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Well done, Rebekah Wade… you’ve shown how completely detached from reality you are. If anyone is ‘out of step with public feeling’, it’s you:

The Sun – We shame ‘no’ vote MPs: MPs tonight rejected proposals for terror suspects to be held for up to 90 days without charge. In a bitter blow to Tony Blair the bill was defeated 322-291. Below we name and shame the MPs who voted down the bill. Print the list off and stick it on your fridge as a reminder of the TRAITOR MPs who betrayed Britain.

[Note to Rupert Murdoch: Mate, she’s overplaying it. Seriously. Those who didn’t see the strings yesterday are sure to see them today. Plus, you’ve opened yourself right up to a charge of divisiveness. That’s awfully close to dissent (at least, it is in my dictionary). We’re supposed to be working against the terrorist threat together, remember? You’ll want to sack this ginger clown pretty sharpish. That’s free advice from one Australian to another. I’d take it if I were you. Her ludicrous Page 3 editorial initiative earns me more immediate converts that anything else I can name. In fact, most people think I’m a bit of a nutter until I show them this.]

Oh… hello readers! Sorry about that. Housekeeping. Had to be done. Back on deck now.

Right….

You may wish to thank to following people, who did not fall for the whole ‘the police/public want this, so let’s not bother with details’ line of bulldust.

Given the circumstances, I’m sure you won’t mind taking the time to thank your MP (if they’re on the list) and at least one other:

(Use theyworkforyou.com or writetothem.com if you have any difficulty finding contact details.)

THE ROLL OF HONOUR

The 49 Labour MPs who voted against 90 day detention were:

Ms Diane Abbott (Hackney North & Stoke Newington)
John Austin (Erith & Thamesmead)
Richard Burden (Birmingham Northfield)
Michael Clapham (Barnsley West & Penistone)
Katy Clark (Ayrshire North and Arran)
Harry Cohen (Leyton & Wanstead)
Jeremy Corbyn (Islington North)
Jim Cousins (Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Ms Ann Cryer (Keighley)
Frank Dobson (Holborn & St Pancras)
Mrs Gwyneth Dunwoody (Crewe & Nantwich)
Mark Fisher (Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Paul Flynn (Newport West)
Neil Gerrard (Walthamstow)
Dr Ian Gibson (Norwich North)
Roger Godsiff (Birmingham Sparkbrook & Small Heath)
John Grogan (Selby)
David Hamilton (Midlothian)
Doug Henderson (Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Ms Kate Hoey (Vauxhall)
Kelvin Hopkins (Luton North)
Ms Glenda Jackson (Hampstead & Highgate)
Sian James (Swansea East)
Dr Lynne Jones (Birmingham Selly Oak)
Sadiq Khan (Tooting)
Peter Kilfoyle (Liverpool Walton)
Mark Lazarowicz (Edinburgh North & Leith)
Tony Lloyd (Manchester Central)
Andy Love (Edmonton)
Mrs Chris McCafferty (Calder Valley)
John McDonnell (Hayes & Harlington)
Robert Marshall-Andrews (Medway)
Michael Meacher (Oldham West & Royton)
Ms Julie Morgan (Cardiff North)
George Mudie (Leeds East)
Chris Mullin (Sunderland South)
Gordon Prentice (Pendle)
Nick Raynsford (Greenwich & Woolwich)
Linda Riordan (Halifax)
Ms Clare Short (Birmingham Ladywood)
Alan Simpson (Nottingham South)
Dennis Skinner (Bolsover)
Sir Peter Soulsby (Leicester South)
David Taylor (Leicestershire North West)
Emily Thornberry (Islington South & Finsbury)
Jon Trickett (Hemsworth)
Robert Wareing (Liverpool West Derby)
David Winnick (Walsall North)
Mike Wood (Batley & Spen)

The Tory MPs who voted against 90-day detention were:

