What Cost 42 Days

Obviously the biggest cost of yesterday's vote in favour of 42 days is to civil liberties. In order to win a vote on an issue where he had public opinion on his side Gordon Brown happily agreed to sign away a system put in place by the Magna Carta nearly 800 years ago. We should be in no doubt, Gordon Brown did not do this because he thought it was the right thing to do - there was nowhere near enough evidence to support that line - he did it because the British public are in favour of 42 days because of their fears over terrorism, which is not the same thing as genuine expert opinion supporting his case.

However, it seems there is also a huge financial cost. If the rumours are right he has sold his soul in some way to the DUP in order to gain their support - something that will not endear him to the left of his own party - but it seems that this agreement is along the lines of a £200m commitment. Who knows what other deals have been done with people from his own party for their votes - certainly this can only mean the diversion of yet more funds away from Conservative areas.

I wonder however, whether between now and the point where the Bill comes back before the Commons, the details of his dirty deals will leak out and he will upset some of his own side who were not offered incentives to vote with him causing an even bigger revolt as a result.