Peter Hoskin

Friday

Peter Hoskin

Put your questions to David Davis

From our UK edition

The man of the moment - David Davis - has kindly agreed to a Q&A session with Coffee House.  So, post your questions for him in the comments sections below.  And, in a week-or-so's time, we'll pick out the best ten and put them to the former shadow home secretary.  He'll get back to us all a few days later.  And the commenters whose questions are chosen will all win Coffee House t-shirts and copies of the special 180th Anniversary issue of The Spectator. Time to get posting...

Peter Hoskin

David Davis: the morning view

From our UK edition

A flick through the papers this morning just confirms the spilt between the political commentariat and the public over David Davis. Most of the headlines are of the negative – or, at least, mitigated – variety: “David Davis turns Labour tragedy into Labour farce” and “From from bruiser to loser”, for instance. Although Quentin Letts and Simon Heffer swim against that particular tide. For myself, I think there's something sublime about Davis' actions. They're so far-removed from what we normally expect of politicians that it's hard not to applaud. But it's this quality that makes it difficult to offer further comment – when the unprecedented comes along, who knows what will happen next?

Thursday

Peter Hoskin

Labour to decline challenging Davis?

From our UK edition

Over at Three Line Whip, it's being reported that Labour think it "highly unlikely" that they'll put forward a candidate in David Davis' constituency of Haltemprice & Howden.  As James said earlier, victory in an effectively uncontested by-election could leave Davis with egg on his face.

Peter Hoskin

Will David Davis achieve anything?

From our UK edition

I find it hard to be cynical about Davis’ actions today. Rather than being a “publicity stunt”, I suspect they may demonstrate that rarest of things – a politician acting on principle. But, whatever you think on that front, there’s a separate question: what will Davis achieve? I’m not sure it will be all that much. Some thoughts on why: 1) The 42-day legislation hasn’t been passed yet. If anything, the smart money’s on it not getting through the Lords (and possibly then entering a period of wrangling, courtesy of the Parliament Act). In that case, Davis will be running a by-election campaign largely against a policy which isn’t in place.

Peter Hoskin

Davis announces his resignation

From our UK edition

So that's it then.  Here are Davis' own words:  "This cannot go on. It must be stopped and for that reason I feel it incumbent on me to make a stand. I will be resigning from this House and will force a by-election. I am just a piece in this great chess game. I will argue against the slow strangulation of fundamental British freedoms by this government. This may mean I have made my last speech to the House. That would be a cause of great regret to me. But at least my electorate and the nation as a whole whould have had the opportunity to debate and consider one of the most fundamental issues of the day.

Peter Hoskin

Clegg confirms the Davis story

From our UK edition

Nick Clegg takes a principled stance, and confirms what we've been hearing about Davis: "David Davis's decision to resign his seat and fight a by-election over the issue of 42 days is a dramatic move. I am grateful to him for having informed me following the vote of his intention to take this step.   "The Liberal Democrats have consistently opposed this unnecessary and illiberal proposal which poses a threat so serious to British liberties that it transcends party politics.   "I have therefore decided, after consultation with the Party nationally and locally, that we will not stand a candidate at the forthcoming by-election which will be contested by David Davis solely on this issue.

Peter Hoskin

Breaking: David Davis resigns

From our UK edition

According to Politics Home, David Davis has resigned as an MP. As of yet, it's uncertain why.  We'll have more shortly. Stay tuned. UPDATE: Nick Robinson's reporting a row between Davis and Cameron.  Apparently, though, Davis' friends are denying that he's resigned. UPDATE 2: Here's the BBC story.  They're running with the resignation line.

Peter Hoskin

Can we blame the DUP?

From our UK edition

The DUP’s actions over the 42-day detention vote yesterday have provoked quite a lot of anger. CoffeeHouser ‘cuffleyburgers’ provides a good example of that: “…the DUP worms who sold their principles down the river in exchange for some as-yet-unclarified bribe.”  And then there are posts from Daniel Hannan and Iain Dale, among others. But is it right to blame the DUP? I’m not so sure. Yes, money may have overridden principle in this case (although it’s still unclear how many DUP MPs were in support of 42-day detention anyway). But isn’t one expectation of MPs that they represent the interests of their constituents? And, boy, have the DUP done that – whether intentionally or unintentionally.

Peter Hoskin

A waste of time

From our UK edition

Plenty of reaction to the 42-day vote in this morning's papers.  A summary of the consensus: enjoy this success while you can Brown, because it won't last long.  But of the all the angry column pieces, Steve Richards' is perhaps the most incisive.  His thesis is that Brown has wasted Government time in the effort to get his detention proposals through Parliament: "Here is a Labour government with possibly less than two years left in power. If it loses the next election, the party could be out of power for two terms at least.

Wednesday

Peter Hoskin

MPs’ pettiness over expenses doesn’t help

From our UK edition

Thanks to the High Court, we’ll be seeing full details of MPs’ expenses in October. That’s a good thing.  But, as Three Line Whip is reporting, some MPs are still waging personal campaigns against the decision. The culprit this time is the Tory MP Julian Lewis. In response to the High Court judgment that the addresses of MPs’ second homes should be released, he’s demanding that the home addresses of the judges presiding over the case also be made public. The reason? None, beyond sheer pettiness. And that’s not something that becomes our parliamentary representatives. Thankfully, Jack Straw’s declining to release the addresses.

Peter Hoskin

Is the 42-day vote still too close to call?

From our UK edition

As a partial counterpoint to Fraser's post, Ben Brogan writes on his blog: "Mr Brown's spokesman a short while ago said if the vote were held now "the Government would not have enough votes to win". We are also told there is no deal with the DUP. And someone else on the Government side has just told me the advice is "brace yourselves". Certainly, the DUP are taking this to the wire."  Of course, this is the message coming out of the Government, so take it with a pinch of salt.  But, even so, all signs suggest it will be very, very close either way.

Peter Hoskin

Is Ed Balls trying to kill off grammar schools?

From our UK edition

Janet Daley writes on Ed Balls' latest initiative: So what Mr Balls is proposing is effectively merging local secondary moderns with grammars. And what do you call a grammar school that is merged with a secondary modern? Why, a “comprehensive school” of course. It was precisely that sort of “take-over” (or merger) that produced the first generation of comprehensives – and which resulted not in the raising of all schools to grammar standards, but to the collapse of the grammar school ethos and its tradition of academic achievement.

Peter Hoskin

MPs to vote on 42-day detention

From our UK edition

After all the talk, exhortations and hand-wringing, today's the day that MPs finally vote on the Government's 42-day detention plan. That will happen at 7pm, and we can expect a result shortly afterwards. So what to look out for? Obviously, the key question is whether there are enough rebels for the Government to be defeated. At the moment, it's too close to call. Over the past few days, Team Brown has been desperately trying to buy the votes of the 9 Democratic Unionist MPs in the House, which could be sufficient to swing things in favour of 42-day detention. The latest news is that the Government's offer of £200 million extra cash for Northern Ireland has been accepted by the nine, and they'll vote accordingly.