http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7753763.stm
Shadow immigration ministers arrest does seem very heavy handed and the kind of thing that we associate with Russia/eastern europe. Tony Benn and others said it was a contempt of Parliament (a similar incident started the English civil war!).
It could well be a “mayday” for democracy if it transpires that the government had a hand in encouraging the police action, or providing them with details that might make their actions more likely, despite their denials of any prior knowledge which I find hard to believe.
Yep - the Tory MP was doing his job as a responsible member of the opposition - consequently the security services (possibly :Whistling: at the behest of the government) were in contempt of Parliament.
Well stone me!
Who’d have thought the police would have used “counter terrorism” laws to abuse their powers.
There’s a turn up for the books.
Yeah - Blair and Brown promised us that stuff like this would never happen when they brought in the anti-terrorism laws - it seems that they lied to us (again).
If ministers knew, then it is clearly a disgrace. An MP’s office being rooted through by police officers, including some from an anti-terrorist unit, over an alleged leak makes the blood run cold. that it could happen at all hinges around a nasty piece of legislation designed originally to disuade coppers from using police intelligence for personal purposes. Now, apparently, it can be used to nail anyone who leaks to a journalist or indeed any journalist who hears a whisper about things that the government would rather the public know nothing.
If, as ministers claim, it was a police action which they learnt of only after the event, then it is still ridiculously over the top, a PR disaster, and a very dark day everyone who works to keep the public fully informed.
A free press is a guarantee of democracy. This piece of legislation needs to be very robustly challenged and amended.
I think there is still an offense of accusing one of our finest Members of “lying”.
Be very carefull. They may dig out that 1812 law. Or was it 1218?
I’m sure they will find out before they act.
A ‘Who’ track seems apt:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=b3mi-bKtDGA&feature=related
Although to be honest I don’t reckon any of us were fooled in the first place 
Certainly there is something strange going on here. They have not used the usual Official Secrets Act stuff that would be used if there was a typical leak. Those powers are very heavy handed and easy for the state to operate. The investigations in this case are about Malfeasance in Public Office. Malfeasance is extremely difficult to prove because by definition the official must have been able to do what they did, but have used the powers given to them by the state in an unlawful way. To me it looks like it was someone high enough up to have authorised the release of information - the issue is why they have done so and what pressure or influence was placed on them to do so.
All very sinister and he probably won’t be the last…A taste of things to come I think…
been telling you all for years…this country is out of control, the police are becoming ever more political and manipulative and this idiot government uses them as its tool to destroy true liberty and freedom…with things like:-
congestion charges…pricing to enter a town…crazy (communism)
Road pricing, fees to travel around the country…(communism)
Anti-terrorist laws, an excuse to imprison someone until they, the police, have durmmed up enought evidence to prove ‘that they done it gov’…even if they havent…
The number of laws for which now imprisonment is prevalent is up by an incredibla amount and they wonder why the prisons are full…
I have already said prisons dont work…and this countries police force dont either…
This government is mostly to blame and will be remembered in history as the worst period for freedom and democracy ever…
They are after us all…but am I being paranoid…
2strokes.
Not quite sure of the logic that ends with (Communism). But hey ho.
You think “This government is mostly to blame and will be remembered in history as the worst period for freedom and democracy ever…”
Let’s hope so. This means that things are going to get better. I wish I had your faith, I think they wil probably get worse.
The big worry for me is that once governments acquire special powers through laws, they don’t tend to give them up, no matter what colour they are.
Gotta agree with you old guy, I think it will get worse. I think anarchy is coming.
My comment about comunism is the lack of freedom to move about, in Russia you could not leave a town without permission you were not Free to move about, congestion charges and road pricing is the same result but by different means. Hence the socialists move us back to the communist ways as we are forced by costs to stay at home…
The latest one is this crap about being guilty of rape for buying sex…this government is run by people who are totally nuts…
Err I think you’ll find that was a Russian interpretation of Communism, much like it is in China. Communism isn’t about stopping people from moving freely and having civil liberties, it has just been used this way by those governments who could see a way to control the populace and further their own ends, by using a political ideology which actually in practice means the complete opposite!
Thanks to the press and scaremongering of western governments everyone now has such a tarnished view of communism that said western governments will always be able to use it as an excuse. They’ll take action against a country purely because it may try to implement a communist ideology to further the aims of it’s people, the Americans do it in South America all the time and it’s all under the banner of ‘freedom and democracy’, it’s all BS!!
How you manage to draw a parallel between Russian/Chinese communism and congestion charges I’ll never know?
