Elections

David Davis was heading to be the next Minister for Home Affairs when the Tories get back into power next year, yet he threw it all up to fight an unnecessary by-election last week. He was protesting against the Government's desire to hold terror suspects for 42 days without charge. The civil libertarians all supported him. That he romped home with an increased majority was no surprise, especially since the Liberal Democrats (who agree with him) did not field a candidate and the Labor party (who knew they would lose heavily) didn't either. There were 25 other candidates of whom only two received more than 5% of the vote, those from the Green Party, and the English Democrats (a new party that is opposed to their being too many Scots in the Cabinet). You have to put up a cash deposit in order to stand, and the other 23 candidates lost theirs. What amazed me was how few friends people have. Two of the candidates only garnered 8 votes each. Since most people have that number of family members eligible to vote, it suggests that they need to get out there and do some networking.