Tories angered by Green arrest

Don

Is the finding from the Hain enquiry out soon?

adrian drummond

Looks like Brown has decided to take a leaf out of Putin's book.

Travis Bickle

There you go, the "true" criminals and terrorists that would have been rounded up and held for 42 days without charge in the planned Socialist Utopian state.

David

Anti-terror police, so I read. I've asked this elsewhere but nobody has been able to confirm; don't anti-terror police need the Home Secretary's go-code to do anything?

David

Any paper worth its salt will have the headline
"Goverment arrests opposition MP".

This is a disgrace, particularly coming after a week of government PBR leaks.

strapworld

Socialism/Nazi Style Government.

Brown will stop at nothing. This will not go down well with the people. Expect the weekend papers to be bursting with bad news stories for Brown and Labour.

Cameron has got to go for Brown's throat. He has to point out how many 'leaks' to the press - especially over the past few days on the PBR. -

I hope this now turns Murdoch and The Mail against Brown in a big big way.

Richard Holloway

From what we know so far (and we do need more information) this looks rather dodgy ground for the government to be operating on.
Shall we start asking how the treasury information was leaked?
Or how lots of stories end up being pre announced. Or even bigger, that the government now seem to be willing to use strong arm tactics (A number of counter terrorism officers used in the arrest) to put in political pressure. I knew we lived in what is increasing looking like a banana republic, I didn't know we had already arrived in a police state.

Prodicus

NINE COUNTERTERRORISM officers involved in his arrest, according to the T'graph. I mean, WHAT?

Non Gradus Anus Rodentum!

Well here we are - Britain has finally arrived at the Vladimir Putin school of democracy - if your opponent points out awkward truths, incarcerate him!

This is on a par with all those teachers, social workers and immigration officials who have down the years exposed this government's failures, only to find that all their employers' fine words about respecting the rights of 'whistleblowers' are - like Brown's budgets - just so much hot air!

Tankus

OK ...then .....where are the arrests over the budget leaks to the press ...
Laptops, memory sticks, CD's and god knows what else ....?

And while were at it , misappropriation of tax payers money ......!

And perjury in the house of commons ..!

dont like the whinging rich

More whinging.

The law applies to him as much as to anyone else. If has has been wrongfully arrested there exist avenues for redress.If not then he should apologise for wasting police time.

The Dandiprat

“Suspicion of conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office, and aiding and abetting counselling or procuring misconduct in a public office.”

Didn't they get Winston Smith on something similar?

Legal terminology so ominously honed to the one task.

Fred

Abuse of power. We live in a police state.

Englishman Abroad

"shadow" immigration minister, I think - sadly.
Clearly guilty of thoughtcrime.

George Laird

Dear All

If I was Damien Green, I would if charged use the Public Interest Disclosure Act as my defence.

I hope that Mr. Green is taking legal advice, however I suspect that New Labour will not proceed because it opens a can of worms that both parties will wish to be kept closed.

For example the illegal iraq war, you could charge the entire cabinet and haul Blair back to face charges.

Dentention without charge for Blair and Brown would send out the right message to Labour.

This is however sinister and perhaps the Tories need to address the civil liberties issues in more depth and start to repeal some of this Labour crap when in office.

New Labour are a bunch of cranks destroying the fabric of society.

Damien Green, well done son, like your attitude, keep it up.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

James J

What next a Show Trial where he confesses to Crimes against the Multi-cultural state?
With the ‘leaking’ of the BNP members’ list and the arrest of its canvassers in Liverpool there is something increasingly sinister at the heart of this ‘British’ government.

Tory Lion

How very Cold War..

Trumpeter Lanfried

The Telegraph - the Telegraph for God's sake! says Green may have to resign. NO WAY. Cameron must back him up to the hilt.

What jury would convict him?

This is a really serious blunder by the government, who must have initiated this prosecution. They have been too clever by half. It will cost them thousands of votes among former Labour supporters.

Andy Leeds

What a disgrace. Is there no depths to which this dreadful Government wont stoop ?

Pity Damian Green isn't a Privy Counsellor.

carol42

What exactly has he done wrong? nothing as far as I can see, just doing his job. This government terrifies me as we get more like the old East Germany every day. Not content with, as usual, ruining the economy now they are well on the way of totally ruining our democracy.