Adam Afriyie (Windsor)
Peter Ainsworth (Surrey East)
David Amess (Southend West)
Michael Ancram (Devizes)
James Arbuthnot (Hampshire North East)
Richard Bacon (Norfolk South)
Gregory Barker (Bexhill & Battle)
John Baron (Billericay)
Henry Bellingham (Norfolk North West)
Richard Benyon (Newbury)
John Bercow (Buckingham)
Sir Paul Beresford (Mole Valley)
Brian Binley (Northampton South)
Peter Bone (Wellingborough)
Tim Boswell (Daventry)
Peter Bottomley (Worthing West)
Graham Brady (Altrincham & Sale West)
Julian Brazier (Canterbury)
James Brokenshire (Hornchurch)
Mrs Angela Browning (Tiverton & Honiton)
Simon Burns (Chelmsford West)
David Burrowes (Enfield Southgate)
Alistair Burt (Bedfordshire North East)
Sir John Butterfill (Bournemouth West)
David Cameron (Witney)
Douglas Carswell (Harwich)
William Cash (Stone)
Christopher Chope (Christchurch)
James Clappison (Hertsmere)
Greg Clark (Tunbridge Wells)
Kenneth Clarke (Rushcliffe)
Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Cotswold)
Derek Conway (Old Bexley & Sidcup)
Sir Patrick Cormack (Staffordshire South)
Geoffrey Cox (Torridge & West Devon)
Stephen Crabb (Preseli Pembrokeshire)
David Curry (Skipton & Ripon)
David TC Davies (Monmouth)
Philip Davies (Shipley)
Quentin Davies (Grantham & Stamford)
David Davis (Haltemprice & Howden)
Jonathan Djanogly (Huntingdon)
Stephen Dorrell (Charnwood)
Mrs Nadine Dorries (Bedfordshire Mid)
James Duddridge (Rochford & Southend East)
Alan Duncan (Rutland & Melton)
Iain Duncan Smith (Chingford & Woodford Green)
Philip Dunne (Ludlow)
Tobias Ellwood (Bournemouth East)
Nigel Evans (Ribble Valley)
David Evennett (Bexleyheath & Crayford)
Michael Fabricant (Lichfield)
Michael Fallon (Sevenoaks)
Mark Field (Cities of London & Westminster)
Dr Liam Fox (Woodspring)
Mark Francois (Rayleigh)
Christopher Fraser (Norfolk South West)
Roger Gale (Thanet North)
Edward Garnier (Harborough)
David Gauke (Hertfordshire South West)
Nick Gibb (Bognor Regis & Littlehampton)
Mrs Cheryl Gillan (Chesham & Amersham)
Paul Goodman (Wycombe)
Robert Goodwill (Scarborough & Whitby)
Michael Gove (Surrey Heath)
James Gray (Wiltshire North)
Chris Grayling (Epsom & Ewell)
Damian Green (Ashford)
Ms Justine Greening (Putney)
John Greenway (Ryedale)
Dominic Grieve (Beaconsfield)
John Gummer (Suffolk Coastal)
William Hague (Richmond (Yorks)
Philip Hammond (Runnymede & Weybridge)
Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon)
Greg Hands (Hammersmith & Fulham)
Mark Harper (Forest of Dean)
John Hayes (South Holland & The Deepings)
Oliver Heald (Hertfordshire North East)
David Heathcoat-Amory (Wells)
Charles Hendry (Wealden)
Nick Herbert (Arundel & South Downs)
Mark Hoban (Fareham)
Douglas Hogg (Sleaford & North Hykeham)
Philip Hollobone (Kettering)
Adam Holloway (Gravesham)
John Horam (Orpington)
Michael Howard (Folkestone & Hythe)
Gerald Howarth (Aldershot)
Jeremy Hunt (Surrey South West)
Nick Hurd (Ruislip – Northwood)
Michael Jack (Fylde)
