"The party of liberty"

After the initial widespread scepticism of David Davis' move to resign his seat and force a by-election on the issue of civil liberties, things seem to be loosening up.

There is an extensive article in today's Times that, first of all, brings us the news that at least one Labour rebel is travelling to Yorkshire to support Davis, the MP for Medway, Bob Marshall-Andrews. There is also Davis claiming that although he will not have the full Tory Party machine behind him, he has "had thousands of calls of support, right down to the pensioner who says ‘my pension comes in tomorrow. I’ll send some money to Mr Davis out of it’. The offers of money have gone from a fiver to £25,000."

The Guardian (or The Observer, depending on whether read online or not) reports that he received one email "from a woman who worked on a local government project to encourage the alienated and unfranchised to vote. What he had done, she wrote, would 'make my job so much easier'."

Also in the Guardian comes the news that Labour may be trying to convince an outsider to stand against Davis, but their reported approach to Rachel North, a 7/7 survivor, failed because she actually gets why the 42-day detention legislation is so lunatic: "I am a big fan of civil liberties and freedom and democracy, all things that terrorists are not keen on ..." She supports Davis, and has indicated she "might do something" in his campaign if he asked.

What of Kelvin Mackenzie? Well, regardless of the fact he is floundering in local polls, there is the small detail that his claim that Rupert Murdoch would back him financially is not possible, because of rules preventing an overseas citizen financially backing an electoral candidate. His claim that Hull is a "shocker" did him no favours either, after which, according to Conservative Home, Murdoch "disowned him".

Yesterday, Dominic Grieve's indication that the Tories may push the detention limit further down from 28-days hinted that Davis' move may have "opened the floodgates". Today, The Englishman points to an article in The Scotsman that Davis's supporters in the party see the by-election as the only the "first salvo" in a "relentless campaign" on civil liberties and freedom. One of his allies said that the Conservatives were the "only libertarian party out there", "that is what the Tory Party is about".

Strong words, but as the Devil points out, the Tories are a long way from being a "libertarian party", or from being classical liberal. Still, it is nice to see assorted members of the Tory Party wishing to "redraw the Conservatives as the party of liberty, against the authoritarian Labour Party."