Now that this has happened to one of their own, perhaps the Tory party will finally wake up to what Nu Labour has done to our rights and freedoms over that last 11 years and fight to roll back the state?Nine counter terrorism officers to arrest one MP!!!
Have the police gone mad?
Full article from The Telegraph
David Cameron today criticised the decision to use counter-terrorist police to arrest the shadow immigration minister, Damian Green, after he published leaked documents allegedly sent to the Tories by a government whistleblower.
The Conservative leader said that it was "a worrying stage in our democracy" if shadow ministers could not release information in the national interest.
"If this had happened in the 1930s, Churchill would have been arrested," said Cameron, in a reference to the way Winston Churchill used leaked information to support his campaign for Britain to rearm against Adolf Hitler's Germany.
Cameron also said that ministers needed to explain what they knew in advance about the decision to arrest Green, who was held for nine hours before being arrested without charge.
"These are extraordinary and frankly rather worrying circumstances," Cameron said this morning.
"What seems to be the case is that [Green] was arrested for making public information that the government didn't want to have made public."
Phil Woolas, a Home Office minister, said that as far as he knew ministers did not know that the police were going to arrest Green before it happened.
Asked to comment on the arrest in an interview on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Woolas said that the police had said it had been in relation to "conspiracy" to commit misconduct in public office and that the situation therefore might not be as "straightforward" as some people thought. But he stressed that he did not have special knowledge of the case.
"While I know nothing about the case, that's the charge. Therefore I think the wisest thing to do is to what and see what happens," Woolas said.
Green was taken into custody at about 1.50pm in his Ashford constituency in Kent and escorted to a central London police station. At around 11pm, as the Tories accused the authorities of a "perverse sense of priorities" for using counter-terrorism officers to arrest an MP while terrorists attacked Mumbai, Green was released on unconditional bail to return at a date in February for further questioning.
A "tired and angry" Green said early this morning: "I was astonished to have spent more than nine hours under arrest for doing my job. I emphatically deny that I have done anything wrong. I have many times made public information that the government wanted to keep secret, information that the public has a right to know.
"In a democracy, opposition politicians have a duty to hold the government to account. I was elected to the House of Commons precisely to do that and I certainly intend to continue doing so."
Green's defiant statement came at the end of a day in which nine counter-terrorism officers conducted simultaneous searches at four locations: Green's constituency office and home in Ashford, his office in the House of Commons and his London home.
The MP was arrested under common law for "on suspicion of conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office and aiding and abetting, counselling or procuring misconduct in a public office".
The police action followed the arrest 10 days ago of a government whistleblower who allegedly leaked four documents to Green, who then passed them to the press. Cameron was convinced that such a move would have to be approved at top political levels. A Tory source said: "David Cameron is angry. This is Stalinesque."
Labour sources indicated that neither the prime minister nor the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, knew about the arrest. Gordon Brown only learned of it around three hours later. Sources said it was "preposterous" to suggest that ministers would have approved the arrest. The Metropolitan police denied any ministerial involvement.
Cameron and the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, were informed that Green would be arrested. Johnson reportedly asked Sir Paul Stephenson, the deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan police, whether he was sure that he needed to arrest Green, who could have been questioned.
George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, told the BBC: "I think it is extraordinary that the police have taken that decision. It has long been the case in our democracy that MPs have received information from civil servants. To hide information from the public is wrong."
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Good post.
ReplyDeleteThis is, IMO, the saddest day in British politics that I can recall.
After all the other aspects of control that Blair, and latterly the Brown Regime, have forced upon us, they've now descended to making political arrests.
I think we can now safely say that British Freedom (1215-2008) is dead.
Obituary at http://tinyurl.com/6z2eeh
Dungeekin
A Polticised police force....Essential for any Stalinist state....Next will come even tighter controls on the media.....Post on here as often as you can people, it is only a matter of time before Nanny bans such sites....Labour will not tolerate criticism.
ReplyDeleteI actually think this is a good thing in a funny way.
ReplyDeleteMaybe now the public will see what a nasty bunch of stalinists, who hide behind "anti-terror" laws are running this country and with any luck we can actually get rid of them.
"Nine counter terrorism officers to arrest one MP!!!"
ReplyDeleteYet, if you happen to be unfortunate enough to be a victim of real crime, you are lucky if you get ANY response from the police!
"The MP was arrested under common law for "on suspicion of conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office and aiding and abetting, counselling or procuring misconduct in a public office".
If it was 'common law' why were the anti-terrorist police involved?
The truth of the matter is that we are heading more and more to a totalitarian police state. I wonder how long it will be before nu Labour abolish elections, in the public interest of course?
