Police search another Tory MP's office Daniel Kawczynski, Tory MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham, told the House of Commons last night that police turned up at his Parliamentary office and demanded to see correspondence from a consitituent. Kawczynski, a member of the Justice Committee, told the House he meekly handed over the letters requested. Which begs the question …
I for one welcome our NuLabour dictatorship ...
They do what they have to do. Islington. Enfield. I've been there, I saw it all. Immigrants, Muslims, homosexuals, terrorists. Disease-ridden degenerates. They had to go. Strength through unity. Unity through faith. I'm a God-fearing Englishman and I'm goddamn proud of it!
Good to see the force know who run the country. A second opposition MPs offices raided within as many months... Interesting. Where have I seen such actions before, well I'm sure Comrade Balls and Chairman Brown are safe from the prying eyes of the boot boys.
And we mean flour here don't we? I think everyone in the country should send Balls (he's such an obnoxious tw@ - they're all obnoxious tw@s arn't they?) some flour, he may need to make a cake! Throw some eggs at him too, he'll appreciate that. Bet the boot boys would love it too.
Unaware of the protection granted to MP's correspondence by law...... Self serving toss. Most of these jokers come from a background in the legal profession, they certainly seem keen on knowing their own rights when it comes ot avoiding scrutiny. Just who called in the plods this time I wonder ? Constituent asking questions he doesn't want to answer perhaps ? I wonder if the plods concerned are aware that they may just be have placed a case in jeopardy by grabbing what is quite likely to be determined to be tainted evidence.....? Assuming there is a case that is....
How about a blue flashing light icon for over enthusiastic law enforcement stories El Reg ?
I'm missing something, the only way they could know if the handwriting matched was if they went through the letters and searched for a match, no?
I'm missing a step here. How did they know that he had in his possession a letter with handwriting that matched the letter sent to Ed Balls??? Or did they simply visit, take a look around his in-tray, see a letter and say it matched and demand it? In which case how do you know it matched?... because of the brief glance?
Was the letter opened or closed? Did they let the rozzers grab a closed letter?
Why would an threatening letter be sent to Ed Balls AND IN THE SAME HANDWRITING to the conservative MP? Wouldn't they cover their tracks?
Oh, and the Houses of Parliament really should get themselves a legal rep, allocate a meeting room for all visits between officers and MPs, get the solicitor to attend the meeting and determine the legality of the request. THEN let the MP decide with advice whether to comply, or whether a warrant or further verification is needed.
@"Any idiot knows to ask to see the warrant."
Not in Britain they don't. What you see now in the USA, with the NSA whistleblower revealing journalists (and presumably other groups like politicians) were spied on, that would be legal in the UK. The rozzers have made it clear the Wilson Doctrine means squat.
Also if you refuse their request, there are a large number of discretionary powers they can use to punish you. Which is why all such meetings should be recorded.
It seems to me that it's more likely that the police went to see him, asked him for the letter, and he gave it to them. Then he thought about it and thought "Perhaps I shouldn't have done that so easily. Perhaps they should have had a warrant. Perhaps I can get my name in the papers for this."
The Tories, as usual, have seen an opportunity to publicise something that sounds on the face of it, pretty straight forward. If he really thought it was terrible, he would have protested at the time and not just handed it over. OTOH if it really was by appointment, couldn't the police charge him with something and shouldn't they to add weight to their argument?
Sounds like something completely mundane, blown all out of proportion to spread blue FUD.
Don't be silly, the police requested that the information be handed over, and it was passed to them, entirely voluntarily.
That the polite request was probably phrased as a demand, backed up with threats of arrest if they didn't comply is entirely irrelevant, i'm sure!
Given what's happened with the whole 'MP's expenses' and FOIA affair does it seem too much of a leap to see the following chain of events:
Tories agree to support an obviously unpopular bill that they quite like the look of i.e. keeping their taxpayer raping benfits secret.
Unrelated - the police ask Tory MP to see one of his files to investigate some twonk or other.
Tory higher ups realise that there's a good opportunity to kick the Labour in the nuts and decide that this nobody MP needs to stamp and shout about police raids.
MP, despite knowing this will make him look like a weak willed twat, agrees to this (because he's a weak willed twat) and duly kicks up a stink.
Tories use that as an excuse to drop out of the FOI amendment with the result that they look great, Labour look shit-ter.
Score 1 Tories.
/conspiracy
Mines the one with the tinfoil helmet in the pocket
They probably had a warrant. It was probably signed off by an overworked magistrate somewhere and says something like "any materials suggestive of attempted terrorist activity"
I got woken up at 6.30 once by 7 police people who had a warrant to look for fake passports. It was signed by some guy in Croydon. I still have a copy, it's not very informative, and it certainly doesn't give the impression that any evidence was required in the obtaining of it.
I'm just not buying his story. The police are not foolish enough to raid an office of another MP, and then lie about having arranged an appointment (a fact that I don't think the MP has actually denied).
I think it was a standard polite thing till someone pointed out to the MP that he shouldn't really be handing out his constituents letters, when he panicked and started up this whole thing.
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