Libertarian Davis backs Liberal Cameron

David Davis was on the Today programme this morning - to discuss Tory opposition to Labour's plans to reduce the 43 police forces of England and Wales to something between 12 and 19 in total.   The LibDems and Tories are uniting - again - in their opposition to this Labour project.

This was Mr Davis' first major interview since losing the Tory leadership and he took the opportunity to welcome the progress that "Cameron's Conservatives" have made over the last twelve days.  Describing himself as a libertarian he welcomed Mr Cameron's efforts to tackle the perception that Tories stood against immigrant communities.  He said that Tories needed to combine a policy of controlled immigration with respect for minority communities.

With Mr Davis united behind his leadership rival Tory harmony could hardly be more different from the situation in the Labour party.  The Eton Mafia's Education Bill tactics have propelled the normally loyal John Prescott into public opposition to Tony Blair's education reforms and Gordon Brown is said to be unhappy at Tony Blair's EU retreat.  This is how The Sun sees the changing political landscape this morning:

"When Margaret Thatcher beat Neil Kinnock in 1987 many political experts said Labour were finished for all time.  They could not have been more wrong.  When John Major, William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Howard all sank as Tory leader the same experts said the Conservatives would never come back.  Yet a weekend poll puts new Tory leader David Cameron an astonishing NINE percentage points ahead of Labour.  It just goes to show that in politics it’s dangerous to try to be wise even after the event."

Comments

[Howard Stevenson]

I heard DD on the Today program this morning. He was very good( no hums and ahs). He presented a very cogent argument about the importance of perception. I guess DD meant what he said about the wristband generation, as Camerons stance on immigration is in tune with that.

What with William Hague putting the boot into Blair on Sunday, Davies today giving the government short shrift on the police mergers, the shadow front bench begins to look like a credible government in waiting.

[Coxy]

Davis is actually more pro-civil liberties than people give him credit for.

Does anyone know if Cameron's Conservatives are going to oppose ID cards? Howard didn't (not really), but Davis did.

[Graeme Archer]

I agree with Coxy -- I don't know why it should be surprising given that we're all Tories/Conservatives/Liberals/You Know What I Mean -- I always found DD at his best when he expounds the solid, no-nonsense Our Liberty Matters viewpoint. We're a movement, not an ideology, and his intellectual strength, I think, is his ability to use demotic language to explain the importance of freedom. Someone - apologies - posted elsewhere today that we're beginning to look like an alternative government. I agree. Davis' fundamental understanding that liberty requires defending, coupled with Cameron's insight that freedom-to-act requires action to protect the weak: I think that would give me nightmares if I were a Labour strategist.

[Graeme Archer]

PS Not to mention nightmares if I were a LibDem "strategist", though I think they rarely rise above tactics. Let's make it so obvious that the only way to stand up to every strand of this appalling government's authoritarianism is from a centre-right movement, and make it impossible for the sensible Liberals to internalise their continued presence in a left-wing Kennedyesque rump.

[James Hellyer]

The government's proposals here are just bizarre. If the aim was to combalt terrorism and organised crime, surely creating a British vesion of the FBI would be more to the point (this has been something the ACPO has suggested since the late 90s).

[Wat Tyler]

Quite agree James.

But as we know, the real agenda is to wrest yet more control of the £16 bn pa police away from us pesky locals and into the centralising Home Office.

These reforms- quite apart from the cost and disruption- are heading in exactly the wrong direction.

[Ted]

"The government's proposals here are just bizarre"

Sounds a good strapline for a Tory ad about most of Blair's third term proposals...

It was good to hear David Davis this morning - getting to put the boot in, but in a well thought out and constructive way. Too often our spokesman appear on Today without a strong alternative suggestion. I hope that this positive "we can make it better" opposition, displaying the range of talents we have now got on the front bench is what we can expect going forward.

40% in the polls, DC setting the fox among the Lib and Lab hens, DD and Hague his two real big beasts (not the has beens sniping from the sides) opearating to destroy Labours reputation in Home and Foreign Affars (but in that positive, constructive, big tent way of course). Even the Boy Osborne managing to match Brown...what fun :-)

[Selsdon Man]

David Davis is not a Libertarian. He is a social authoritarian as demonstrated by his policies on drugs and the liberalisation of licensing hours and gambling.