David Davis and Baldrick's cunning plan
Iain Dale, one of the central figures in David Davis's 2005 leadership campaign, has been a loyal friend. He didn't agree with Mr Davis's decision to resign as Shadow Home Secretary and fight a by-election, but he threw himself into the cause.
And he has tried his best to make the whole thing look less like one of Baldrick's cunning plans than it it really was.
One result from this by-election is that it has demonstrated the growing disconnect between the Westminster Village and the rest of the country.
So-called expert commentators dismissed Davis as 'bonkers', 'going through a mid life crisis' or worse.
The rest of the country saw a politician standing up for something he believed in, willing to make personal sacrifices for the cause. Whether they agreed with him or not, they liked a politician who strayed from the norm.
Is this true? And who was right?
In so far as anybody outside Westminster gave it the slightest thought, it is probably true that they felt Mr Davis was right to stand up for his principle.
It would be quite wrong to suggest, however, that the decision lit up the countryside, splitting families and causing people to glass each other at closing time shouting about 42 days. Most people were entirely indifferent, indeed largely unaware, of the by-election and why it was fought.
Anyone who thinks otherwise, grossly overestimates how much the general public knows or cares about political events of this kind.
Then there is the question of who was right. I think the Westminster Village, of which (if the term means anything) Iain and I would both be regarded as members, was right.
I think David Davis's by-election was deeply eccentric and self indulgent.
The man gave up an extremely strong chance of being Home Secretary to stand in a by-election he had no chance whatsoever of losing. Winning it proved nothing. And now he is back in Parliament, on the backbenches. He may think he will be respected for his strong stance, but he was respected for his strong stance before.
A few weeks back, before his Baldrick moment, I was discussing David with a senior member of the Shadow Cabinet.
He was right on 42 days, said the politician, when so many of us thought he'd got it wrong. He was right on the issue and right on the politics, he said. And added - I really respect him for that.
Now much of that respect among senior colleagues has gone. And for what?
If that isn't bonkers, Iain, what is?