Stewart Jackson (Peterborough)
Bernard Jenkin (Essex North)
Boris Johnson (Henley)
David Jones (Clwyd West)
Daniel Kawczynski (Shrewsbury & Atcham)
Robert Key (Salisbury)
Miss Julie Kirkbride (Bromsgrove)
Greg Knight (Yorkshire East)
Mrs Eleanor Laing (Epping Forest)
Mrs Jacqui Lait (Beckenham)
Mark Lancaster (Milton Keynes North East)
Andrew Lansley (Cambridgeshire South)
Edward Leigh (Gainsborough)
Oliver Letwin (Dorset West)
Dr Julian Lewis (New Forest East)
Ian Liddell-Grainger (Bridgwater)
David Lidington (Aylesbury)
Peter Lilley (Hitchin & Harpenden)
Tim Loughton (Worthing East & Shoreham)
Peter Luff (Worcestershire Mid)
Miss Anne McIntosh (Vale of York)
Andrew Mackay (Bracknell)
David Maclean (Penrith & The Border)
Patrick McLoughlin (Derbyshire West)
Anne Main (St Albans)
Humfrey Malins (Woking)
John Maples (Stratford-on-Avon)
Francis Maude (Horsham)
Mrs Theresa May (Maidenhead)
Patrick Mercer (Newark)
Maria Miller (Basingstoke)
Anne Milton (Guildford)
Andrew Mitchell (Sutton Coldfield)
Malcolm Moss (Cambridgeshire North East)
David Mundell (Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale)
Dr Andrew Murrison (Westbury)
Brooks Newmark (Braintree)
Stephen O’Brien (Eddisbury)
George Osborne (Tatton)
Richard Ottaway (Croydon South)
James Paice (Cambridgeshire South East)
Owen Paterson (Shropshire North)
Andrew Pelling (Croydon Central)
Michael Penning (Hemel Hempstead)
John Penrose (Weston-Super-Mare)
Eric Pickles (Brentwood & Ongar)
Mark Prisk (Hertford & Stortford)
Mark Pritchard (The Wrekin)
John Randall (Uxbridge)
John Redwood (Wokingham)
Sir Malcolm Rifkind (Kensington & Chelsea)
Andrew Robathan (Blaby)
Hugh Robertson (Faversham & Kent Mid)
Laurence Robertson (Tewkesbury)
Andrew Rosindell (Romford)
David Ruffley (Bury St Edmunds)
Lee Scott (Ilford North)
Andrew Selous (Bedfordshire South West)
Grant Shapps (Welwyn Hatfield)
Richard Shepherd (Aldridge-Brownhills)
Mark Simmonds (Boston & Skegness)
Keith Simpson (Norfolk Mid)
Mrs Caroline Spelman (Meriden)
Sir Michael Spicer (Worcestershire West)
Bob Spink (Castle Point)
Richard Spring (Suffolk West)
Anthony Steen (Totnes)
Gary Streeter (Devon South West)
Graham Stuart (Beverley & Holderness)
Desmond Swayne (New Forest West)
Hugo Swire (Devon East)
Robert Syms (Poole)
Ian Taylor (Esher & Walton)
David Tredinnick (Bosworth)
Andrew Turner (Isle of Wight)
Andrew Tyrie (Chichester)
Edward Vaizey (Wantage)
Shailesh Vara (Cambridgeshire North West)
Peter Viggers (Gosport)
Mrs Theresa Villiers (Chipping Barnet)
Charles Walker (Broxbourne)
Ben Wallace (Lancaster & Wyre)
Robert Walter (Dorset North)
Nigel Waterson (Eastbourne)
Mrs Angela Watkinson (Upminster)
John Whittingdale (Maldon & Chelmsford East)
Bill Wiggin (Leominster)
David Willetts (Havant)
David Wilshire (Spelthorne)
Rob Wilson (Reading East)
Mrs Ann Winterton (Congleton)
Sir Nicholas Winterton (Macclesfield)
Jeremy Wright (Rugby & Kenilworth)
Tim Yeo (Suffolk South)
Sir George Young (Hampshire North West)

