Whither David Davis?

We know that David Davis was re-elected for Haltemprice, etc, that he achieved 72% of the vote and 10 times as many votes as any other candidate, and that he has surprised some critics who were talking of a smaller and derisory majority and a very low turnout. (It should be said that other well known political figures were returned on much lower turnouts, - Portillo and Hilary Benn to name two, and that his percentage of electors in support was well above the national percentage that Tony Blair received for his mandate in 2005.

The question is, "What happens now?"

Most people seem agreed that Cameron cannot re-appoint him to the Shadow Cabinet immediately. Davis accepts that Dominic Grieve is doing a good job and shares most of Davis's views and convictions.

If a Shadow Cabinet member resigned for some reason - ill health, scandal, or whatever, and there was need for a shuffle, it would be interesting.

As been said elsewhere, it is arguable that three very effective and possible dissent focuses are Duncan-Smith, Redwood and Davis. They are all experienced and able to inflict damage on the Government. Cameron would not want Davis outside the shadow cabinet, interviewed on issues as an interesting and well-known Conservative rather in the way that Menzies Campbell was fetched in on foreign issues before he was leader of the Libdems.

To have Davis in the shadow cabinet, bound by collective responsibility and being spokesman only for his own limited area, makes sense. At the very least it would prevent opponents from trying to play him off against Cameron or the Party.

There is little doubt that Davis has succeeded in his objective, despite critics. He reached out beyond Party boundaries and was supported by others from other parties or no party. Several appeared with him or spoke at meetings. The issues he raised were seldom out of the media for the duration of his campaign, and he will have forged alliances with others for the future on the set of issues.

My own judgement is that he has shown himself a man whose convictions are more important than personal ambition, and those convictions are shared with large numbers of the electorate. He has made up for many of the frailties shown by other politicians recently, and in my opinion his reputation has been enhanced.

I have little doubt that he will be back in the (Shadow) Cabinet before very long. Almost single-handed he has seen off a number of ministers in the area of his brief, - Home Office, and he has shown he is well able to master complicated issues and argue forcibly. If he lacks the oratorical power of William Hague, he makes up for this in other ways.