If I spend the rest of my time on the back benches, so be it. I'm comfortable with that because the price was worth paying for what we got out of it. If I am asked back to do a serious job I'll find it very hard to say no because, like most MPs, I have a sense of duty. But if people want to bring me back just for the sake of bringing me back, then I will say no. I don't want to be brought back just as some sort of emblem. I am emblematic of a certain sort of conservatism. It's one of my problems and I understand that, but that's not my role in life. If it happens, then fine. I don't expect it to, and I think the probability is that it won't.
Make of that what you will.
I had a lot of respect for DD until he went down the road of gesture politics, whilst occupying an important job in the shadow cabinet. They are doing rather well, without him, at the moment and I think thats how things will continue.
ReplyDeleteThe last thing David Cameron needs is a loose cannon....
What I make of it is that it speaks volumes for the Tory leadership's commitment to, and belief in, indivudual freedom. If Cameron cared about our liberties half as much as we need him to then he would have brought Davis back by now and, in the process, said to him "I want to make this country free again; work out how we make it happen".
ReplyDeletePresumably he went on to say that David Cameron enjoyed his full support and that he could foresee no circumstances in which that would change.
ReplyDeleteHe did not sound that confident at the Convention on Modern Liberty, that the Cameronian Conservative Party was going to have much truck with personal freedom being at the top of the agenda- where that leaves the likes of Redwood,Carswell and DD, I don't know.
ReplyDeleteIts a shame to see talent rot on the back benches
If only David Davis would stand for England. There doesn't seem to be one Conservative MP that gives a damn about the Barnett Formula or the WLQ.
ReplyDeleteThank goodness. When I saw the post-title in a blog-roll I was afraid for a minute that this would be more about Draper's downfall!
ReplyDeleteAFAIK DD was remarkably quiet during the Wilders business. Did anyone hear him speak up?
Dennis - ditto, for Mr Knight of White Charger I didn't notice any big coverage of his crusading.
ReplyDeletePerhaps I went blind as a result of too many boot-polish sandwiches in the run up to Dr Liam 'Look at Me' Donaldson latest media whoring.
*lies down with cold flannel*
Iain - could you just remind me what it was that David achieved through his resignation?
ReplyDelete"I am emblematic of a certain sort of conservatism"
ReplyDeleteYes, the kind with principles.
Principles, by the way, together with cojones, are making a comeback. Tom Harris has got them. Perhaps David Cameron should contact his focus groups to discern whether this is the right time for him to acquire a set.
WV is TORILIBL
Given the thinness of Cameron's current front bench, he must have some pretty acute party mangement problems that prevent him bringing back Davis. An ycluse on who the objectors to Davis really are?
ReplyDeleteAfter the first 7 months of a Cameron premiership, when the voters realise that pulling out of the EPP was not a precursor to holding a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty and when the lights have gone out all over Britain because the government didn't have a policy to address the growing energy deficit. When the disenchanted 3 million unemployed refuse to learn Polish, Latvian or Greek in order to get a job. The Members of the 1922 committee will meet in candle light and discuss weather they should back DD for leader.
ReplyDeleteGissa job, Dave...
ReplyDeleteThe Conservative Party does not have sufficient popular, experienced and powerful figures to leave DD in the wilderness.
ReplyDeleteWhatever may have gone on behind the scenes when DD resigned his seat, Cameron should be big enough to forgive and forget.
This is especially true because DD reaches parts of the electorate that DC cannot and probably never will.
I doubt that DD will do anything other than toe the party line - just like Ken Clarke.
Is DD Front Bench material? Yes he's very good, but is he what's needed at this particular juncture?
ReplyDeleteWhat a load of cobblers off course he wants to come back.
ReplyDeleteHe should come back and initially play a major role in the campaign and then get a top job in the new Government.
It all depends on whether Chris Grayling will get the Home Office in government. My hunch is not - he would be better employed as Cameron's Minister for the Today Programme and all-round attack-dog - and that a way will be found to bring DD back after the election.
ReplyDeleteDD is special forces. He doesn't fit well into the big battalions set piece battles, but could be very effectively deployed on special projects.
ReplyDeleteIf I were David Cameron that's how I'd try to deploy him.
Has he taken the "How Conservative Are You? test?
ReplyDeleteIs it true that DC scored 399?