your data....

...and we're going to leave it lying around somewhere.

Secret Government documents which detail Britain's policies on fighting global terrorist funding, drugs trafficking and money laundering have been found on a London-bound train.

Just so we're clear, this is different to the load of secret data they lost last week.

Some people are still seriously asking what the problem with ID cards is. Incredible, isn't it?

All the other places are shut

As people try to size up the implications of David Davis's bolt from the blue, it's already clear that the civil libertarians are dangerously divided. That's not to say that the authoritarians aren't divided too, but as the control freaks run both government and official opposition parties, it matters rather less to them.

One of the main sources of difference is the theory that Davis's credentials to lead a civil liberties backlash are compromised by his support for, well, any number of issues - the death penalty, section 28, abortion are chief among them. This seems to me to mistake "issues that are sometimes supported by civil libertarians" with civil liberties per se. It's quite possible to make the liberal case for supporting any or all of these issues - here's Chris Dillow on corporal punishment (yes, I know it's corporal not capital, but similar arguments apply). And even if you don't accept these arguments, at the end of the day, there's only one show in town and that's Davis. Civil libertarians could wait for the perfect candidate to lead the movement to Nirvana, but they have to face the fact that it's a pretty demanding set of criteria to make the grade - we're probably looking for  an MP, and moreover one with perfect liberal credentials. They should have no significant personal peccadillos (not usually a feature found among MPs), and they should be ready to risk their career; to throw away their secure income and bloated pension to make a stand for the cause. Shall we say that this person would be a bit far-fetched in a story book, let alone in real life?

Meanwhile, whereever you look, there are people of impeccable civil liberties credentials arguing about what other issues they'd like to roll up with the ones David Davis has outlined already, namely ID cards, CCTV, habeas corpus and free speech. UKIP want Europe added to the slate, this chap wants the anti-smoking legislation repealed. 

The similarity between this and the Life of Brian is both amusing and depressing. The People's Front for the Liberation of Britain says anyone who doesn't include put the EU on the slate is a traitor. The British League for Liberty says only fools think such nonsense and it's smoking we want.

There is no way in a thousand years a coherent platform can be built around all these issues. Nobody would support it at all. Strange as it might seem to myself and UKIP, lots of people who are against internment think that the EU is a smashing idea, and that if we just tweak it here and there, everyone will end up rich, free and good-looking. Yes, it's bizarre, but there it is. Now't as queer as folk. Sorry UKIP, we need these people on board - without them we're sunk. We can't have the EU on the ticket.

And there it is. There's one guy with a set menu. Don't walk out of the restaurant because he doesn't offer a la carte. All the other places are shut.

Irish eyes are smiling

It looks like it's in the bag and the Irish have saved the nations of Europe to fight again another day. That's not to say that the EU vampire won't rise from the dead again, but for the minute, let's just be grateful our friends over the water have spoken up for all the people around Europe who have been denied a voice.

And in honour of this victory, here's a blast of a bunch of Irish musicians who can probably lay a fair claim to being the best there ever was - the Bothy Band.

Can Labour afford to run against DD?

Interesting theory doing the rounds about the upshot of the Davis resignation - Labour are bust already - they just can't afford to fight another major by-election campaign.

So come on MPs, start following Davis's example! 

David Davis resigns

The news that "Basher" Davis has resigned was a bit of a bolt from the blue wasn't it? Amazing to find someone acting on principle over something like this, although those of us who cheered on Davis in the Tory leadership contest are perhaps less surprised than others

What is now needed is for other MPs of principle to do the same thing - this will keep the pressure on the government as high as possible. John Redwood has applauded Davis's actions, and I've left a comment on his blog in which I ask whether he will follow suit. I wonder what the reaction will be? And what about the Labour rebels and the LibDems?

Update:

I've just written to Diane Abbott along the same lines.

Update:

Redwood says no. 

Quote of the day

Good news for those who support ethanol production as a means to reduce greenhouse gasses. You can get a beautiful mahogany table and chairs set, made from rainforest land converted to farmland to grow crops for ethanol.

 Jason Jones at the ASI.

A "close them down" week

Last week it was "failing schools will be taken over". This week, it's "failing schools will be closed".

Almost one in five secondary schools in England are to be given a warning to improve exam results or face closure.

Just keep alternating the headlines Mr Brown, nobody will notice that you're not actually doing either. 

Next week: Failing schools will be taken over

W/C 16 June: Failing schools will be closed

W/C 23 June:  Failing schools will be taken over

W/C 30 June: Failing schools will be closed

...repeat to fade.... 

Turgid bilge

The lady in charge of education in the Numptocracy^TM, Fiona Hyslop, is trumpeting her latest endless outpouring of pointless waffle in a press release posted on the Numptocracy Webpage.

Parents have a crucial role to play in supporting children's learning and the successful implementation of Curriculum for Excellence, Cabinet Secretary for Education Fiona Hyslop said today. 

I've written before about the refusal of my children's school to allow parents to see the curriculum that's being taught, so Ms Hyslop's turgid meanderings ring pretty hollow in these 'ere parts. Having refused me, the school informed the school council (that's the board of governors to you) that a summary of the curriculum would be prepared and released to parents. This was just after Christmas. Now, they have "changed their minds" and we are told to wait until the new term starts in the autumn.

And if you believe that you'll believe anything.

So if you'll excuse me, Ms Hyslop, I think you're not actually telling the truth. I think you don't want parents playing any role in their children's education at all.