Philip Davies – Grow Up

Tory MP Philip Davies, so far to the right of the party that UKIP declined to field a candidate against him in 2010, is one of those reasons I would hate to still live in the Shipley constituency nowadays, even though most of the folks there are sound and the area is, after all, in God’s Own County. He is, as they say in Yorkshire, all wind and piss, something he prefers to call “straight talking”.

"Who, me?" ... Yes, YOU

In this, Davies continues the recent tradition of Shipley enduring apparently useful but in reality pretty poor Tory MPs (those of A Certain Age will recall the similarly bluff Marcus Fox, who was more concerned with maximising the return on his many directorships than bothering to serve his constituents). Much of Davies’ hot air generation has been directed at alleged lefties and supposed political correctness.

To demonstrate this commitment, and show that he was indeed A Man Of The People, Davies showered the Equality and Human Rights Commission with numerous faux concerns, such as “Is it offensive to black up or not, particularly if you are impersonating a black person?” and “Whether it was racist for a policeman to refer to a BMW as ‘black man's wheels’”.

For folks like me who call a BMW a Bavarian Manure Wagon, this was additionally confusing, but as Sir Sean nearly said, I think we got the point. But, while Davies loves handing out this meaningless guff, he hates anyone standing their ground and calling him out on it. So when he was asked A Real Question by news anchor Jon Snow during a tour of the ITN studios yesterday, it was mardy strop time.

While Snow and co-presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy made light of the exchange, the blubbering Davies ran off to tell teacher – well, the right-leaning press, anyway – that the rotten lefty was the one wot done it. Here, he was well served by the obedient hackery of the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre: “The luvvie newsreader, the bluff Yorkshire Tory and a furious scrap played out across the newsroom at 'Left-wing' Channel 4” thundered the Daily Mail today.

And, as the man said, there’s more: “Mr Davies allegedly accused presenter of being biased suggested retirement ... But the Tory MP said the allegations were 'lies' and insists he said 'nothing' ... Mr Davies told Mail Online he was 'ambushed' during tour of newsroom”. What actually happened? Snow asked Davies to give one example of the “left-wing bias” accusation he makes of him.

The Telegraph was appalled at this, and also weighed in: “Mr Davies denied reports by the Guardian website that he had started the row by accusing Mr Snow of Left-wing bias and suggesting he should retire”. But it had to admit that Davies was unable to back up his claim of bias.

Philip Davies needs to grow up, get off his hobby-horse, and try being an MP.