A VOICE FOR ALL VICTIMS

I always thought David Davis' self-inflicted byelection was a bit strange.

Doing the unusual is no bad thing for politics, but on the other hand if you want to change the law, staying in a position where you might become Home Secretary in a couple of years seems like a bit of a no-brainer.

But it's got a bit more interesting now that the anti-rape campaigner Jill Saward is standing against him. She was a victim of a heinous crime, and she's standing to highlight the rights of those people on the receiving end. As she says: "While it is important that everybody has a fair trial and that all prisoners are treated fairly, nobody is speaking out for victims."

In all the fuss over 42 days, it's been forgotten that Davis was also against CCTV. I'm all for making sure that CCTV is covered by the law, useful to the cops and not just used as fodder for late-night TV shows. But that's different to getting rid of it altogether - there are plenty of crooks who only ever got taken off the streets because they got caught that way. So I'm not convinced.

Whatever your view, there are people on both sides of this argument with thoughtful ideas, expressed with real conscience.

Jill Saward might give us a proper debate in this by-election. I've chucked a few bob into her self-financed campaign, and anyone else can too... at www.jillsaward.co.uk