David Davis' Resignation and fight over civil liberty

[Ian Batten]

>
> PS HMG was aiming at 90 days - and the ID card story suggests that  
> once they have an idea, there is no possibility that either  
> opposition or demonstrable impracticality make the slightest  
> difference to their determination to implement it.
> How long before they decide that 90 days is imperative - and/or 90  
> days becomes part of the next election manifesto?

The Labour government could offer dinner and, er, `afters' with the  
super model of your choice being available on the NHS, plus income tax  
at minus ten percent and a place at Eton for everyone under ninety,  
for all the odds it would make.

The Tories were in nothing like this state in 1990, but they had the  
nerve to perform radical surgery on their party to make things  
somewhat less toxic.  The Labour Party are in a terrible electoral  
position, but are transfixed with terror at the thought of doing  
anything about it.  And, even if they weren't, they know there's no  
current minister who is an electable leader anyway, so a leadership  
election would end horribly whatever happened.  Ironically, given the  
way Thatcher is remembered, her shadow was not dark enough to prevent  
shoots growing around her roots; Brown and Blair have removed the  
sustenance of everyone credible who might have threatened them,  
leaving a party run by faceless aparatchicks.

The Poll Tax made a lot of headlines, and was a major issue in some  
parts of the country, but actually had nothing like the electoral  
traction that memory implies.  Cynically, you could argue that the  
people who were hurt most were those unlikely to be Tory voters  
anyway.   Nothing about the Poll tax had the resonance amongst Tory  
and swing voters that the 10% issue, fuel prices and hidden inflation  
have amongst Labour and swing voters.

If you're Labour, and you're haemorrhaging core votes, things like  
terrorism and Lisbon don't matter: no-one wakes up worrying about  
either of those. But they do wake up worrying about their job and  
their bills and their ability to put fuel in their car.   In times of  
trouble, people want an officer class to lead them, and Cameron and  
Johnson look like officers.   The Labour Party have a presentation  
absence where they should have a presence, and a leader with char- 
isn't-ma (C) Frank Muir.

Labour can't and won't commit parricide, but know that even that  
wouldn't be enough to make a difference.

So it doesn't matter what civil servants and ministers cook up for the  
next Labour Manifesto: they aren't going to get elected.  We should  
should be scrying the activities of the Tories, and guess at what  
horrors they have in store for us, because Labour are finished for a  
generation.  The papers will print nothing but cockups and criticisms  
from now until election day, and ministers and civil servants will  
continue to provide them (what the hell are top secret, codeword,  
caveat documents doing out of a locked dispatch case on a train, eh?)

Anyone heard from Scientists for Labour lately?  How are they?

ian