Am I going to become a Tory?

David Davies' recent decision to resign as an MP to force a by-election and debate on the erosion of UK civil liberties (you can now be arrested for 42 days without charge, there are CCTV cameras for every 14 people, the biggest DNA database in the world in percentage terms) has attracted a lot of scorn from media and politicians, but it does seem to have had the side effect of suddenly making the Tories look almost electable. Which is one hell of a neat trick, but a bit of a reflection of a growing trend where people now seem ready to come out of the Tory closet.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, when Margaret Thatcher and then Tony Blair were in charge, nobody in my circle of friends would even countenance the idea of voting Tory. Thatcher's ghost still loomed large, and Blair seemed to be doing a damn good job.

Then suddenly came the Iraq war, withdrawal of student grants, ID cards, the rise of management consultants everywhere, and now Labour are starting to look bloody authoritarian - which, when coupled with civil servants' transparent disdain for actually securing peopele's personal data - is not a good combo.

Hell, during the recent London mayoral elections, some friends of mine were openly declaring their support for the Tories and Boris. And that would never have happened in the 1980s and 1990s (notwithstanding the fact that there weren't any mayoral elections then...)

So in about three years, Labour have gone from being seemingly invincible to throwing away the next general election. and thus letting the Tories back in. Who, to be fair, would probably have also said yes to a 42-day detention, a war with Iraq etc.

Oh dear.