David Davis‘ decision to resign as a Conservative MP to re-contest his seat is one of the more extraordinary political decisions of our time. The fact that a former newspaper editor of the old right (Kelvin MacKenzie) may be his only competition only adds to the strangeness.

To me, it’s like watching a mutual embrace become a deathlock. The unrepresentative political media and the representative political system squeeze each other to death as their needs entwine.

What is missing here? The ‘grass roots’ reaction? The response of local people? But are there grass roots? Is there a real political community in the West Hull suburbs and dormer villages of Haltemprice and Howden?

Instead our rootless electoral geography awaits a battle that has a frustrated and principled parliamentarian for whom politics is a profession (Davis), pitted against a millionaire motormouth (MacKenzie) for whom it is a leisure pursuit.

This is the confused crisis of representative democracy, where the only enthusiasm for a political contest comes from a politician, and the only opposition has to be injected by a national newspaper, to the likely ennui of its own readership.