David Davis And 42 Day By-Election

The short-term effect of David Davis running in a by-election, on the issue of 42-day detention, is a stunt. Labour only received 13% of the vote in his constituency in the last election, and the Lib Dems aren't running a candidate against him.

The long-term effect could be a solidification of Lib Dem-Tory relations. Nick Clegg was happy, in a constituency which was in the top 10 of Lib Dem targets, to stand aside nearly immediately.

Do we need a national re-examination of how we are sliding into a society with CCTV cameras, detention without trial, Belmarsh, and complicity in rendition? Do we need to look again at more than 2,000 Asbos being issued to children between 1999 and 2006, with some young children given Asbos lasting up to 10 years? Do we need to halt our expansion of prisons, and re-examine the per capita prison population that leads the industrialised world?

Sure.

But the Tories have been in favour of prison expansion and Asbos.

So, in terms of David Davis leading a debate on the direction of law and order/civil liberties policies in British society, he's not a perfect white knight.