Last night’s fundraising dinner of Haltemprice & Howden Liberal Democrats saw the burning effigies of Chris Rennard and Nick Clegg, membership cards were ripped up and thrown onto the flames and guest speaker Lembit Opik was forced to flee under a hail of bread rolls. Denied a by-election to fight the right wing thug that is David Davis what else would be expected?
Actually, of course, none of that happened. The local party, in a very mature way I thought, expressed its annoyance at the process whereby we arrived at a non-contest but accepted that the right decision had been made. I thought David Nolan, our PPC, made a very impressive speech which showed not a hint of bitterness and he was supported excellently by Diana Wallis MEP and by Lembit himself.
Seeing that Labour is unlikely to put up a candidate, the whole thing is now turning into a farce and those who know David Davis from years of fighting him here in this part of East Yorkshire know just what a vain, egotistical man he is. A sense of this is reflected in today’s papers, not least in the column written by his good friend Michael Brown in The Independent. As somebody said if he really had wanted to make a point why didn’t he say that he would fight Jacqui Smith at the next election?
It leaves aside the question of what Liberal Democrats in the constituency do during the by-election especially if the choice is Davis or assorted nutters, but perhaps we can return to that at some point later. All I think I can say in summary is that although there will be many in party upset by our decision not to oppose Davis, judging from last night’s gathering, the local party in Haltemprice & Howden felt the right decision had been made.
June 13, 2008 at 8:35 am |
What a heck of a coincidence that the local dinner was booked for last night!!! Spooky!
This has confirmed my faith in good, down-to-earth common sense of Yorkshire folk!
June 13, 2008 at 8:50 am |
There has been suggestions, that had Clegg not promised to David Davis that the Lib Dems will not field a candidate, he would have resigned and there wouldn’t be any by-election. This way Clegg at least ensured, that an issue important to Lib Dems will get coverage, and the bonus is that with any luck the rifts in the Conservative Party will deepen.
June 13, 2008 at 9:54 am |
[...] & Howden think? Written by The Voice on 13th June 2008 – 10:54 am Last night’s local fundraising dinner was, as it turns out, remarkably well timed, and this is what members made of it all, “All I [...]
June 13, 2008 at 11:42 am |
this is gonna be unique – an election with only one serious candidate. Just like the Labour Party leadership. I do hope Kelvin McKenzie stands, that could be so funny.
June 24, 2008 at 6:08 pm |
Would Lib Dem supporters in Haltemprice and Howden consider supporting an independent candidate such as Jill Saward?
Jill Saward, who was raped in her Ealing Vicarage Home on 6th March 1986, has long been a campaigner for the rights of rape victims and has said she is considering standing against David Davis.
In an article on her website (www.saward.org) she criticises David Davis’ actions as “deeply disturbing” and argues that victims of sexual crime should come before suspected terrorists. And she argues that the national DNA database should be extended rather than scrapped, saying: “Mr Davis thinks that by forcing a by election he is standing up for British Justice. In reality he is attempting to strike a hammer blow through the very tools the police need to keep us safe.”
She adds: “When a shadow home secretary says nothing at all about such an important issue as sexual violence which affects thousands of people each year; and then resigns over an issue of limited pre-charge detention which may not affect anybody at all – then somebody’s got their priorities wrong and somebody needs to get the issue of rape onto the agenda.”
In the article on her website, Jill asks people to get in touch with her by email: jill@saward.org – to let them know whether they think she should stand.