This is an issue which must be followed through.
=Parliament- the foundation stone of all our liberties - has been
violated - but with or without the Speaker's permission ?
=The MP concerned disclosed a severe breach of national security by
idle and in competent ministers - his proper role!
=The liberty of individual citizens is at stake
=There was disproportionate use of force
=The disclaimers of knowledge by the minister involved does not ring
true. If the police told the Mayor of London, the civil servant in
charge of the Home Office and the Leader of the Opposition were
informed in advance it passes belief that Ms Smith was not told.
Unless SHE had instructed them NOT to tell her.
=Why was no action taken over deliberate government leaks to BBC
journalist Robert Peston?
=Was this deliberate sabotage by Ian Blair on the last day of his
disastrously partisan period as Commissioner in charge of the
Metropolitan Police?
Christina
=========================
TELEGRAPH 29.11.08
1. Damian Green arrest shows how Labour is destroying our political
system
Damian Green's arrest is a grave reminder of the Government's
contempt for parliamentary democracy
By Nick Clegg
When opposition politicians heard about Damian Green's arrest, many
of us asked ourselves the same question: "When did it become a crime
to hold the Government to account?"
We already operate in a system where Parliament is effectively
neutered, little more than a rubber stamp for legislation that
ministers have already decided.
The Government was elected with the support of just 22 per cent of
British voters, yet it presides over a culture of Whitehall secrecy
and minimal parliamentary scrutiny.
Opposition MPs must table urgent questions to force ministers to
address the House on major issues, while ministers merrily leak those
same statements to newspaper journalists.
One of the weapons MPs do still have in their armoury is to play the
Government at its own game. By releasing information of our own we
can highlight matters of public interest that ministers would rather
people didn't know about.
With parliamentary scrutiny so feeble, the media has become a
surrogate debating chamber. And when dealing with an administration
legendary for its secrecy, you increasingly have to rely on whistle-
blowers to see the full picture.
Damian Green's arrest now threatens that ability, especially if MPs
can no longer act as he did, without fear of the police knocking on
their doors to rifle through their possessions and search their
offices. Then yet more scrutiny will be lost.
We are made no safer by this arrest and the country will not be run
any better. The door to proper public scrutiny of what the Government
does in our name will have been closed a bit further, and the small
shaft of light that still shines on the work of ministers will have
narrowed even more.
It's the kind of behaviour we might expect to see in a tinpot
dictatorship, not in a modern democracy.
The handling of this case raises a number of questions that demand
answers as soon as possible.
The Metropolitan Police says that neither the search nor the arrest
were conducted under the provisions of anti-terrorism legislation.
Yet nine counter-terrorism officers were required to carry out the
arrest of a middle-aged Conservative MP.
The Government has dismissed concerns that counter-terrorism laws can
be misused. But time and again we have seen examples of powers that
were rushed through Parliament being misused against people for
crimes such as heckling Labour ministers at conferences or freezing
Icelandic bank accounts.
Even if these laws were not invoked this time, the sight of anti-
terrorist police enforcing laws unrelated to terrorism will only
confuse the public further.
The Home Office's most senior civil servant, Sir David Normington,
has confirmed that he was contacted by the police just before they
carried out their searches, and that ministers didn't know about the
arrest until after it had occurred some time later.
But we need to know what happened in the hours between Sir David
being told and Damian Green's arrest. Were Home Office ministers
really not aware that a senior opposition MP was about to be raided
by police?
There is an extra detail to this case that is also troubling for MPs,
who play an important role in their constituencies as recipients of a
lot of personal information. The basis of the relationship between an
MP and a constituent is trust and confidentiality. MPs take up the
cases of constituents on the understanding that they will treat
information given to them sensitively.The sight of police rifling
through boxes of Mr Green's correspondence, through disc after disc
of computerised information, will erode public confidence in the role
MPs play in their communities. All at a time when confidence in
politicians is already at an all-time low.
Surrounding all this is a whiff of hypocrisy about New Labour
departments in Whitehall clamping down on leaks to opposition
politicians when ministers have elevated judicious leaking to the
press to an art form.
MPs have long got used to the depressing predictability of Sunday
newspapers carrying intricate details of the latest government master
plan before ministers have bothered to tell Parliament.
And who can forget the way Labour politicians ruthlessly used leaks
from Whitehall to damage the hapless Major administration before the
1997 general election? And guess who was the master at using those
leaks most aggressively? Gordon Brown.