"Labour sources indicated that neither the prime minister nor the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, knew about the arrest. Gordon Brown only learned of it around three hours later. Sources said it was "preposterous" to suggest that ministers would have approved the arrest. The Metropolitan police denied any ministerial involvement."
Well, they would all deny this, wouldn't they? In my opinion, these days, the police are so politicised, especially those at the top, that it is fair to say that they are p*****g in the same pot as the government!
13 arrested in Liverpool for handing out legal factual leaflets containing information which the Government doesn't want the public to know. No matter what your politics are, this is persecution of a legitimate opposition party's freedom of expression.
ReplyDeleteSee http://bnp.org.uk/2008/11/police-torture-cruel-treatment-withheld-medicines-this-is-stalinist-new-britain/
By the way, a link to that leaflet is on that page, you make your own mind up.
Like Anonymous, I'm more inclined to smile than scream. But I recognise the impulse for what it is: a defence mechanism. It's certainly not hope. People will put up with a lot, lot more than this before they throw themselves in front of the cattle prods.
ReplyDeleteI mean, he is an MP, for Heaven's sake. His goal is to live off the same bloated parasite that periodically does things like this. Hardly an innocent victim - the fact that only one of those least deserving of sympathetic coverage is the only one who could possibly get it, either makes it even funnier or even more horrific, depending on your state of mind.
This is how it will go: an investigation will grind on for a few days and provide a good few £millions worth of useless employment, and then Green will be let go. The police will give a statement that strongly hints that he did do something but they can't prove it - "strong concerns... safety of the nation... obligation to investigate... not enough evidence to prosecute..." blah blah blah. Green will give a statement saying that he was completely innocent and knew he would be exonerated, but is proud of the force which works tirelessly for the safety of blah blah blah (he's not exactly likely to condemn the apparatus he wants to inherit a share in) and the fact that he got let go proves that the system works.
Green isn't going to be imprisoned, he won't lose his children or his property, and he hasn't been shot dead, so he is way way down the list of victims of the modern British state. While we should be up in arms about what his arrest represents, we should be sparing with our sympathy.
Teflon Dave says that it's "a worrying stage in our democracy".
ReplyDeleteIt's much worse than that - it's way past the beginning of the end of our democracy.
Speaker Martin - no Speaker Lenthall he - gave the police the go-ahead to search Green's office. He obviously has no plans to be a parliamentary bulwark againt the executive.
I never thought I would be comparing Gordon Brown with King Charles I. But that's what it's coming to.
This was a 'common' law matter so
ReplyDeletewhat is of great concern to me is that the speaker allowed the police to search his parliamentary office without apparent reference to anyone.
Had the house been sitting would he have allowed this?
Were anti terror police inolved in this search?
When was the last time this was allowed to happen?
Who oversaw the search?
Did they need a warrant?
Did the MP himself give permission for this?
This puts all MPs in difficult position.
Can the police now search any parliamentarians office on suspicion of anything they like?
Sus laws for MPs?
The reason this is so abhorrent is that even elected representatives who are paid by us to oppose the government are not immune from the police state and the contempt shown to us is incredible.
ReplyDeleteIf one cannot even oppose the government in a public office without fear of arrest, then there is no hope for the rest of us.
I predict that some sort of civil contingence laws will be bought into play before the next election to keep Stalin in his post.
I have google searched for details of protests, oddly, the pages that have "police state protest" in their cached title are not available to view.
That seems rather sinister to me. If this government had been fair, open and could be trusted I may have chalked that up to coincidence. I no longer think so.
It is also indicitive of conspiracy that the BBC have very little on this story - indeed, usually a story such as this would have a 'Have your say' page, but not this time!
There needs to be mass protests about our civil liberties - whilst we still can, which would seem to be about another week.
Sure, the stazi will be out arresting people, but before long rioting and revolution will be our only choices.
Tha BBC does not like to bite the hand that feeds it, if it can avoid upsetting the government it will. Not only that but it is way more concered with reporting the bigger picture, like its bias view on climate change.
ReplyDeleteYou cannot trust the BBC
The BBC CANNOT be trusted! It has become little more than a propaganda machine paid for by those that are subjected to it.
ReplyDeleteThe news has become so biased that it's almost laughable. Yet sadly, ordinary people, completely sucked in by it, STILL claim it to be the 'best in the world' and 'completely unbiased'.
[throws hands up in the air in dispair]
"Gordon Brown only learned of it around three hours later."
ReplyDeleteAs Mandy Rice-Davies would have said, "Well, he would, wouldn't he?"
After all, one of his nicknames is McCavity. He accuses the Tories of being a 'do nothing' opposition, but he is a 'know nothing' prime minister. Like Pooh-Bah, whenever anything dodgy happens he says he wasn't there.