Resigning Tories

Two Tory resignations over the past week, both of them wrong as far as I'm concerned.

First came David Davis (without an "e"). He resigned because of the 42 day disgrace played out in Parliament last week. After Brown managed to buy enough votes from his rebels and Ulster Unionists (offering them things that had nothing to do with 42 days) Davis was so disgusted he resigned his seat and intends to stand a by-election on this single issue. First of all I have to say that he deserves our applause. I find it oh so cynical of many people to try and work out what the hidden motive is. Is he positioning himself for the leadership? Is he trying to damage Cameron? For once it seems that a politician has sacrificed a top job for what he believes in, credit must go where credit is due.

But even though I agree totally with Davis' view on 42 days, and even though I hope that his resignation will spur the debate against the proposed law, I think he is wrong to resign. If every MP who disagreed with a vote resigned we'd be out of MP's within a week. The whole point of having MP's is that they debate the matters before them and vote as they see fit. While there's no doubt that the government never won the 42 day argument, and only won thanks to their purchase power, the vote was won. Davis has to accept that, and should be using his power to convince the Lords to vote down the law, not using his time to beat a Miss World wannabe and an ex-editor of the Sun!

The second resignation is that of Alun Cairns following his "greasy wops" comment. Again i think that the resignation was wrong. Cairns was an idiot, a bloody idiot, for what he said. But he apologised within seconds and no-one is suggesting that there was malice in the words. To end the guy's career over it is way overreacting. On a side note though, I note that while Cairns resigned his front bench posts, it was David Cameron's decision to suspend him as a MP candidate. No word about his position as an AM. Does the London Tory Party think that Cairns is unfit to be an MP but is fine as an AM?

On a similar note, I watched the infamous Anne Robinson Room 101 appearance on YouTube yesterday and I can't remember what the fuss was about. It was only the baying audience that was truly offensive, Robinson's comments were more of a compliment than an insult!

Note: I'm sure Vaughan never thought his nae would appear in the Italian print!