All 62 Liberal Democrats voted against 90 day detention. They are:

Danny Alexander (Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Norman Baker (Lewes)
John Barrett (Edinburgh West)
Alan Beith (Berwick-upon-Tweed)
Tom Brake (Carshalton & Wallington)
Colin Breed (Cornwall South East)
Ms Annette Brooke (Dorset Mid & Poole North)
Jeremy Browne (Taunton)
Malcolm Bruce (Gordon)
Paul Burstow (Sutton & Cheam)
Mrs Lorely Burt (Solihull)
Dr Vincent Cable (Twickenham)
Sir Menzies Campbell (Fife North East)
Alistair Carmichael (Orkney & Shetland)
Nicholas Clegg (Sheffield Hallam)
Edward Davey (Kingston & Surbiton)
Tim Farron (Westmorland & Lonsdale)
Lynne Featherstone (Hornsey & Wood Green)
Don Foster (Bath)
Andrew George (St Ives)
Mrs Sandra Gidley (Romsey)
Julia Goldsworthy (Falmouth & Camborne)
Mike Hancock (Portsmouth South)
Dr Evan Harris (Oxford West & Abingdon)
Nick Harvey (Devon North)
David Heath (Somerton & Frome)
John Hemming (Birmingham Yardley)
Paul Holmes (Chesterfield)
Martin Horwood (Cheltenham)
David Howarth (Cambridge)
Simon Hughes (Southwark North & Bermondsey)
Chris Huhne (Eastleigh)
Mark Hunter (Cheadle)
Paul Keetch (Hereford)
Charles Kennedy (Ross, Skye & Lochaber)
Susan Kramer (Richmond Park)
Norman Lamb (Norfolk North)
David Laws (Yeovil)
John Leech (Manchester Withington)
Michael Moore (Berwickshire Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West)
Mark Oaten (Winchester)
Lembit Opik (Montgomeryshire)
John Pugh (Southport)
Alan Reid (Argyll & Bute)
Dan Rogerson (Cornwall North)
Paul Rowen (Rochdale)
Bob Russell (Colchester)
Adrian Sanders (Torbay)
Sir Robert Smith (Aberdeenshire West & Kincardine)
Andrew Stunell (Hazel Grove)
Jo Swinson (East Dunbartonshire)
Matthew Taylor (Truro & St Austell)
Sarah Teather (Brent East)
John Thurso (Caithness, Sutherland & Easter Ross)
Steve Webb (Northavon)
Mark Williams (Ceredigion)
Roger Williams (Brecon & Radnorshire)
Stephen Williams (Bristol West)
Phil Willis (Harrogate & Knaresborough)
Ms Jenny Willott (Cardiff Central)
Richard Younger-Ross (Teignbridge)

The Democratic Unionist Party MPs who voted against 90-day detention were:

Gregory Campbell (DUP Londonderry East)
Nigel Dodds (DUP Belfast North)
Jeffrey Donaldson (DUP Lagan Valley)
Rev William McCrea (DUP South Antrim)
The Rev Ian Paisley (DUP Antrim North)
Mrs Iris Robinson (DUP Strangford)
Peter Robinson (DUP Belfast East)
David Simpson (DUP Upper Bann)
Sammy Wilson (DUP East Antrim)

The Independent MPs who voted against 90-day detention were:

Peter Law (Ind Blaenau Gwent)
Dr Richard Taylor (Ind Wyre Forest)

The Plaid Cymru MPs who voted against 90-day detention were:

Elfyn Llwyd (PC Meirionnydd Nant Conwy)
Adam Price (PC Carmarthen East & Dinefwr)
Hywel Williams (PC Caernarfon)

The Respect MPs who voted against 90-day detention were:

George Galloway (Bethnal Green and Bow) [Ed: Hurrah! He actually *voted* this time!]

