Though Cowards Flinch

It was November 2005 when Blair was defeated over 90 day detention plans by the revolt of 49 Labour MP’s, to overturn the Government majority with a vote of 322-291. The ensuing media furore followed Blair’s almost apocalyptic comments that he hoped MPs would not “rue the day” they opposed his bill. He also famously declared that MPs were out of touch with the public, practically pinching lines from Gladiator’s Emperor Commodus.

Messianic content aside, it is now nearly two and a half years since Blair darkened our airwaves with such nonsense and there has been no repeat of the 7/7 bombings. The only real difference, as Round 2 rolls around is that instead of David Cameron and Charles Kennedy using the occasion of a defeat to demand resignation and to pompously call the Labour leader a ‘lame duck,’ it will be David Cameron and Nick Clegg this time. The vote for 42-day detention limits is now on the horizon.

This time certain people who voted for the 90-day detention limit are reconsidering their position. Andrew Dismore, chair of the Human Rights Committee, who voted for the 90-day limit, has said, “I’m not convinced the government has made a case. I voted for 90 days because I did not see an alternative. What has changed my mind is that I now think there is an alternative package.” Naturally the 23-member Socialist Campaign Group, headed by John McDonnell, will also vote against the detention limit being extended.

Yet the matter still hangs in the balance – Labour may pick up some of the more reactionary votes, such as the DUP. If the Labour overall majority is 67, then 34 Labour MPs need to vote against the bill; if certain elements of other parties vote for the bill then that amount will increase proportionately. I don’t think they will; the Conservatives and their unionist allies would much prefer to give Labour a bloody nose than stand on mere principle.

Labour’s majority in parliament, minus the Campaign Group, is down to 21; only eleven more Labour members of parliament need to be convinced that they face political problems in their own backyards should they vote for this bill. With members like Andrew Smith in Oxford East fearing challenges from the holier-than-thou Lib Dems, I don’t think
this should be much of a challenge for the left.