EyeSee

There must surely be some precedent to hold an over-mighty executive to account? And we must have rock-solid assurances that the political police officers involved in supporting the Labour Party against the public, will be removed from their positions as soon as proper law and order is restored in the UK. These people should not feel assured that there is a State machine that will eternally protect them. They should be banned fron receiving a job paid for by public funds, from receiving any pension from the public purse, nor able to receive any welfare handouts, in their lifetime. This would serve as a timely reminder to such dolts who they are actually paid to serve and perhaps prevent a criminal regime holding power by corrupting public servants and institutions. A first strike in the war to win back Britain for the people.

Bocephus

What's next, the beating up of Conservative voters? The banning of foreign media?

This really is a shocker.

richard bond

The Immigration Office must be worried that the general public will be informed of more startling facts about the extent of illegal immigration. Nothing shocks us anymore except the arrest of public officials doing their duty to uncover the truth. Funny how the Ministry of Truth only reveals itself occasionally.

Trumpeter Lanfried

How will this gift to Tory propaganda go down on the Labour back benches?

occasional ranter

Shadow immigration minister ?

Rex Burr

I think you mean the 'shadow' immigration minister.
Don't jump the gun.

TrevorsDen

After Ponting civil servants cannot use the public interest defence - though you still have to get a jury to convict.

But surely an MP is different. Arresting MPs for exposing govt incompetence and corruption. which African country does that remind you of?

Sean

Dale said it best that Robert Peston can get every leak known to Treasury to screw up the financial markets and waltzes off while MPs get arrested!

This is outrageous and smacks of a Government in complete and utter disarry who lashes out irrationally at any perceived threat.

chris

This counrty is turning into a police state

Mike, Brighton

Perhaps Labour will have the(ir) police start arresting all their political opponents overnight...then a mysterious fire will break out destroying parliament...Brown will take command for the "good of the people" and enact an "enabling act" before what's left of parliament....

Tiberius

Incomprehensible and frightening.

I can't wait for the official explanation from the police.

Anthony

The difficulty in prosecuting a whistleblower case, of course, is that it can shine a light on things the organisation it relates to might wish not to have aired in open court.

But perhaps everything's hunky dory in the Home Office.

James

Truly horrendous act of interference in the lawful and entirely correct pursuit of his office - namely to expose the failures of Government and bring them the public's attention to ensure that they are remedied.
Why, one is forced to ask, were counter-terrorism officers required for this?

Aless Bieri

Why on earth is the Official Secrets Act being applied to these kinds of documents? On the contrary the freedom of information act ought to apply here.

The OSA should apply to serious national security issues only

Anon

'1984' is not an instruction manual.

Faceless Bureaucrat

First they came for the Conservatives...

Captain Coma

Ladies and gentlemen, we are now in serious trouble. This is the beginning of political arrests; law and order is under grave threat.

Tomorrow morning at his press conference dealing with this matter, Cameron should say that, as he has heard the justification that nobody is above the "law" and that it applies equally to all, that he himself is speaking before his own arrest by anti-terrorist police officers, because he knew, ordered and approved of all that Green did, and that if Brown wishes it, he will surrender himself to the authorities.

Let's see how the PM likes his hand being called.

CS

At least Boris is making a noise about it:

The Mayor of London has expressed grave concern over the arrest of Conservative frontbencher, Damian Green. Boris johnson, who chairs the Metropolitan Police Authority expressed his concerns - in trenchant terms - ahead of his arrest. A spokesman said the Mayor finds it hard to believe that on the day when terrorist have gone on the rampage in India that anti terror police in Britain have apparently targeted an elected representative of Parliament for no greater crime than allegedly receiving leaked documents. The Mayor told the new acting commissioner of the Met that he would need to see convincing evidence that this action was necessary and proportionate. He suggested that this is not the common sense policing that people want when London faces a real potential terror threat and serious knife crime problem on the streets.

Tankus

anon @10.53....."1984' is not an instruction manual."

you may be wrong ...!

JohnAnt

'misconduct in a public office'.
And what Prescott got up to was what, exactly?

Adam in London

The OSA does only apply to security related information. I can't see how the leaks being talked about here are covered by it (e.g. lists of Labour rebels, and economist's crime projections).

Conspriacy to commit misconduct in a public office doesn't sound like something from the OSA - is another law being invoked here?

pump hilda

What a disgrace!

And poor old Damian never received a bean for sharing the latest juicy goss!

As for the Stasi err police force, you'd think they would be a little bit more understanding of poor Damian's plight, especially as many of our wonderful British bobbies earn a regular extra income leaking sensitive information about suspects, cases and those pesky pesky people on the witness protection scheme to national and local rags and just about any scumbag with the readies at the ready.