The Prime Minister must now do three things: he must clearly
dissociate himself from the police operation altogether; he must
clarify urgently what Home Office civil servants told ministers, and
when; and he must instantly end his habit of leaking Whitehall
information to secure favourable headlines for his own Government,
while ministers now stand idly by as an opposition MP is arrested for
seeking to bring Whitehall information to light in the first place.
Our political system is already in deep trouble: sinking public
confidence in MPs, feeble parliamentary scrutiny, a rigid culture of
Whitehall secrecy, and an electoral system that hands unprecedented
powers to governments freed from any meaningful scrutiny from other
parties.
This unprecedented arrest is a wake-up call. We must save our broken
democracy.
------------------------------------------------------
Nick Clegg is the leader of the Liberal Democrat Party
=========================
2. (Leader) Damian Green arrest is affront to Parliament
To describe the arrest and detention of Damian Green, the
Conservative front-bench spokesman, as an outrage hardly captures the
enormity of one of the most extraordinary events in recent
parliamentary history.
Anyone who thinks the fuss is exaggerated, or who believes the police
were merely conducting a legitimate investigation that warranted such
action, has a poor grasp of British history.
Television viewers watching the current dramatisation of the The
Devil's Whore will have been reminded that the English Civil War
began when King Charles I entered the House of Commons in January
1642 with an armed force to arrest five MPs who were considered
troublemakers, only to find the birds had flown.
The hard-won privileges of Parliament date from this bloody period in
our history. It remains a ''high crime and misdemeanour" to interfere
with the lawful activities of an MP.
Arguably, in arresting Mr Green, the police are guilty of contempt of
Parliament, the highest court in the land, unless they have a very
good explanation for what they have done.
Leaving aside the constitutional proprieties of arresting an MP for
doing his job, the actions of the Metropolitan Police appear to have
been totally disproportionate.
Why the counter-terrorism command was involved in a Whitehall leak
inquiry when it must have infinitely more important matters to
pursue, is anyone's guess, puzzling even to other officers at
Scotland Yard.
In addition to his arrest, Mr Green's offices and home were searched,
his computer seized and his email frozen, even though these will have
contained confidential information from his constituents which is
protected by privilege if it concerns matters to be raised in
parliament.
His arrest was not just a shock for Mr Green. It was an affront to
MPs of all parties and to Parliament itself.
The institution, surely, cannot have been so browbeaten that it will
take this lying down; whatever we may think of the relative merits of
MPs today compared with their predecessors, we allow our Parliament
to be constantly undermined at our peril.
However, it is necessary to take a step back and consider why the
police were investigating in the first place. They were asked by Sir
David Normington, the permanent secretary at the Home Office, to look
into the source of leaks from within his department.
Had these involved information prejudicial to national security, this
would be understandable. But the only obvious damage caused was
political embarrassment to the governing party.
The suspicion that this exercise was intended to intimidate officials
and stop them leaking against Labour is compounded by the failure on
Friday of Gordon Brown or Jacqui Smith to share everyone else's
anger; it is especially galling when one considers that ministers and
their aides constantly leak information favourable to themselves.
Receiving information from officials who feel something is being
covered up has been commonplace for centuries. Many members of
Labour's front bench, including Mr Brown, made their reputations
using documents leaked to them from within Whitehall.
In the 1930s, Winston Churchill was able to warn of Britain's lack of
preparedness for war with Germany because officials inside the Air
Ministry and other departments were willing to help him.
Many felt, rightly, that they were acting in the national interest
because the government was giving a false impression of what was
happening. At a lower level, this is true with the leaks to Mr Green.
It is his job to call dissembling, or even untruthful, ministers to
account, and there are public-interest protections for official
whistleblowers who enable this to happen.
Perhaps there are national security justifications for the treatment
of Mr Green of which he and the rest of us are unaware. Unless there
are, then the resignations of some very senior politicians, police
officers and civil servants will need to follow.
=========================
TELEGRAPH Blogs 28.11.08
1. The arrest of Damian Green is a dangerous abuse of power
Posted By: Janet Daley
Anybody who thinks that the Conservatives are creating an overblown
fuss over the arrest of Damian Green is making a genuinely grave
mistake: the cynical assumption that a party is simply trumping up a
sense of outrage for partisan purposes is quite misplaced here. It is
scarcely possible to exaggerate the appalling significance of this
incident.
What it amounts to is nothing less than this: a prominent member of
the Opposition was arrested and held in custody for hours for no
other reason than that he had helped to release (correct) information
which was embarassing to the Government. This is the sort of exercise
of state power which is associated with tinpot dictatorship, not
stable democracy.
