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Thursday, July 10, 2008, 07:00
It's D-Day for David Davis and his civil liberties crusade.
Voters in the Haltemprice and Howden constituency go to the polls today with their former MP hoping for a vindication of his personal stand on freedom and liberty.
Although he is expected to win, the size of the turnout will be a measure of how well his own argument has been received.
In the last General Election three years ago, there was a 70.2 per cent turnout in the constituency.
Standing against him are a record 25 candidates, although neither Labour or the Liberal Democrats are taking part in the contest.
Instead, his opponents range from the deadly serious Green Party to the somewhat more frivolous Church Of The Militant Elvis Party.
Closing his campaign with an event in Willerby, Mr Davis was joined by the unlikely combination of Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti and Labour MP Bob Marshall-Andrews.
However, all three were upstaged by Rachel North, a survivor of the 7/7 bombings in London, who spoke movingly about her own experience and her belief that the Government was using anti-terror legislation for political ends.
She also said the issues raised by Mr Davis transcended party politics.
“I am not a Tory and I don't think I will ever line-up that way, but if you do not stand up for something you believe in you will fall for anything and that's why I support David on this stand,” she said.
Ms North, who was on one of the bombed London Tube trains, accused the Government of indulging in what she claimed was “the politics of fear” by proposing the controversial 42-day detention limit for terrorist suspects.
“The aim of the terrorist is not to kill hundreds or thousands of people. The real aim is to unleash fear and when that fear is unleashed the aim is to make you forget who you are and what you stand for.
“When terrorists attack they try to divide us, make us lash out in anger and fear. That way they can recruit more people against us.”
She said her last memory from the bombing was of injured passengers calmly helping each other immediately after the blast, unaware in the darkness of each other's colour, creed or sexuality.
“We were just humans in the dark helping each other. The reality is that we are each other's best security. We are the guardians of each other's liberties.”
Mrs Chakrabarti said this week's opposition to the 42-day policy by leading members of the House of Lords was a powerful vindication of what Mr Davis had been campaigning on.
“This is a pivotal moment in history and I would urge people to go out in vote in numbers at the Haltemprice and Howden by-election,” she said.
David Davis on the campaign trail at Willerby Manor
It's never dull in Hull, is it?
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