A bizarre poll in today’s Times newspaper implies that 50% of Conservative Party voters support David Davis as the new leader of the party, compared to 37% for David Cameron.

Why is this bizarre? Two reasons:

1. Conservative Party voters, i.e. those that support the party, don’t vote in the leadership election. It’s only members, and previous polls have indicated that they prefer David Cameron.
2. The same Times/Populus poll shows that 45% of voters think that David Cameron is more likely to win a general election, compared to 11% for David Davis.

This second point indicates that these voters would be quite happy for David Davis to become leader, but David Cameron to win the election. Sorry, but you can’t have it both ways. Isn’t it obvious what to do?

Another thing that I’ve found strange over the past few years is the archaic voting system in the Houses of Parliament. Today, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw is coming back from Russia for a crucial vote on the Terrorism Bill. Chancellor Gordon Brown was called back from an official visit to Israel just after he landed in that country. Yes, you have to vote in person! No proxies, no internet voting. Nothing as organised as that.

Which brings me to the Terrorism Bill. The core issue appears to be the length of time suspects should be held for without charge. Currently it is 14 days, but the government wants this extended to 90 days, following dispositions from the Police, “because of the complexity and mass of evidence in terrorism cases.” Australia is also debating this issue, however, they are discussing extending this duration from 7 days to 14 days. These two extremes tell you a lot about the level of competence in the respective police forces.