Paranoia may not be a good thing, and yes I appreciate you were joking, but there’s nothing wrong with being well informed. In some respects I do agree with you and having a healthy distrust of anything that any government says or does is not a bad thing! 
A view from “the other side” as it were. After reading the weekend press, it appears that the arrest was the result of a series of leaks by a junior management grade civil servant in the Minister’s private office. To get what is a prestigious job that involves very long hours etc, but involves liaising between Ministers and the rest of the Department. Private office staff get to see all the official papers that pass across a Minister’s Desk, from MPs’ correspondence on behalf of their constituents to secret cabinet and security papers. They have to undergo a high level of security clearance, higher than I have, to get that job. Their background is checked, including checks on their bank accounts, face to face interviews with people they have been associated with in the past etc to check honesty, reliability and no connections with extreme political views. It appears this person was a Tory council candidate but he would not have been barred from that for a job at his level as long as he was not politically active once in post.
Allegedly, when he was arrested he claimed he had been induced by the Tories to make the leaks. That is why the police have acted in the way they have as it is a serious allegation that has serious security implications.
What I am very surprised at however is the Speaker allowing the Police to enter Parliament to search a member’s office so readily.
BTW, someone I know was selected for a private office post, and a colleague of mine who was at university with her was interviewed by the security clearance people. He was asked if she was promiscuous. He said “all I know is she didn’t sleep with me!”
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(He is gay!)
I can understand that a government department needs security and confidentiality to operate effectively - on the other hand - the passing of sensitive documents to a member of the opposition - although technically illegal, can be vital for the upholding of democracy and accountable government - I guess it falls into a kind of extra-legal ‘grey area’ - opposition mps need to be able to operate within this grey area (e.g. viewing sensitive documents even if they are not entitled to do so) - in the same way that journalists should be able to meet with criminals and militants and then not be forced to divulge their sources to the Police - as a free press - like the official opposition - is a cornerstone of democracy and should be free to scrutinise all areas of govt. activity.
The fact that the current government got the country involved in an illegal invasion based on the slimmest of manufactured intelligence (which was obviously false to those with any expertise and knowledge of the region and Iraq in particular) only underlines the importance of the above.
I think that the arrest of the MP was heavy handed and unecessary - surely a meeting or series of meetings could have been arranged to discuss the leak instead.
p.s. my old university dept. was positively haunted by spooks!
I think the key thing here is that the person who leaked has clear links to the Tories, and, it is alleged, he claimed he was induced by a Tory MP to leak. That is what was being investigated as far as I can see. I can’t see how the Police can ignore that. If they should, where do they draw the line? Are some parties OK to be induced by and others not?
As a civil servant who has access to all sorts of sensitive information on a variety of subjects, including commercially and politically sensitive ones, can someone please send me the list of OK people to be induced by and the going rate?
Good point G, I totally see where you are coming from. Interested to get your take on the following: If a leak (although technically illegal/in breach of the official secrets act etc) turns out to be in the public interest by exposing govt. corruption/bad faith - does it really matter if the leaker was motivated by a sense of moral duty, political partisanship - or a financial inducement - e.g. regardless of the motive for the leak - a higher purpose (the exposure of govt. malpractice to parliamentary and press scrutiny) will have been served.
good points…I also add, if that leak was being investigated only because of the Governments desire to damage the opposition then what does it say about democracy, if the public interest is not being served by this government and they are abusing their powers, what say we to this government…
You know what I say…get them out, they are the worst government we have ever had, they have taken us to war, acting like a modern dictator, alienated us from most muslim countries, destroyed hundreds of years of hard won lessons on diplomacy and world trust, ruined our economy and bankrupt the nation, played lapdog to America only to find they dont give a monkeys about us, only themselves…introduced more anti freedom laws than communism, (okay not quite) but heading there…and now they want to make all men undefendably, and automatically guilty of rape if they do not check if the women is a prostitute of her own accord…(I dont here it being said of the women who use prostitutes by the way only men.). I said a few years ago we will have to get written authority soon to have sex at all…even with our wives or girlfriends otherwise we will be accused of rape…I know a diffrent subject but all to do with this governments (MP’s) hidden agendas and seeming desire to criminalise virtually everyone who does not bow down to the power of labour…
Considering that Gordon Brown was one of the worst culprits for leaking secret and confidential documents back in the days of Labour opposition I really think that this has been a an extremely ugly overreaction.
The speaker is a Labour MP, and to be honest it is another erosion of tradition and history by the labour party. I think whoever forms the next Government should be fixing all the wrongs this current and previous administration has allow in, in the name of anti terror, war, and “in the interests of the people”. There has been to much removal of freedoms that have taken centuries of struggle.
Unless this is done I think that we will end up back in 1984.
