Sunday 30 November 2008

Arrest of MP Damian Green an outrage

Let us be clear:

Should MP's be treated different if they break the law? Definitely not. Law makers should not be law breakers, so I think the law should come down harder on MP's than anyone else that break common law crimes.
BUT.... should the police use terrorism laws to try and gag an opposition MP who thanks to a whistle blower has exposed information that SHOULD be in the public realm and is clearly in the public interest, but has been buried under official secrets act legislation in order to save the Government and senior civil servant responsible from embarrassment?
A number of things seriously bother me about this incident:
1. We have heightened security, a massacre of innocent citizens takes place in India - and what are our anti terrorist police doing??? Seven, yes seven sweep on an opposition MP's home and arrest him and question him for 7 or 9 hours. What was in the mind of the police? Is this their idea of building public confidence? We shoot innocent people on the underground and arrest opposition MP's that embarrass the Government.
2. ARE WE A POLICE STATE? Is this not something we expect to read about happening in Zimbabwe or some other despotic regime? Who authorised this? Who knew about this? Who decided this was in the public interest of national security to pursue? There are many questions over this whole issue, and I would expect to see some resignations.
Quite rightly MP's have the freedom in the House, under 'Parliamentary privilege', to say what they like without fear of prosecution - this right enables MP's to highlight and challenge issues that are in the public interest. This is especially valuable to MP's that are in opposition. We need to ensure,, in the interest of a healthy democracy, that opposition MP's are able to have the protection of 'the house' (House of Commons). It should be a haven for responsible MP's that scrutinise and ensure we are governed effectively and look after ours and the Country's best interest.
3. That said - whatever was going through the mind (if he has one) of the Speaker of the House, to not only allow the Police to search Damian Green MP's office, but had his emails suspended. It frankly beggars belief. Again, something you would expect to happen in Zimbabwe - but not here in the Mother of Democracy. The Speaker MUST RESIGN. His position is untenable. It must be noted that this is the same Speaker that went to the High Court to STOP an exposure of MP's expenses Michael Martin MP.
This reminds me of the occassion before the outbreak of the second world war where Churchill was leeked information by a senior Foreign Office official Ralph Wigram about the then Government deliberately hiding or underplaying figures about German military expansion. The whisle blower Ralph Wigram was hounded and committed suicide (sound familiar - Dr Kelly and Iraq Weapons), but the information was right and should have better prepared Britain for a bloody conflict that cost many British lives.
When all these things are happening - it is clear that it is time for change.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Zanu-Labour, shades of Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe, Stalinist Russia, today in China.

Treatment of Damian Green is the tip of the iceburg.

Home Secretary should resign, Speaker of the House should resign.

- High crimes and breach of parliamentary privilege

Anonymous said...

A raid by anti-terrorist officers on the home and offices of a senior opposition politician, documents, computers, mobile phone and other devises seized and taken away, e-mail accounts suspended, offices bugged, telephone calls and internet activity logged, the politician arrested and taken way for questioning, held for over nine hours, fingerprinted, DNA sample taken, released on police bail to report back to the police in the New Year.

All in day's work for the Stasi in the old Stalinist East Germany, a scene from a John le Carré novel, Stalinist Russia, Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe?

Er, none of these. This was a senior Front Bench Member of Her Majesty's Opposition.

Even the Stasi did not put microchips in wheelie bins or install CCTV to catch householders putting their rubbish out on the wrong day or parents dropping their kids off outside the school gate.

What had he done to deserve such treatment? Handed out Parliamentary passes to terrorists, passed nuclear secrets to Iran, lost his marbles and run naked through the streets, assaulted his butler?

Er, none of these. The heinous crime that resulted in his home and offices being raided, himself being held for over nine hours was that he had embarrassed the government. Amongst other things he had exposed that employed in sensitive government departments were illegal migrants who had been security cleared. Worse still, the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith knew, but had not thought fit to tell Parliament.

- Welcome to the Zanu-Labour Police State

It is to the shame of anti-terrorist officers that on the day they were intimidating an opposition MP, nearly two hundred innocent people in India were needlessly slaughtered by Muslim terrorists. Did these officers have nothing better to do, like perhaps catch terrorists? Maybe it was an away day from intimidating activists.

Many of us have known for years we are living in a police state. It is nice to see the rest of you have finally woken up to reality.

Protesters and other riffraff have always been fair game. What the arrest of Damian Green has highlighted is how bad is the situation, how we have allowed our freedoms to be eroded.

We no longer live in a free society.

Maybe Green should think himself lucky. They only detained him for a few hours, riffled through his possessions. Dr David Kelly was killed by the State for revealing the truth about the non-existent weapons of mass destruction.

First they came for the gypsies, then the Jews, then they came for me.

Anonymous said...

First they came for the chavs,
but I don't wear tracksuits
Then they came for Muslim Jihadists,
but I can't even grow a beard
Then they came for Animal Rights campaigners,
but I like buying L'oreal products
Then they came for Eco-campaigners,
but I don't believe in climate change
Then they came for the toffs ...


see Whack-a-mole.