What the Romans did for David Davis
By Tony Watts - Editor - 11/07/2008
Henry Ford dismissed history as bunk. Hegel reckoned that “We learn from history that man can never learn anything from history.” But I prefer author Alex Haley’s take: “Unless we learn from history, we are destined to repeat it.”
To what avail is all this? Well it struck me that if David Davis had studied Classics rather than Business at University, he might have heard about King Pyrrhus of Epirus. It was he that inspired the phrase “Pyrrhic victory – one that comes at a huge cost to the victor. He managed to inflict huge defeats on the Romans at Heraclea in 280 BC and Asculum in 279 BC – but lost so many men that his victories inflicted far more damage to him than the Romans, who had a plentiful supply of men to call on.
Certainly the Tories have been distracted by the by-election, but they will march on regardless – with plenty of candidates to fill Mr Davis’s boots. His future looks less certain.
It was all down to principle, we were assured. Which is admirable. But I’ve yet to find anyone who thinks that by resigning his seat and standing on the platform of individual freedom Mr Davis has achieved anything substantial. Certainly I saw no signs of a national debate on this issue as a result – his avowed intention.
But was that likely anyway in the current climate? I’m as sorry as the next person that we have CCTVs watching our every move, but I feel a lot safer because they’re there. I’m sure I’m not alone in that.
Equally the prospect of everyone’s DNA being on a huge database is a pretty scary affair. But the prospect of catching murderers, rapists and terrorists before they strike again makes it, to me at least, a price worth paying. If they want mine, they're welcome to it.
Detaining people for a maximum of 42 days if the police really, really think that there is a case to be made – given time – well we’re living in very difficult times, so yes I’ll accept that one as well.
We live in a country where we take a robust view when the police or other authorities ride roughshod over our liberties – and long may that continue. An independent media makes sure of that. But liberty and responsibility cannot be separated.
Tellingly, one of the people standing against Davis in the by-election was Jill Saward. You may remember that she was the unfortunate rape victim at the Ealing Vicarage: after the horrendous assault, the perpetrator received a sentence of just three years. She was standing on a principle too: the rights of the victims of crime. Had I been eligible to vote, she should have got my vote, and not Mr Davis.
We hear an awful lot about the rights of criminals, and I think it’s fair to say that the majority of people feel that the pendulum has now swung too far in that direction.
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YOU RESPOND
Mr Watts makes many valid points and I imagine that most of we pensioners and disabled people agree with what he says.
I am 76 and live in a vulnerable peoples' Sheltered Housing Scheme complex. Every year several tenants here experience an attempted or "successful" burglary or personal attack.
Apart from the actual economic losses incurred, collective and individual personal confidence and sense of physical security have been dealt such a blow that our lives are altered for the worse - permanently. Fear becomes a permanent constituent of our lives.
This sense of social oppression spreads to other tenants and to any loved ones who remain to us. What might seem to be a fairly trivial incident to others is a disaster to the victims; very rarely do their lives return to an even keel.
The social ripples of these incidents expand to touch other such ripples, creating a mini-zeitgeist in the general population that those with the power to change things would do well to consider.
A powerful United States law enforcement officer and security expert once said, albeit in another - international - context, "If we aren't trampling on a few civil liberties, we're not doing our job".
As Mr Watts implies, it's a matter of social priorities and it is about time these priorities were addressed - quickly.
John Carr, Chairman,
Liverpool Older Peoples' Reference Group.
(Personal capacity)