Paul B

Ian Blair resigns and leaves on the day after this event. Hes complaining about (Tory) political interference in policing - especially the Met.Am I being paranoid, but does this strike anyone else as more than just pure co-incidence.

Matthew

One issue is that Green can now never enter the Unites States without getting a visa, with an interview at the US embasssy. He is a criminal in the eyes of US law and of course it is right that every country gets to choose its own immmigration laws.

Paul B

You sure about that Matthew? We are still innocent until proven otherwise (for the time being anyway!!) I believe its the same in the States, and until such time Green is brought before a court (he has not even been charged, but don`t hold your breath)and proven guilty, I shouldn`t think it will affect any possible travel to the States. He could also travel with diplomatic privilege, should he become Home Sec in any future Tory administration.

This problem lies at the root of the police being not prepared to take an under caution statement from a person without arrest in the first instance. This was discussed on Mel Ps blog a couple of months ago. Its quite disgraceful.

I stand to be corrected though.

Simon Richardson

"There must surely be some precedent to hold an over-mighty executive to account?"

The precedent comes from 1642, and the slamming of Parliament's doors in the face of Black Rod, who represented the power of the executive back then.

A year later the whole country was plunged into civil war.

Roger Davies

Brown thinks that if he uses every vestige of power available to him he can cling to his office. I do not trust anyone who so obviously enjoys the miserable plight of others just because he calculates it will give him votes. Who was it that spotted the similarity between Brown and Stalin? Watch for his next ploy of tampering with Ballot Boxes.

RODEST

Surely the suspicion of conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office, and aiding and abetting counselling or procuring misconduct in a public office equally apply to the government in their attempts to cover up the alleged leeked information.

If Damian Green is guilty of committing any offence, then where does that leave Brown, Blair, Mandellson, Smith, Hoon and the rest of this deceitful government? Dogie dossier, death of Dr Kelly, Mandelsons refusal to give information are just a sample of suspicions.

The media will be next followed by coffeehousers and the like.

Forlornehope

The thread following David Hencke's article in CiF is blistering. Even in their house paper the Government are being torn apart for this. To hear both Tony Benn and Michael Howard make the same point - last time this happened we had the Civil War - shows just how outrageous this is.

Eric Laimins

If the leak was made public by a NuLabour Minister you can bet your last Pound that police would never have been involved. Now we hear that "counter-terrorism officers" are on the "case"?! This is outrageous. Martin must go straight away, and there must be a PUBLIC inquiry covering every aspect of the matter. Brown and Co pose a clear and present danger to Great Britain.

Russell

Enough is enough ! This government has to go or there will be a revolution.

Herbert Thornton

Use Google to look up the name of Ralph Wigram. Thank God Wigram wasn't detected, but there's a very disturbing parallel

john problem

When I had a banana plantation overseas, it was quite normal for opposition politicians to be arrested and questioned about anything they said that was derogatory of the government - a government which would claim no knowledge of the arrest. But the difference was that the police used batons to subdue any disagreement. Sometimes the opposition politician disappeared. Happily, in our treasured isle, the cradle of democracy, that doesn't happen yet. With luck we'll have a change of government before it does, and before monuments are put up to Beria, Andropov, Putin and other KGB notables, in Parliament Square.

Verity

"The Tories I have spoken to think the arrest incredibly heavy-handed," ...

Incredibly illegal, surely? Westminster if a Royal Palace and the police cannot enter without permission. Who gave them permission?

TomTom

So Damien Green cannot reclaim his legal costs because he is not charged. Fortunately he can probably cover his, but what about those who cannot afford to pay both mortgage and defend themselves against Franz Kafka World of British Secret Police ?

BusMobile

Watergate????? Greengate!

Verity

BTW, Fraser, what an incredibly weak headline. "Small earthquake in Peru - not many dead" springs to mind.

hadrian

Rarely do I break the Lord's Day observance but impression of clunking fist is all over this and deserves as immediate a register of protest as we can ALL of us voice. Having been away for a few days this is the earliest I can get in here to add my fury to the clamour.
What has happened is utterly outrageous. Can I suggest A) The House of Lords gets stuck into this forthwith and B) if this is allowed to rumble on or be threatened with 'burying under bad news' that there is organised a PUBLIC PROTEST outside Westminster to cause maximum embarrassment to our incredibly slithery Socialist masters? May the press never let them off the hook on this one. It is nothing short of a horrifying curtailment of our right to free speech and information about what our public 'servants' are up to.
Could anything more starkly portray the despotic and autocratic instincts of this shower of control freaks? Away with the lot of them!