back to article MPs call for inquiry into Tory terror arrest

The Home Affairs Select Committee wants a fuller inquiry into the arrest of MP Damian Green, and believes politicians should be kept out of police investigations in future. Damian Green and a junior Home Office official were arrested in November last year. Green's Parliamentary office and home were searched after Home Office …

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  1. Eponymous Cowherd
    Flame

    Another whitewash

    So some civil servants got pissed off with some leaks and decided to call the anti-terror cops in against a senior Tory without Ministerial (i.e. Wacqui Jacqui's) approval.

    Ooooh, look, the Porcine Air Force are doing a fly-by.

  2. Jonathan

    I'm amazed....

    .... that the Committee was able to publish its report at all. I mean, it said something nasty about the government - surely that means it shouldnt be published at all? Like the case with the McBride scandals, I mean surely everyone knows if you have something bad to say about the government you keep your mouth shut? At least, thats what Labour wants us to believe.

    But I suppose it doesnt matter, since we know that nothing will come of it. I dont expect any of those who exaggerated the security risks to face any music.

  3. MinionZero
    Stop

    Oh great, so now they want to make MPs exempt from the police state they are building!

    "The Home Affairs Select Committee wants a fuller inquiry into the arrest of MP Damian Green, and believes politicians should be kept out of police investigations in future."

    What?! ... What so now the MPs want to be completely beyond the reach of law?! ... Don't even investigate them. That is totally the wrong response to this arrest. It opens up a huge range of problems.

    Its the new laws they are creating which are the cause of the problems. They are building a police state with ever more powers to monitor and control and arrest people. Now they want to make the MPs exempt from the police state they are building!

    If they make it even harder to investigate MPs they are going to open up more possibilities for even more abuses of their positions of power. We have enough examples of that now.

    Almost every day we are now getting ever more moves towards a totalitarian police state. Now we have the "Home Affairs Select Committee" no less, talking about such a morally corrupt move, that it has huge implications. NuLabour just don't know when to stop. They are behaving like a machine without feedback going to ever more extremes because they refuse to listen to anyone who disagrees with them.

  4. Scott
    Thumb Down

    Leak

    Well the leaks stopped so why worry about if it was legal or not to stomp through parliment with your big boots on.

    My neighbour keeps putting out rubbish the night before collection wonder if i report to the police that its radioactive they'll sort it out without warrants or proof as well.

  5. amanfromMars Silver badge
    Pirate

    A Word to the Wise so that they may also Know of a NeuReal and QuITE SurReal Practical Facility ...

    ..... from CyberIntelAIgents and MODified Servers.

    In a SMARTer and Getting SMARTer World of Networks InterNetworking Stealthy Intelligence Sublimely and Silently, are Entrenched Fools and their Embedded Comrades easily Outed and Routed and Led by the Nose and the Knows into Treacherous Territory that is of their Own Making and which will Destroy them and Render them as Fodder to the Fields of their Foe.

    And in an Age when Information is no longer Controlled by the Hidden Agendas of MainStream Media Outlets and Spinning Controllers of BroadBandCasters, is Truth and Honesty the Sword of Damacles they face at every Breath and Utterance. And UK Politics has been Immaculately Shown by reported actions to be Rotten to its very Core and Drunk and Incapable of Defending itself in the Virtual Realm, where the Future is being Forged with new Champions and Thespians Engaging with Perfect Imaginations for the Selfless Benefit of All.

    And they would welcome One and All who would Care 42 Dare Win and Win Win.

    And now Y'all know a) What to expect and b) What is expected. So don't be surprised at forthcoming developments which will knock down a few doors/render some scalps...... for the Arrogant Stupidity of Ignorant Man guarantees it.

  6. amanfromMars Silver badge

    My most Humble Apologies.

    And that should of course be Damocles. Sorry about that.

  7. Gordon Pryra
    Joke

    In what context?

    "The Home Affairs Select Committee ...... believes politicians should be kept out of police investigations in future."

    They already seem to be above the law anyway, so what difference would it make?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Home Secretary Briefed on Arrest

    Police chief Bob Quick briefs the Home Office in detail about pending anti-terror legislation raids. We know this because he was caught with the paper in his hands by photographers, and had to resign as a result.

    Jacqui Smith denied that she was briefed about the pending raid on Damien Greens office using THIS SAME anti-terror legislation by THIS SAME OFFICER.

    She said

    "JACQUI SMITH: I was told about the search and about the arrest after it had happened. "

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/andrew_marr_show/7757215.stm

    "JACQUI SMITH: No, I think it is right that I knew that there was an investigation going on. I did not know before the arrest that that particular front bench spokesman or any front bench spokesman was about to be searched and arrested. "

    I don't believe her, I think Bob Quick briefed her, and possible the dirty tricks man, McBride. I wonder if there were any special advisers present at those meetings. I think he told her about his planned arrest of a Tory MP. I think she approved of it and I think she believed it would make good political capital. After all she knew were the leaks went to before she made the complaint.

    I also note she ducked the question about whether 'Damien Green's phone was bugged using the answer that Home Secretaries never confirm or deny.... rubbish, she could say no, she did not.

    Or is she saying that she may occasionally bug politicians phones and Parliament and so she cannot deny it outright, for the times when she does....

