A Man of Principle - or a Cynical Opportunist?

One of the things human being appear to dislike most is a nasty surprise.
On our little allotment in South Gloucestershire in the good old Dis-United Kingdom Nosher and I don't get many nasty surprises, and when we do, they're usually in the form of pestilence, flood or other untoward natural events.
The Tory Party, on the other hand, received a nasty surprise when David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, suddenly announced his resignation as an MP, intending to stand again in his constituency solely on the issue of the 42-day detention Bill, passed yesterday in the House of Commons.
Of course, we had no inkling of this as we arrived this morning at our allotment to survey our little plots after a night's heavy rain. The plants had survived intact, and we busied ourselves tying things up and pottering about until lunchtime, by which time the sun had reappeared and we settled down on our old deckchairs outside Nosher's shed for a spot of lunch.
Nosher's trannie broke the news, and as he listened to Davis' press statement outside the Houses of Parliament Nosher's face broke into a beaming smile.
'Well, no matter that I don't like all politicians on principle' he declared 'this is one occasion when my admiration is due to a man who's either a cynical opportunist, a fool, or a man of principle. Or perhaps a little of all three. I like it when politicians resign, and this is as good a reason as any.'
'Pity the rest of them didn't resign as well' I said 'if all the MPs who voted against the Bill resigned, then it would probably force a General Election. At the very least it would give much of the electorate an opportunity to vote directly on an issue that is fundamental to our constitutional freedoms.'
'The public opinion polls claim that the majority of voters support the 42-day detention proposal' Nosher said 'although if the question is loaded with fear of terrorism to begin with the response is perhaps predictable. If they'd been asked whether they wanted the Police to have the power to lock them up for six weeks with no right of appeal I suspect the response would have been very different. Since every piece of anti-terror legislation thus far has been applied much more widely than was proposed during the debate preceding the vote in Parliament, we can be pretty sure this one will be too.'
'The pessimists who claim that this is all part of a stealthy progress towards a police state are almost certainly right' I said 'and I wonder how long it will be before political dissidents are being locked up without charge for weeks at a time?'
'If this Bill becomes Law it will be only a matter of time' said Nosher.
More from http://www.overthegardenfence.blogspot.com/ soon.
Find out more at http://www.paulsturdee.co.uk/
and http://www.pgsbooks.co.uk/
Paul Sturdee's book Is God a Terrorist? is available from all good booksellers - please support your local bookshop, if you don't, it may not be there next time you visit!
If you have any difficulty obtaining a copy, contact the PGSBooks website.
Best wishes, and take care out there!