“Banging on about Britain’s relationship with the European Union is a sure-fire way to turn off voters. That, at least, is the conventional wisdom of many advisers in No 10. Three years ago, they may well have been right. But not any more. Following the Prime Minister’s rejection of a new EU treaty, polls show a surge in Conservative support. Seventy per cent of voters want a referendum on Europe. Half want to leave the EU altogether. Euroscepticism has gone mainstream.

“[I]t is no wonder Euroscepticism is on the rise. The question now is what that means for our relationship with the EU, and for the Government’s strategy. Ministers should, of course, govern in a way that is consistent with popular opinion, although it should never dictate the details of negotiations, or the tactics used. Yet the rising tide of Euroscepticism is an opportunity. It gives the Government permission to negotiate a new relationship that better serves our interests.

“This relationship must focus less on integration and more on competitiveness, trade and prosperity. We should be able to veto damaging EU proposals like the Tobin tax and sidestep laws detrimental to our interests. We must follow the principle that if the EU proposes a law and Parliament rejects it, that law must not apply here.

“We are seeing the emergence of a new European politics – one dominated by the triumvirate of Germany, France and the European Commission. Now is the time to think seriously about our future in Europe – to discuss where Britain fits in, and what role we should play. That should be for the British people to decide in a referendum, something that may not happen any time soon. But we do know this: on the issue of determining our relationship with Europe, last week’s veto was not the end, but only the beginning.”

Meanwhile, I have written about the result itself, and what it might mean for the future, on my own ‘blog HERE.

After Desmond Swayne’s (actually very good) fifteen-minute speech at a dinner at Gillingham Golf Club, which also had a local reporter present, I asked him a question about the Conservative Party’s thoughts on where we go after the resounding success at Haltemprice and Howden. His response showed clearly how the party is very strongly in tune with this whole issue and for what David Davis was campaigning.

David Cameron himself has seemed a little reserved when asked about this whole resignation and by-election business, and the more experienced of us who have dealt with the media will have understood that this was done for very good reasons. However it has (among other Westminster Village originating reports) given scope for opponents to imply that there are major splits within the party.

In reality, although inevitably there will be differing opinions and feelings, as one would expect within a party with almost certainly the “broadest church” membership of any (and all of this is healthy), in reality it became beyond doubt that the two Davids are in accord on policy, and the party is behind them and the civil liberties issue. Swayne’s choice of words, delivery, and his body language all showed that very strongly, from one of the very people in the country who really knows, from the top of the Conservative Party.

What he said is encouraging for those who might think that Cameron and his team are just a cloning of the Blair formula. They most certainly are not! Yes, they’ll have to start from whatever situation the country is in at the time they come to government, just as Mrs Thatcher did nearly thirty years ago in 1979.

History is repeating itself to an extent, and the huge damage that has been done to our nation in the economic, freedoms and crime and justice arenas in particular, will take time to repair, just as they did under Mrs Thatcher.

The conclusion one must draw from David Davis’s result, Cameron’s speech last Monday, what I heard yesterday eveing, and all the other indicators, is that the Conservatives will be next government and will be able to mend our poor, broken nation. By applying Occam’s razor, we find that they are the only party capable of doing so. A few of the other parties might have plans to deal with one or two major issues, but none of them is credible in terms of getting Britain back on its feet and functioning how it should and could.

Fortunately, none of those others stands any realistic chance of winning the next General Election, and the chances of a hung parliament are now rapidly receding, so there will need to be no diluting of the required efforts that a coalition with (say) the LibDems would undoubtedly result in being inflicted upon us.

David Davis’s by-election win will go into the history books, of that I have no doubt. It will mark the moment when the country turned sharply toward preserving freedoms, after a long period of this topic being below most people’s radar.

This is the point at which the people (thousands of whom have written comments on the subject) clearly said “No!” to Labour’s erosion of our liberties, publicly, electorally and in discussions in the home, pub and workplace. The rot stops here!

No, not the Davids Owen and Steel: that was a very long time ago!

Rather, as he had promised to do, Conservative Party Leader David Cameron has now been to the Haltemprice and Howden constituency to support David Davis and what might be called his pro-liberty campaign. This three-minute-long video provides just a flavour of how that went.