Party Political Animal

Posts Tagged ‘David Davis’

What on earth is David Davis thinking of? Himself, of course. Nothing new in that. He’s a politician, after all, and only marginally more ego-maniacal than the rest of the species – or the rest of us, come to think of it.

Am I being too sceptical? I think not. I am pretty well acquainted with David Davis  and he specialises in two things – political tactics and himself.

As an on-my-way Tory whip in 1991, Davis ran a secretive group called ‘Q’. I know this because I was a member. 1991 was a tough year for the Tories. John Major had just taken over, an election was less than a year away and the post-Lawson recession had an icy grip on the economy. Kinnock and his mob looked depressingly like the government-in-waiting.

Q’s job was to brief precocious little backbenchers – such as myself – to pop up in the House and use any pretext to trash Kinnock and co to make them look unelectable. We did a pretty good job – though the likes of John Prescott and Kinnock himself were soft targets. It was blood-sport, really, but that’s for another day.

Davis loved Q and was a superb tactician. He was also overweeningly ambitious, which most of us forgave because he at least combined ambition with ability. But a man of deep principle? I think not.
Sure, David was known as a Man of the Right, a eurosceptic, but that didn’t stop him supporting Major over Maastricht and hammering the Tory rebels as a whip in 1992/3.

And David the Defender of our Great British Civil Liberties? Again, I think not. Remember that he supported and voted for detention for 28 days – as most Tories did. So is another 14 days worth resigning for? The real divide is surely between people who don’t trust governments with any extension beyond 48 hours – or at worst the seven days introduced in 2003 – and those for more than seven days is fine.

And David, like most of the rest of his Party, has flip-flopped over identity cards – first supporting, then opposing, then supporting and now apparently finally settling on opposition – thank goodness – I was getting quite dizzy.
 
David, to be fair, has never been keen on ID cards, but he still managed to vote for them in 2004 – and then against in 2005.

The bigger truth is that David Davis is probably having a fit of chippiness as he sees the Old Etonian ya’s who took over the party he himself felt destined to lead looking increasingly electable. Until a few months, ago David could still realistically hope that if Dave stumbled, he was a banker to step up.

So David still has the big ego and ambition I remember from the 1990s – but great principles? Possibly not. And his grip of political tactics has clearly departed.

Phillip Oppenheim