The Scottish National Party MPs who voted against 90-day detention were:

Stewart Hosie (SNP Dundee East)
Angus MacNeil (SNP Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Angus Robertson (SNP Moray)
Alex Salmond (SNP Banff & Buchan)
Michael Weir (SNP Angus)
Pete Wishart (SNP Tayside North)
Social Democratic and Labour Party
Mark Durkan (SDLP Foyle)
Alasdair McDonnell (SDLP Belfast South)
Eddie McGrady (SDLP Down South)

The trumpet-call had let loose an enormous volume of noise. Already an excited voice was gabbling from the telescreen, but even as it started it was almost drowned by a roar of cheering from outside. The news had run round the streets like magic. He could hear just enough of what was issuing from the telescreen to realize that it had all happened, as he had foreseen; a vast seaborne armada had secretly assembled a sudden blow in the enemy’s rear, the white arrow tearing across the tail of the black. Fragments of triumphant phrases pushed themselves through the din: ‘Vast strategic manoeuvre — perfect co-ordination — utter rout — half a million prisoners — complete demoralization — control of the whole of Africa — bring the war within measurable distance of its end victory — greatest victory in human history — victory, victory, victory!’ – George Orwell – Nineteen Eighty Four

The Sun – You speak and they listen: TORIES out to wreck Tony Blair’s crackdown on terrorists were in turmoil last night – as The Sun’s army of readers rallied behind the PM. A whopping 100,000 of you phoned our hotline to DEMAND 90 days’ detention for terror suspects. Thousands more of you went online – blitzing MPs with emails to SHAME them into backing Mr Blair in tonight’s crunch Commons vote. As you made your voices heard in near-record numbers, senior Tories began to buckle – and Labour rebels started drifting back to the Government side. We urge you to keep the pressure up by phoning the number above. The sensational show of Sun reader power instantly turned the tide in favour of Mr Blair.

Well, after Charles Clarke’s late-night attempt to diffuse the diddled poll row, I think it’s well past time to put this one to bed, too.

Let’s start with the numbers they do give…

A whopping 100,000 of you phoned our hotline to DEMAND 90 days’ detention for terror suspects.

Recent figures show the Sun’s circulation at 3,361,396.

(100000/3361396) x 100 = 2.97%

Hm. So we’d best correct that:

Less than 3% of you phoned our hotline to DEMAND 90 days’ detention for terror suspects.

Now, let’s look at the numbers that they almost give…

Thousands more of you went online – blitzing MPs with emails to SHAME them into backing Mr Blair in tonight’s crunch Commons vote.

I didn’t mention this yesterday (because one does not interrupt their enemies when they’re busy making a mistake) but I actually sent my message to ‘wobbly’ MPs to each and every one of the 257 email addresses that the Sun provided, which was based on the list of 299 MPs who voted against the glorification bill.

(They’re short 42 email addresses, but we’ll let that slide; not all MPs have readily-accessible email addresses. Each MP is granted one in the format last-name + first-initial @ parliament.uk, but of course the Sun wanted to be certain that their messages reached their intended target. So they went with published addresses and certainly would have tested these addresses first, right? Erm, no. From of the 257 emails I sent, I received 25 bounces (and 4 ‘out of office’ auto-replies). So that’s 232 presumably valid email addresses. Still, it’s public feeling and intent that matter here, so we can let this slide also and operate with the 257 figure.)

60% of the British population has internet access. You may wish to question this figure given that some people have multiple connections and the Sun targets the working class, so let’s be really, really generous and operate on the assumption that 30% of Sun readers have internet access.

30% of 3,361,396 is just a shade over a million; 1,000,841

We should probably halve this again, as not all of the Sun readers involved may have been constituents of the MPs involved… but we’re not going to, because a considerable number of emails received by MPs were from people who refused to reveal their address and/or were not from their constituency.