  9. Hugh_Pym
    Thumb Up

    One rule for us...

    ... and one for them. MP's gave the police these extra powers for terror cases and then start balling ' yes but only for bad people not us boo hoo'.

    Anybody with half a brain can see they are open to abuse. If this guy hadn't been in the public eye he would probably still be in custody under the new laws. Lock 'em all up I say.

  10. Luther Blissett

    Relative bowel motions in an inertial frame

    It must have occurred to some that, with the papers full of troughing ministers, and the general impression compounded by the revelations of nu labour smear campaigns, the air is so thick with dirt and the fan-blown, that any further process against Green is not only going to be a big fail, but a further opportunity for Joe/e Public to perceive the abject piggery that has become of the bunch of political cuckoos aka nu labour.

    Cue frantic pedalling backwards while proceeding forwards into the septic tank of Westminster.

    And where is Smith? Is she lost - or just missing in inaction? Has anyone happened to have found a Smith they don't know what to do with, but are reluctant to report to the police?

  11. Jason Bloomberg Silver badge
    Black Helicopters

    Guns ablazin'

    Seems like the police tore in there with guns blazing having been misled by HMG that the sky was falling and the world was otherwise about to end.

    Not unlike the over-hyped pretext used to drag us into Iraq.

    Maybe Damien Green was seen taking one too many bags of sugar from the Common's canteen ...

    http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2375686.ece

  12. Rolf Howarth

    Keep politicians out of investigation

    The Register has misreported this. The committee isn't say politicians shouldn't be investigated, it's saying that when there is a police investigation it should be handled by the police themselves without informing or consulting with ministers about it in advance.

    I'm not sure I agree with that recommendation though. The police are enough of a law unto themselves already (witness G20 etc.) that I don't think having them traipsing around parliament on a whim without some VERY senior approval (and even then only in the most serious cases) can be good for democracy.

  13. Allan
    Thumb Down

    But.. wait.. what?

    They want to be exempt from criminal investigations, just because they are an MP?

    One would have thought that they would be the first to volunteer to be investigated, as being MPs they are not supposed to have anything they need to hide.

    I guess they do have stuff to hide.

  14. Jez Lawrence

    hate to defend them...

    Er... I think by 'politicians should not be involved in future' they mean they shouldn't be breifed about an impending arrest in future - which is right and correct, because that amounts to a tip off. You don't call a drug dealer's mum just before you raid the house, do you?

    That said (god I feel dirty, defending MPs. Eugh) - I love the fact that when anti terror laws (or any laws) are applied to MPs, all of a sudden the political classes clamour that Its A Scandal and Something Must Be Done.

    When its some poor 80 year old bloke shouting at a Labour conference though... that's just 'unfortunate'.

    Pretty much the same as FOI. Its all good as long as its used to humiliate Local Authorities and rival Ministers' civil service departments, but as soon as it applies to MPs directly...? How many times over the last few years has there been an issue with someone's expenses? At first they actually tried to change the law because when they passed the FOI Act in the first place they had for some reason not thought it might apply to them and were very shocked indeed when it turned out it did!

    Then we've had another year or so of 'You may not like it, but I haven't broken any rules' for someone to actually say 'er.... well maybe we should change the rules so they weren'aren't so blatantly open to abuse?'. Not that I think it'll happen, but there we go.

    While I'm abusing hyprocritical politicians - wacqui jacqui really does get up my nose. When talking about Fred whatsisface's pension/payoff - 'he may not have broken the law but he's been convicted in the court of public opinion'. When questioned about 'her' second home 'I haven't broken any rules'

    God I hate that woman.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Scott

    "they'll sort it out without warrants or proof"

    By law, they didn't need a warrant as they'd already arrested him. Not sure who introduced that one, but I suspect it was the Tories.

    As for proof, warrants are issued to search for evidence/proof. If they already have the evidence/proof, they wouldn't need to execute warrants, would they?

    Personally, I'm in favour of banging them all up. Wanting to be a politician is prima facie evidence of criminality.

  16. Rolf Howarth
    Thumb Up

    @Jez Lawrence

    Absolutely spot on!

    I'm not as cynical as some people here about politicians in general. I'm sure most of them do originally enter politics because they want to make a difference and do the right thing, and I'm not against paying them properly or giving them allowances if that will encourage people of the right calibre to enter public service, rather than becoming barristers or directors of large companies say.

    There is a deliciously sweet irony though when MPs and ministers start to see the impact of rules they make up for the rest of us applied to themselves. I couldn't care less about the home secretary's £10 of films on expenses, but perhaps she can see now why people are so uneasy about having every aspect of their private lives monitored and recorded and held against them. You can have done nothing wrong but there's still PLENTY to be worried about.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    We all knew

    We all knew the risks had been deliberately exaggerated from the start, we all knew what the real motivation behind the criminal investigation was, to prevent the humiliating truth about the way the Labour party are behaving from becomming known to the public.

    We public have a right to know what useless and bad things the government is up to, this was nothng other than yet more spin, and manipulating the Police for their own political ends.

    The Labour party are rotten to the core.

  18. This post has been deleted by its author

  19. MnM

    @Jez Lawrence

    That was an enthusiatic Harriet Harman encouraging mob rule of a Sunday morning, not the home office head nutter, but I understand your confusion!

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