Bob Piper has been a Labour Councillor for the Abbey
Ward in Sandwell, West Midlands, for nine years. He is a lifelong supporter of Aston Villa Football Club and a follower of Yorkshire County Cricket Club.
The views expressed here are mine in a personal capacity, not those of the Labour Party, Sandwell MBC, Aston Villa or Yorkshire County Cricket Club. Get it! Mine... just mine!
So, the David Davis pantomime season is nearly over. This morning he is busy trying to milk the last few soundbites out of his futile stunt before disappearing into backbench mediocrity retaking his seat and continuing to wave his sword of freedom.
Of course, His Master's Voice is heralding as a victory the fact that the turnout was barely half of that at the general election, and Davis got less votes than even the second placed candidate last time around, (as predicted, blaming the students not being there, the weather - it only rained on the conservative voters apparently) and mightily relieved that one of his major sources of Westminster tittle-tattle can renew the supply line.
We're expected to believe that when the only one of the major party candidates to stand in a by-election can only muster just over two-thirds of the votes, it's a triumph!
Well, there aren't many precedences to go by where an MP resigns his seat in Westminster only to fight it again on a point of principle. But if you really want to see someone fighting a seat on a single issue having deliberately resigned it on a point of principle, look at the Rev. Ian Paisley in North Antrim. He resigned his seat in 1985, together with 14 of his DUP colleagues to fight a by-election over the Anglo Irish Agreement. Paisley was returned not with 71% of the vote on a 34.5% turnout... but 97.4% of the vote on a 53.5% turnout.
That, friends, is a mandate!
And that election was in January! I suspect the DUP leader's mouthpiece didn't turn round and blame the weather for the poor turnout of his supporters?
Silent Hunter said:
July 11, 2008 9:27 AM | permalink
The point is.............he won!
AND........he woke the public up to New Labour taking away our Liberty, bit by bit.
He also took a principled stand......you know?
PRINCIPLE?.............It's something that New Labour seem to have a problem exhibiting.
I couldn't help but notice that you don't seem to have any views about Mr Marshall the 'retiring' Glasgow East MP and his �500,000 'office expenses' which turned out to be his front room and whose secretary could have been his wife or his daughter; apparently he doesn't seem to know.
New Labour = Pigs.....Trough.....Snouts
Silent Hunter said:
July 11, 2008 10:03 AM | permalink
"...For a fundamental and irreversible shift in the balance of power and wealth in favour of working people and their families...'
Says the SPIN!
The reality is the removal of the 10p tax band.
AND and additional �250 on car tax for those of us not rich enough to change our cars every year.
Oh, the "pantomime" is far from over. When the Lords crush the 42-day detention limit, Davis will be right back in Gordon Brown's face with renewed vigour and a hell of a lot more supporters behind him.
Well I know what you mean and I don't entirely disagree. Mentioning Paisley is a bit silly though isn?t it ? It was this ( much despised by Labour ) operator who Gordon Bribed with our money to save his worthless career. Had he not done so this PM, with no mandate whatsoever, (in a fact specific promise was given we would not get him ), would have lost the vote and we would not be here. Who do think wasted the most money then ? Bet I know .Whose position has the least legitimacy, or does he still need time to 'set out his vision'....snicker snicker ( or as we Conservatives like to say Marathon Marathon..)
You are floundering in the quicksand Bobina and the angrier you get the more you sink. Relax and accept the inevitable , it will hurt less that way.
Nice to get a response from the Volvo owners club, newmania, I thought I hadn't done enough to provoke you.
Silent Hunter, you presumably missed the bit where Davis was standing up for the Birmingham 6... who would have been hung by the neck if it was up to him.
Liberty, my arse, Pure opportunism, and you know it. Cameron is much cleverer, he managed to provoke the stupid Davis into walking the plank.
So, Tim, Davis has proved what? If we accept what you say, presumably Labour has as good a mandate for 42 days has Davis has for.... what 28?
For Davis to claim victory he would have to be able to establish something a bit more positive than that. I don't recall Tories in 2005 describing Labour having achieved a 'stunning victory'.
Be fair - the by-election was never going to have a significant turnout from the moment Labour decided not to stand. In the circs, 35% is not a bad result. And in any event, Labour would only have a 'mandate' for 42 days if they stood in a general election with that committment in their manifesto - which I guess they just had a small-scale opportunity to do.
35% is a higher turnout than for most local or European elections, and much higher than in some recent by-elections. 19% for Hilary Benn, and lets wait and see what it is in Glasgow East...
But Tim, if you stand on a point of principle, more or less demanding an endorsement from your electorate, you can hardly claim a 'stunning victory' when you lost 5,000 of your own votes and didn't pick up a single lib-dem voter, despite the fact that they stood down to support your campaign.
It was an embarrassing flop.
By the way, I oppose 42 days, but if anyone thinks Davis has advanced the cause one jot they are simply barking! The cause has not been moved one inch by this ridiculous stunt.
Silent Hunter said:
July 11, 2008 7:01 PM | permalink
Hughes Views:
'...Only a quarter of the electorate could be bothered to vote for him - some triumph...'
So!....rather more than will be voting New Labour at the next election then. :O)
Well.....B O B (as Blackadder would say)
You say.......Silent Hunter, you presumably missed the bit where Davis was standing up for the Birmingham 6... who would have been hung by the neck if it was up to him......
I say.........actually what he said was that he supported the death penalty for those who had 'clearly been found guilty without any shadow of a doubt as to their guilt' I paraphrase, but there were always 'questions' about the Birminham 6 so; under DD's criteria, it is unsurprising that he would support them.
Sorry but you appear to have made a complete arse of that come back.
