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The Labour governments refusal to enter this debate speaks volumes about their regard for civil liberties.

Shame on them.

Sadly no. I am no Tory either.

If its any consolation at some point the Government will have to explain why the US manages on 8 days. Are they more efficient?

42 days was alleged to be popular with the electorate. But as there was no bounce in the polls, possibly due to the volume of other overwhelmingly bad news, Brown has got no benefit from the 42 days either.

I don't know about the dates but if the Lords kick it out and it does not re-appear in the Commons until after the autumn will Brown be the leader?

There is only one real candidate on civil liberties here, and that's Shan Oakes (with respect to one or two of the independents).

42 days is arbitrary, just as 28 days is. Why support one and not the other?

David Davis should be commended for giving this issue more attention, but he's in no way qualified to defend our civil liberties. He's in for a run for his money with the Greens. Most of the independents appear to be jokes, and most of the other parties are very sick ones, such as the NF.

David Davis' actions represent British democracy in action. I get cross when others moan about the cost of that hard-one privilege. Of course it costs to be free, but we must work hard to maintain that freedom and 'people-power' .

I applauded Mr. Davis' decision at the time and I stand by that. Somebody has to stand up to control freak mentality of this regime (did someone say government?) and I prefer that it is a serious politician.

Having just read the list of his opponents, however, I rather fear that it is developing into a farce. If this were a general election, there would be no contest with this field, but people do strange things at by elections, not least thumbing their noses at the political classes as a whole.

If he wins with a resounding majority, he will have made his point, but if it is less than convincing, the farce element will have crept in.

At least Kelvin McKenzie isn't on the list. I could not have taken 'it's The Sun wot won it' twice in a lifetime.

Sadly there is no candidate supporting hanging and flogging. Liberty demands no limit to the threat to those who deny it to others.

In our PC (Politically Christian) country we are not allowed to defend ourselves with sensible punishments.

David Davies and many UK politicians have ignored the fact that cost prevents over 80% of UK citizens obtaining access to the Law let alone justice. This Government has even failed to make public interest funds available for Human Rights action.

The real issue of 42 days detention is that the UK has lost control of terrorism through a legal system based upon illogical rules rather than purpose, unfunded security processes and porous borders.

If David Davies wanted to resign, why not upon the systemic failure of the justice system to protect the innocent and future terrorist and crime victims?

#7 - hseqaolcom

"The real issue of 42 days detention is that the UK has lost control of terrorism through a legal system based upon illogical rules rather than purpose -"

Legal system? What legal system?

These people don't have access to the legal system. They can be detained WITHOUT CHARGE.

What happened to Habeus Corpus?

this is not going to be a farce, it is going to expose nuLabour for the sham that it is, anyway what is wrong with the great British eccenteric? We should have more of them rather them than the grey men of middle England. I would like to see the party of pushing sailors into shops or the 'stop fish from drowning' party at least they won't send us into illegal unwinnable wars....will they? Michael Crick should feel at home with them as he is a little bit eccentric but a national institution as well.

At the time of DD’s resignation I thought at long last, a politician of principle, especially after the grubby way in which the 42 day was passed.
However, the question of our liberties has not been strongly debated as the other side, Labour, failed to take up the challenge and put up a candidate to argue its case. I have no doubt that this is because the government’s argument doesn’t stand up to scrutiny, as we are seeing in the measured debate in the Lord’s in which senior members of Labour are arguing against their own party’s view .
All this has illustrated is that the original vote was more about Gordon Brown’s leadership. It also illustrates that the Labour government has no principles.

My vote would go to Gemma Garrett. The rest should be locked up for 42 days for being boring.

'Liberty' is a word the tories are very fond of. I remember a peculiar May Day a few years ago when I was on a anti-capitalist demo full of hippies and nudists and calling for tighter controls on all sorts of things, whilst, over at the British Museum, the Daily Telegraph had organised a conference on 'Liberty', which had become a favourite word of theirs, as in the (overwhelmingly important to Charles Moore) 'liberty' to tear foxes apart with dogs, the 'liberty' for Jeremy Clarkson and co to drive as polluting a vehicle as they like as fast as they want, and so forth. The Countryside Alliance plastered the fences round their country estates with the word. Boris Johnson used it to appeal to 'Chelsea tractor' drivers, and I expect to see the word used, in this Telegraph, John Bull, 'Beef and Liberty' way, very heavily by the tories in the next election to appeal to the 'Top Gear' constituency, of which, sadly, there are a lot.
"Magna Carta - did she die in vain?"

He took this action, he says, to start a national debate on the issue. This he has clearly failed to do. Since this was the obvious outcome, he should have to pay the bill for the election.

WESTMINSTER: UP WITH WHICH THEY PUT.

Sadly, anyone who survives prolonged immersion in the Wesminster atmosphere must have a touch of the alien about them. It would seem that some worm did a half- turn in David Davis, but the FULL TURN would demand that he stand as an INDEPENDENT. It was good to see the usual suspects, including Lord Snooty, caught off-guard, but he should have gone all the way. Close - but no cigar.

"Come in spinner" - this song applies as much to Brown as it did Blair. Please tell me what kind of society needs more that forty eight hours for their highly sophisticated police service to both arrest and charge any person who has committed[or in the process of committing] any crime????????? . Terrorism has been with us since the begining of time. This Government does not have the answer to even the most basic questions concerning simple finance, Education,The NHS, Public Transport,in fact everything. Of course Davis is right - Y

I'd have more respect for David Davis if he stood in Glasgow East rather than his own seat, which was made safe by the abdication of the Liberal Democrats.

As it is, this campaign has been a farce, and failed signally to create a mass debate about 42 days - which looks likely to be killed off in the Lords anyway.

And for this he gave up being the next Home Secretary?

# 16

No, he did it in order to avoid being Home Secretary