Labour's leaky position

Andrew Forbes

The Mayor, the Leader of the Opposition, the Speaker all knew. The Home Sectretary (who sits on the same Met governing committee as the Mayor) and the PM did not. Does anyone believe them?

Can the Home Sec or the PM be induced to repeat this in the House? Deceiving the House used to be considered quite serious.

The Laughing Cavalier

The government leaks like a sieve when it suits its purpose. The most notable of these recently have been those to Robert Peston, deliberately to my mind, to cause a run on the banks and precipitate a share price collapse prior to (effective) nationalisation. If there is to be an investigation into leaks it must include this appalling behaviour.

Peter Wilson

Isn't it amazing (or not) that it takes days for the BBC to have a 'Have Your Say' thread on their website about the Green case, and then when they eventually do it's hidden away down the pecking order of other stories like; 'do you have a sense of belonging.'

The BBC is no longer just siased but brazen about it.

luke

James, how do you know what Damian Green did?

The most baffling thing to me about this story is how the assumption is everyone knows exactly what he did.

How can JS comment before she does? Why is it ok for Cameron to comment when he doesn't?

If Green paid or offered other rewards (e.g. a job in government?) for leaks then he has broken the law in a serious way. And that would not be comparable to what other opposition politicians have done.

I simply do not see how responsible government ministers can jump to your conclusions. You are clearly free to do so, but I would think it irresponsible of them to pre-judge the outcome of an investigation.

LD

"Damian Green must have done something wrong because he is a Tory.”

Just heard this comment made by a caller on jeremy vine's show - labour's ability to spin things in their favour is still working

kinglear

Whether this government had any principles left? They never had any to start with beyond getting into power and staying there.
Oh, and doing everything in their power against the other side because they are mean minded and spiritually bereft.

kinglear

Andrew Forbes - this is whyI have said this "could" mean an early election. Even Liebore toadies would think twice before going too far in undermining Parliamentary privilege.

David

"If Green paid or offered other rewards (e.g. a job in government?) for leaks then he has broken the law in a serious way."

I swear to every god out there that if one more person uses the phrase 'then he has broken the law' I'm going to explode. Whether a law has been broken will be up to a jury to decide, should it ever get there. There has been no suggestion that he offered anything at all, but even if he had a jury could still consider that it was worth it to get the information out in the open.

The Bellman

luke: Commendably legal-minded of you, old thing.

Yet in spite of Jackboot's heroically-principled reticence, I see you have wasted no time filling the information gap with hypotheses about what Mr Green might have done - armed, presumably, with information compiled from police leaks and innuendo...

At the very least, Ms Smith could apologise to Mr Green for the *manner* in which the investigation has been conducted, if not for its existence. That at least would have given her a shred of human decency to hide behind, instead of the flailing, wobbly-chinned flatulence she exhaled yesterday.

As well as the mendacity of this government, this case highlights the pathetic way in which its members are pathologically incapable of accepting responsibility for anything, and will exploit anything to support them. It decides, when convenient, to hide behind process; yet feels it can disregard it - tragically - when it believes it is in its own interests. Unaccounted sofa government one minute, a Prussian meticulousness the next.

A pathetic spectacle, and the sooner it collapses the better.

Bocephus

"James, how do you know what Damian Green did?"

What did Gordon Brown do to get leaks in the 80's and 90's? We don't know. Why don't we know? Because Conservative government didn't have the police ransack his office and have him banged up for 9 hours.

Alex R

Government ministers and spin doctors still are leaking. No police investigation into the activities of Whelan, Campbell, Balls and Brown

George Laird

Dear All

No apology from Jacqui Smith, did anyone really expect someone as crass as her to apologise in the first place?

Smith and the rest of the on script sycophants have been using the line about Police independence.

This is their mantra but hold on there Bald Eagle what about the Saudi Arms fraud investigation which was stopped stone cold dead in its tracks by Labour Ministers?

That was tampering with the independence of the Police was it not?

A fraud investigation stopped in the “interests of national security” so whose kidding who?

So, it’s okay that British firms pay bribes sanctioned by New Labour but completely wrong to hold the Government to account by an elected official.

Jacqui Smith is the worst Home Secretary in modern political history and I can’t recall someone worst even although Blunkett and Clarke are a pair of rockets.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

don't like the whinging rich

Gosh, what a lot of tosh.

I see a differnce between

a) accepting and using information from a source in the civil service and

b)soliciting information from a source in the civil service who has applied for a job with the same would-be recipient of information and is, as chance would have it, a political candidate( the source, that is).

George Laird

Dear don't like the whinging rich

I represent the whingeing poor and I am disgusted with the contempt that New Labour has shown for democracy and transparency.

You appear to not to understand what networking is, why is that?

Has Galley been paid by Damien Green?

No!

In actual fact, Galley applied for a job and failed to get it.

You appear to want to steer the issue away from the failings of New Labour in this matter, why?

If the claim of Smith is to be believed that she knew nothing, it shows her up as a total incompetent, does it not?

As to Michael Martin, he is obviously too stupid and lacking in commonsense to continue as Speaker of the House of Commons.

The issue is not Galley and the issue is not Green, the issue now is contempt for Parliament.

Galley and Green have the Public Interest Disclosure Act to reply on.

No conviction there, but if Labour is stupid enough to press ahead with a court case then, let’s brings it on.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

dont like the whinging rich

Ah,George,Glasgow Uni,eh?

Never mind.

Who says you represent the whinging poor,apart from yourself?

George Laird

Dear Whingeing Labour

“Ah,George,Glasgow Uni,eh?”

Yes, formerly, first person to be banned for giving advice to an Asian et al at Glasgow University.

Do you want a copy of the signed University of Glasgow Letter, it’s in the files dear boy?

“Never mind”.

I don’t mind you in the slightest, I like people with no principles; they give the rest of us something to point to.

“Who says you represent the whinging poor,apart from yourself?”

I have to give names is this another Met Police trick which may result in my door being kicked in?

Finally, if want a copy of the signed University of Glasgow letter then please don't hesitate to ask, I am all about veracity and accountability unlike New Labour.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

TGF UKIP

James, your last sentence indicates why the Tories might just be wise to let this die a death.

If they then do form a government they will have carte blanche to pursue all the Labour supporting Civil Service leakers lining up to undermine even a Cameron government let alone a genuinely conservaive one.

This could be a very useful precedent to clip the wings of the all the Guardian reading jobsworths.

PS Am waiting to read in the Press of the former leaking-to-Gordon civil servant who subsequently got a post 97 job as a SpAd.