Ah-hah! Did you spot the deliberate mistake? Yes, I just revealed that I’ve been in contact with many of these MPs, not just regarding my message, but the level of response they experienced following the Sun’s campaign (within acceptable boundaries of confidentiality and propriety, of course).

I spoke to seven MPs (or their researchers) about this. Admittedly, that’s a small sample – but they all reported very similar figures and (again) I’ll try to be as generous as possible with my figures in order to allow for variations I may not be aware of.

These MPs received between 1-4 emails as a result of this call to arms. Counting mine. But I promised to be generous, so let’s operate on an average of 6 emails per MP:

6 x 257 = 1,542

Thousands more of you went online – blitzing MPs with emails to SHAME them into backing Mr Blair in tonight’s crunch Commons vote.

Erm, no. More like:

*Hundreds* more of you went online – blitzing MPs with emails to SHAME them into backing Mr Blair in tonight’s crunch Commons vote.

Again, I’m trying very hard to be fair here. The sentence initially refers to readers ‘going online’, so perhaps they’ve based their figure on the number of people who downloaded their list of shame. We have a number of variants here, including an unknown number of visitors who would have followed this link from Bloggerheads, and many Sun readers who may have downloaded the page only to see that their MP was not listed, but let’s continue the spirit of generosity and double the 1,542 figure. This gives us 3,084 Sun readers with a clear intention to email their MP (or perhaps somebody else’s MP).

Finally we’re at a stage where we can rightly use the word ‘thousands’ and not ‘hundreds’ to describe the figure… but what happens when we apply this figure to the (greatly under-estimated) number of Sun readers with internet access?

(3084/1000841) x 100 = 0.31%

Zero. Point. Three. Percent.

Not even *half* of a single percentage point.

So that’s:

Less than 3% of Sun readers support the proposed 90-day law enough to pick up a phone and push a few buttons
Just over 0.3% of Sun readers support the proposed 90-day law enough to (maybe) write and send an email

This is not what I would call a blitz. It’s more like a blip.

Let’s go back to the Sun for more:

As you made your voices heard in near-record numbers, senior Tories began to buckle – and Labour rebels started drifting back to the Government side. We urge you to keep the pressure up by phoning the number above. The sensational show of Sun reader power instantly turned the tide in favour of Mr Blair.

‘Near-record numbers’ may not be a lie. I’ve crunched numbers in this way before, and the Sun plays this game a lot. Perhaps, for them, this *is* a record response.

The rest… well, they look to be making things up to impress us, but you can’t really blame them for that, given the shocking complacency of their readers. After all….

97% of Sun readers either do not support the proposed 90-day law, or could not give a rat’s arse either way.

Perhaps it is this complacency that finally convinced them to bring out the Big Guns.

Yes folks, it’s time for yet another Page 3 editorial!

Today Krystle (23, from Manchester) ‘backed the Sun campaign to see the new terror laws pushed through’. She says: “It is so important the police are given the power they need to combat terrorism. Every reader must lend their weight to this vital campaign and call our hotline.”

Yes, by all means, call the hotline. Please stop emailing MPs, because – let’s be frank – it’s getting embarrassing.

If MPs got wind of this – if they put 2 + 2 together – well, it just doesn’t bear thinking about.

This is a poll of Sun readers, not the general population.

The Sun has backed Blair and his cold-hearted manipulation of terrorist atrocities since Day One.

Even when victims of terrorism are waved in their face, 97% of these readers do not support this draconian legislation enough to make a simple phone call.

So please, please do what the girl with the boobs says and call that hotline so that tomorrow, after the vote has taken place, the Sun can publish these new figures and… erm… hang on… something’s not right here…

–

UPDATE – Make that *eight* MPs I’ve spoken to about this. I have permission to quote this response verbatim; it was sent *before* this particular MP read my latest post…

Rt Hon James Arbuthnot: I have, as a result of the Sun’s list, received more e-mails supporting my view than opposing it.