I haven't yet heard anyone recommend 42 days detention without charge except on the radio. Like many I was dismayed that the government won its vote in the Commons especially as it seems certain that inducements were being offered to Labour and Democratic Unionist MPs that fell in with the idea.
How sincere the government is with its arguments that 42 days are necessary is difficult to say. Whatever their level of sincerity on the issue, it probably wasn't as high as their fear of being confounded again so soon after the 10p tax fiasco.
The danger now is that some completely unforeseen set of circumstances will conspire - in say another three years' time (or maybe 10 or 12 years down the road) - to bring about just the kind injustice that the opponents of 42 day detention fear and the government denies will ever happen.
As for David Davies bye-election, I'm not sure what to make of it. On the one hand, it seems to be harking back to Michael Heseltine's Mace wielding in the eighties. On the other, a lot of powerful people have gone out of their way to rubbish what he's doing so maybe he's got a point. Anyway, I hope there is more debate about British liberties and that these polls about 65 per cent of the people being in favour of 42 detention start to shift.
I guess the problem with David Davies's attempt to open up the debate about public safety and liberty is that the bye-election is going to happen months before the House of Lords get to debate (and throw out) the measure on 42 days.
The reason that I think David Davies's stand is the better one is that, with all the threats to living standards that the UK could face in the next couple of years, threats to personal liberty could come to seem even less important. The greater danger is the damage we could inflict on ourselves rather than the threats from outside extremists.
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The Irish referendum has provided some entertaining interviews with politicians denying that the Lisbon Treaty was dead in the water.
I think the politicians have got a point; the EU does need to become stronger but they haven't even begun to initiate a debate about how greater strength AND more democratic accountibility is achieved.
Obviously, with President Sarkozy and Chancellor Merkel saying that the EU member states should steam ahead with their ratifications, it's looking unlikely that we're going to get the debate yet. But Mr Brown could make a start by not allowing any more parliamentary time for debating the treaty until the situation has become clearer. Perhaps the time could be devoted to a debate about how the EU could advance properly.
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The Financial Services Authority's decision to force short sellers of shares to declare themselves if the company they're shorting is in the middle of a rights issue and they borrow 0.25% or more of the stock raises some interesting questions.
Exactly, how do the 'shorters' engineer the effect they are hoping for?
If so much of the stock is being borrowed for shorting, why don't the institutions who are lending it out - and who, presumably, will lose out if the shares drop in price, refuse to lend or charge more?
At some point there are going to be so many shorters needing to borrow to short that the stock will be in short supply for borrowing purposes. At the moment there seems to be a stock lending market that operates without anyone really knowing what the market price is. Is this what the FSA's new regulation is designed to make clearer?
personally, with those impressive dividends, I don't see why bank stocks are so unpopular at the moment. The possibility of shares that yield 10% in the middle of serious economic problems seems puzzling.
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This has been a busy writing week so it's been interesting and challenging. However, I took a couple of hours out on Friday afternoon for a walk. Although I've lived in the area for 10 years I'd never been for a walk on the western side of the Devil's Punchbowl. This is actually much better than the eastern rim. The view is better - you can see Leith Hill over the top of the far side of the 'Bowl' and you're so far away from the A3 that you can hardly hear the traffic. I'm beginning to think that the tunnel is worthwhile after all.
When you get to the top there are ponies and highland cattle grazing. Thankfully, they're all very placid.