The fact that counter-terror police seem to have been involved in the
arrest of Mr Green (who, to add to the grotesque absurdity of this
situation, is one of the most moderate and equable of Tory
politicians) is another example of the misuse of the apparatus
provided by counter-terrorism powers.
Local councils have now become notorious for using the surveillance
techniques that are available to them under counter-terror
legislation to monitor the activities of parents who may be applying
for schools outside their assigned catchment areas, local residents
who may be infringing waste disposal rules, or dog walkers who fail
to abide by pavement-fouling injunctions. There seems to be virtually
no limit to the stupidly vindictive ways in which government
authority may be abused once the statutory framework permits.
It seems the lesson must be learnt again and again: freedom is a
fragile thing that requires constant vigilance if it is not to be
undermined. If the state seizes power in ways that threaten
fundamental liberty, the innocent - and the possibility of political
opposition itself - are at risk as much as the guilty.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= AND--->
2. Show trial for disgraced Comrade Green
Posted By: Iain Martin
The term Stalinist is frequently misused. It is an insult to the
millions of victims of the Soviet monster's gulags and organised
state terror when the phrase is deployed in connection with a
particularly intrusive and interfering local authority or some silly
piece of meddling by a government official.
But one does start to wonder when this government owns the banks,
promises to soak the rich and starts arresting opposition spokesman
for revealing the truth.
Yes, it's back to old Labour, but old Labour was never quite this...
erm... what's the word? Stalinist.
All governments in power for a long stretch become, at some point, a
parody of themselves with their worst traits exaggerated, and so it
is now with a Brown administration which cannot comprehend, let alone
tolerate, dissent. Thus any objection from the opposition, the public
or the press to the Great Leader's plans is deemed unpatriotic.
But if Stalinism is too strong a term, and old Labour inadequate for
different reasons, what are we to call this Brownite approach? It's
quite sinister and needs a name. Any ideas ?
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= AND--->
3. Damian Green's arrest must be severely punished for the sake of
democracy
Damian Green's arrest was an aggression against democracy
Posted By: Gerald Warner
"You're nicked, sunshine!"
"What?"
"David William Donald Cameron, I have reason to believe you are in
possession of a document prejudicial to good order in the realm and
to the peace of mind of the Prime Minister - to wit, one draft speech
prepared for a debate in which you intend, treasonably and with
malice aforethought, to criticise the wise policies of the Lord
Protector Brown, with particular reference to the recent Pre-Election
- I mean Pre-Budget - Report. Come along now, there's a good gentleman."
"You can't do this - "
"I see. Want to do it the hard way, do we? Move it, lowlife, or
you'll get a taste of my Tazer. I've got 35 armed officers on the
roof and in the corridor. You may notice a luminous red dot on your
chest... The question is, punk, do you feel lucky?"
"Now, look here - "
"Just a minute, is that your bike out there? Did you know it's
illegally parked? I think we might have to throw the book at you,
squire"...
Welcome to police state Britain. The banks have been nationalised,
children have been nationalised and now Parliament is being
emasculated, as demonstrated by the arrest of Damian Green. Just like
the so-called "freedom" for the Bank of England - which took away its
real powers in exchange for a monthly hand-wringing over interest
rates - Parliament has been promised the right to control
declarations of war, but its members can be summarily arrested for
doing their duty and exposing the Government. It is difficult to vote
against war from a police cell.
Moscow Rules now apply. The same penalties are incurred by annoying
Gordon as by irritating Vladimir. Forget the Five Members, the Seven
Bishops and all that constitutional baloney. If your name is on the
lettre de cachet, your number is up. Parliamentary immunity? Not
while Gorbals Mick is gatekeeper ("Come awa' in, lads - Ah hope yer
here tae nick a few Tories"...).
When an outrage such as this occurs, free societies get just one
chance to preserve their liberties - by stamping on the first
cockroach, before there is an infestation. The optimal power of
Parliament must speedily be invoked to punish this aggression against
democracy. Sir Ian Blair should be called to the Bar of the House to
explain himself. Gorbals Mick should be summarily ejected for
allowing (anti-terrorist!) police to search an MP's office within the
Palace of Westminster. And everyone implicated - whether Gordon,
Mandy or whoever - should be subjected to the due penalties,
including impeachment, for subversion of our democracy.
In the perspective of history and constitutional propriety, it really
is that serious.
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