When he quit parliament

I vaguely remember stating "one down 600 more to go."

Now he has a spine and is standing up for freedom,

Perhaps it is "1 down, 600 more to go."

Labout not standing, they lost to the BNP, so I think we know there reasons.

Wish I could be like...

David Icke.

I'm pretty new here: "favourite boomtown rat"?

So who are the less-favoured ex-boomtown rats? How much more do we like SirBob than the others, is there a close second, are they all distant or is there a really-disliked one?

If possible on a visual or metric scale. It seems friday is unitintroductionday (as the "chorus girl's wingspan" was introduced as unit of circumference apparently), so please help us understand.

Neil Glass, author of SQUANDERED, is also a candidate

Political writer and author Neil Glass (a.k.a. David Craig) is also standing, he claims that the research for his book 'Squandered' that explores how "Gordon Brown has wasted over one trillion pounds of taxpayer's money" is the reason he is running.

I've read 'Squandered' (currently #21 in Amazon's Government & Politics section) and agree with most of the Amazon reviewers that it's readable and entertaining but terrifying that this much money can be wasted in ten years.

Doesn't mean that he'll be a good candidate, but his book is certainly a good read for El Reg readers.

"So What" politics

***"If Davis wins un-opposed, they can turn around and say "So what was the point of that?""***

But the official record will say "So weak was the point of that"

Rational hatred rant time…

I wish Bobbie G, would stop riding off the back of one hit and bloody band aid and just disappear.

Doe’s anyone out there say ‘OMG “Dr” Geldof is supporting this. I must sit up and listen.’?

Don’t get me started on Bono :-s

Mine the one with Midge Ure on the front. We know you were the brains to Bob’s ugly façade.

Banana republic???

Isn't that the name of one of Geldof's daughters.

Mines the one with zipper which won't release for 42 days.

Re: Re: Rational hatred rant time…

Come on... Just because someone has a little fame on their side that means that we should all jump up and down and follow? Why should his backing of a subject such as this matter at all.

Im all for people doing good. So do good, and then give someone else a turn.

Take these huge concert events. There are thousands of people behind the scenes at these things that are working their nuts off, but because Bob is the front man he gets the knighthood/*BE/honorary doctorate, whatever. It's media whoring at it's most blatant, and there are somepeople that make a lot of money from these.

The difference with Tony the 'guitarist', he was elected... We chose to put up with him..

Waste of time, waste of my money.

So he still insists on wasting away a few grand of taxpayers money on a pointless exercise. He knows he'll win and the other candidates are just in it for the publicity.

As for St Bob -it's good to see our celebs flying all over the planet going on about climate change and food prices going up due to oil prices.

Nah, as The Special A.K.A. once sang "It's all a load of bollocks, and bollocks to it all".

"What terrorises the terrorists is our civilisation,"

What a fatuous thing to say, similar to "they hate our freedom", an utter nonsense.

Also, Davis has never before been interested in civil liberties, this is entirely ego-driven.

Empty gesture politics lapped up by the dim.

@ Burch

"Davis has never before been interested in civil liberties"

As The Register says in http://tinyurl.com/5jogu4, Davis has been interested in civil liberties and privacy issues for years.

I've spent the first 19 years of my life in a Communist-ruled country and have seen propaganda identical to the one NuLab spews today. So I applaud Davis for trying to stop Britain sliding into a sad parody of Khruschev-era USSR I know from my father's stories... us Yugoslavs laughed at paranoia our tourists have frequently encountered when visiting Russia, and wished our (more lenient) political system could be more like Britain. Today, it seems it's better to avoid USA/GB and stay at home or visit Russia if I want a hassle-free holiday.

Has nobody noticed...

That Davis resigned on a Magna Carta point of principle against imprisonment without charge for 42 days. Good for him!

But he also voted for, and STILL strongly supports on his blog, imprisonment without charge for 28 days. Err...Hiss, Boo..?

I'm confused. Either he's a principled politician (in which case he does NOT support imprisonment without charge for one day), or he's a pragmatic politician who feels that 42 days is too long, but 28 days is about right. There isn't an in-between!

