Well it’s quite simple, surely? He’s standing as a Conservative MP, his entire efforts in Parliament will be to return a Conservative government. No-one, I think, believes a Conservative government will be any better than this governemtn on civil liberties, indeed we know from Davis’s voting record that he would like them to be worse in many areas.

So why do you think relecting, with a bigger majority, a Conservative MP, is a good idea?

Why? I don’t understand what his party affiliations have to do with this.

Ho hum.

Over in the other house ‘Why we should support David Davies on 42 Days”, Conor Foley has suggested a meeting with as many of you as can make it to discuss this further. As the guy has an incredible campaigning and human rights record I would urge any of you that can go to take up that offer.

However, I am all for people standing up for their principles. The principle of the liberties of the subject tah the is standing up for has my heartfelt support.

Damned be he or she who votes against David Davis in this by election.

If the present Labour leadership refuse to put up a candidate to argue their case for 42 days, that will merely demonstrate that they know they have no argument to put, and/or that they can not imagine electoral bribes capable of swaying the Haltemprice, etc., electors.

If Kevin McKenzie stands taht will merely demonstrate his Toad-like self importance; and his capacity to be wrong on every issue.

All that said , I look forward to the LibDems turning David Davis out of the Commons at a forthcoming general election.

I say again, if he sticks to that and he gets a thumping majority (especially against someone like Kelvin McKenzie) surely that can only help in the fight against both authoritarian parties.

Again, I have to wonder what Lib Dem’s that are making such a fuss about the Lib Dem’s not standing here have to gain by bringing attention to the man’s party and away from the issue he purports to be running on, and I also fail to see how it is impossible for even the most staunch Lib Dem or Labour supporter to support DD on this and still be a Labour or Lib Dem supporter to the hilt.

For a matter of record I wish to state that I don’t agree with people (whoever they are and however they present themselves), because I agree with coherent ideas and consistent arguments. So if DD and I happen to be in the same place on this one issue (and we’re not entirely) it still doesn’t mean I’m prepared to abandon my own principles in support of his.

As a result I’m increasingly seeing the way this story is being presented as a political attack on the LibDems by attempting to divide the liberals from the democrats and get a return to two party politics (which is both illiberal and undemocratic).

“are standing against a single issue candidate on liberal issues”

This is the great problem in my view. Davis is not standing as a single-issue independent on this issue in a seat he might not win. He is standing as the official Conservative candidate in his own seat on the same policies as he fought the 2005 election, most of them illiberal…

If the Lib Dem’s were quick enough to do it first then maybe it would have worked out even better. As it happens Davis has done it and that’s that. The Lib Dem’s simply cannot stand now without having people ask questions about why they are standing against a single issue candidate on liberal issues. Quite aside from the fact Davis is fairly safe in his seat, Davis was also one of the more commanding voices. Unless Huhne quit his seat and then somehow got parachuted in the Davis’s constituency there was no way whatsoever that a Lib Dem could win this fight without coming out tarnished, so why bother? Tactically it makes no sense.

Lib Dems need to be quicker in the future if they wish to seek this kind of political capital.

The leadership made the right decision, and the press frankly aren’t going to care if a few members get uppety about the wider implications. It’s a great story, and we’re officially on the Side of Good, where we will remain until it stops being the Side of Good and becomes once more the Side of Being a Tory who Happens to Believe Some Good Things.

Now, can we please get back to the main points, which are (1) putting the boot in on 42 days and (2) putting the boot in on the Tory split!

A candidate form the centre-left who genuinely believed in introducing the 42 days rule and ID cards etc might be a good idea. These people obviously exist. The result might be a better indication of real publc opinion.

Douglas Clark has it spot-on. This is a SINGLE-issue vote and if David Davis sticks to that he has my support. At no other time could I see myself saying that.

I do not want the LibDems or any from the Centre or Left to offer a candidate on this one occasion.

Kelvin McKenzie or whomever Rupert Mordor sends in to oppose him will do his absolute best to derail the discussion and splinter any coalition behind Davis. Judging by some comments here I fear too many of us on the Left would take the bait.

(If that first or last sentence breaches the no-bickering rule please delete it with my blessing.)