If you want 'opportunism' look no further than a �2.7 Billion tax BRIBE before Crewe & Nantwich.......sorry to bring up that 'little local difficulty' :O) But I can't help but wonder what 'bribe' Labour are going to try on the good people of Glasgow East.
No there were not 'always questions' about the Birmingham 6. You are talking absolute bollocks. The judge at their trial said he would have exercised the death penalty if it had been available to him. The media had banner headlines screaming 'Hand Them High', people were throwing stones through the windows of their relatives and totally unrelated Irish people in Birmingham.
The Guilford 4 would also have been executed, and so would the men wrongly convicted for the killing of Carl Bridgewater.
None of these miscarriages were overturned because there were 'always questions' but years later as a result of brilliant investigative work by Chris Mullin, Robert Kee, and the late Paul Foot.
Come on this site and talk out of your arse if you wish, but if you do you'll have to live with the consequences. And in this case, you've made a complete twat of yourself.
Bob if we are invaded by an army of cowards intent on murdering the innocent ,and if they hide amongst their fellows then the chief blame for any necks wrongly snicked off lies with them. Oddly you somehow forget to condemn the IRA. Are they ..at war? Is it ok then if there is a little collateral damage ?
What about those slaughtered on the street because we have lost all sense of justice. Do you care about them ? The death penalty would save innocent lives and provide justice .
Why should Rose West a serial torturer killer and rapist play video games and whine about her sausages in a cosy cell….you simply cannot conceive of what she did , allow me to help you with a current case…
Read this if you can
“The five-year-old girl cowers naked and crying in a corner. She is so frightened that she urinates. One of the men in the room hits her repeatedly. The others laugh. Another man picks her up and throws her face down on the bed. Then the men rape her. She dies soon afterwards of atrocious injuries.
This is the scenario that the respected art historian and curator, Roger Took, boasted repeatedly about in internet ‘chat rooms’ to fellow paedophiles. In the chat rooms, Took relates how a Dutch man bought the child in Cambodia, kept her for a week and how Took was part of the group who enjoyed ‘splitting her apart’ one night. After Took was arrested last April, the police interviewed him in connection with the child’s murder but Took insisted it was mere fantasy and the police passed the case on to Interpol. Fantasy it could be, but the fact so many like-minded men laughed and masturbated over a helpless child’s torture, terror and death is chilling and profoundly disturbing.
Roger Took was sentenced this February to a minimum of four and a half years in prison as part of an indeterminate sentence for 17 other crimes relating to child abuse. They included molesting two of his step-granddaughters and the possession of 260 photographs, including 102 ‘Level 5s’, which mean they contain images of children being tortured or penetrated, including by animals. One photograph showed a penis entering the vagina of a baby. Many images showed small children shackled to chairs or bars, in obvious pain”
What do you think he should get ? Actually he will get sod all……. For some people death is quite literally too good and anyway …do you think we live forever
Voters want 42 days and more, get used it. You lot have your views and we have ours, we're right and you're wrong. Gordon could yet get elected if he sticks to his guns for once.
To get back what the hell has Davis proved , only what he knew he would win nobody is interested in the 42 days not until it goes through the Lords. It was a stunt now we await a new Job within the Tories for Davis perhaps leader. They do say they have two camps now one fighting for freedom and one fighting to win the election, this might prove to be a Saviour for New Labour.
But even if not Brown will be licking his lips as these two fight themselves and not Labour.
One can't really be so relativistic with regards to legislation. "You have your musical tastes and we have ours" is fine, but "you have your idea of liberty and we'll have ours" doesn't work so well.
Still, we must be honest. When the Political Pantomime Company came onto the scene there was only going to be farce:
Yes, that's hit 'silent hunter' (just how pretentious is that name)... avoid addressing the issue. You made an idiot of yourself over the Birmingham 6 and just come back with a piece of newmania style gibberish. Why not have the balls to just admit you got it wrong... or at least stay silent, at least that way you won't look quite so much of a tit.
Is this the same "Silent Hunter who is busy elswhere slagging off the "Ealing Rape Victim" ( See Luke Akehurst's Blog )
Well "Silent Hunter" perhaps we could see you posting your claims for "freedom to rape" here.
I am aware we will never convince those with "Lower then Vermin" mindsets. But I will try and put matters in a real perspective.
That Clown Davis could not even raise the same number of votes on Thursday as he managed at the 2005 General Election.
GW
PS In Risca West - Caerphilly CBC - last Thursday with the Tories, Liberals and the Yakida Party all trying to complain that the "New Gestapo" was here etc., Labour held
the seat with 56% of the Vote, on a 27.5% turn out. A very good swing to Labour in 2 months. But then in Risca there aint no such thing as the "Chattering Classes".
Gordon Brown was elected Leader of the Liebour Party with zero votes on a turnout of zero in an election that didn't happen. He was elected Prime Minister with zero votes on a turnout of zero in an election he bottled out of holding.
I look forward to the next Conservative MP to resign their seat because the government intends to introduce legislation to which they are opposed. After all, if what Davis did ws right, surely they all will.
July 11, 2008 9:27 AM | permalink
The point is.............he won!
AND........he woke the public up to New Labour taking away our Liberty, bit by bit.
He also took a principled stand......you know?
PRINCIPLE?.............It's something that New Labour seem to have a problem exhibiting.
I couldn't help but notice that you don't seem to have any views about Mr Marshall the 'retiring' Glasgow East MP and his �500,000 'office expenses' which turned out to be his front room and whose secretary could have been his wife or his daughter; apparently he doesn't seem to know.
New Labour = Pigs.....Trough.....Snouts