I'm fine with him being either one, but I think it's a bit naughty for him to claim that he's both, and it's a bit naughty for El Reg to support him in this....

The IT marker, because all this malarky is almost certainly about giving the police time to get their hands on a suspect computer system and see what they can make of it. No-one seems to appreciate this, and it would be nice for the Reg to do a piece on how long it might reasonably take to search the average protected computer. That would be a useful addition to the discussion....

Singers

Whenever the likes Geldof or Bono open their mouths, I'm afraid I'm reminded of the wise words about singers from the KLF's tongue-in-cheek guide to making a Number One single, i.e.:

"Singers - good or bad - are invariably a problem... they also tend to confuse their role as singer of songs with that of would-be world leaders."

Bob The Gelding

If Gelding has come to save us, I think that I'd rather do the 42 days!

Politician=Eunuch

Why do we see so many celebs "doing politics" - easy, because the politicians themselves have become so grey. At least in the Thatch, Kinnock etc times (pre-Bliar) you knew who these folks were. Now MPs have become so addicted to middle ground/rule-by-soundbite that they're all the same. Someone was remarking to me the other day that they couldn't name more than about five ministers and a deal less of their opposition "shadows" - you'd pass them in the street and not know!

So DD maybe a self-serving, publicity-whore (hence the icon) but at least you'd recognise him now, (although - like "DodgyGeezer" said - I'd like to know his opinion on the 28 day det-without-charge issue)

Anyone fancy putting up a "Sarah Bee for PM" candidate? I'll pass around the collection tin for the deposit...

@Svantevid

Yeah, Russia, pretty much run by ex-KGB. Your opinion is clearly worthless.

Davis wants publicity for his inevitable leadership contest, oh what a risk he's taking, standing again in an extremely safe Tory seat. It's not that I disagree with his objection to the law, but this will prove nothing, you could elect a pig in his constituency if it wore a blue rosette.

#

But hey, morons see it as some sort of stand. I hope he's prepared to pay for the cost of this waste of everyone's time.

oh god

Geldof is such a t***t,,if there is one party that did more to harm freedom of speech it was the CONservatives..if your going to tell a lie tell a big one..for those who have a freaking short memory it was them who introduced CCTV!

re: Davis for PM

"A man that believes something and is prepared to take a stand on it. Despite a newspaper poll? That's *leader* material, not follower material."

Tony believed that Iraq was right and took a stand against the whole country on it, inspite of the polls saying that the vast majority of the population didn't want another war. That kind of unstoppable belief and determination is a double-edged sword.

For every man who uses it for good, there are 10 who don't

A man of huge character.

If David Davis is prepared to put his ministerial career on the line, it demonstrates that he has a spine.

Effectively, he has called a local referendum on whether his constituents support this anti-terrorism legislation.

Unless it has changed, the majority of the "hang-em-and-floggem" press supports Brown's 42 days sh*te, so he has taken a big risk.

Now... Imagine a situation where one hundred plus Conservative and Labour MP's resigned and put themselves up for re-election over the lack of a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty?

Please State...

How long we should be allowed to spend in prison and what conditions therein. I would like to have sum idea if I am allowed to speak to anyone if I get clinked.

Would I be in solitary? How many hours banged up per day? What access to a lawyer, family and WTH else, just so the police can maintain the right to ask me.... whatever the hell they might want to ask me or not as the case may be?

I'd rather they were given the right to ask me questions after producing the body. I'd still have the right to STFU, I presume?

I presume too that exorcizing the right to STFU is what is being tortured the hell out of me?

BTW, did that religious persecution thing in Orkney a few decades ago ever get resolved? I'd hate to think what would happen if the monkey worshippers ever opened a Church of the Accidental Improvement.

(Imagine the anarchy the police would have to put down if the Atheists ever got organised! It would be enough to turn a Muslim oriental.).

AFT!

Where the hell are they finding space to put suspects when they can't afford to lock up serious crims?

Cause and Effect.

Cause: Davis endorsed by Bob Geldof.

Effect: The Official Monster Raving Loony Party order a few cases of Dom Perignon.