back to article 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 …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Ad Fundum
    Joke

    Why so surprised?

    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!

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    good to see

    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.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    I know what he means,

    "To my great embarrassment and eternal shame, I was so weak that I handed over the letter from my constituent that they demanded."

    I bet they we're armed and excessively intimidating, like when i was searched at gun point for hanging round euston

  4. NB
    Stop

    well I never...

    To paraphrase the Dead Kennedys

    NAZI COPS FUCK OFF

    that will be all.

  5. Hollerith

    weenie

    Kawczynski, grow a spine. Or at least brush up on the law. Jeez. Any idiot knows to ask to see the warrant.

  6. Keith Edwards
    Thumb Down

    Attention seeker

    sounds to me more like our MP is trying to generate a bit of press coverage, rather than highlight concerns over privacy issues etc.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    that's the tories for you...

    Weak and pathetic.

  8. Wokstation

    "Waaah look at me" says MP

    So he had some dodgy mail, the police are contacted. They make an appointment to go see the guy and ask to have a look at the dodgy mail...

    ...where's the story again? I'd have thought El Reg would be lamabasting the MP for this one!

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Go

    and if the complaint is upheld as valid,

    then I for one look forward to more suspicious packages with white powder being sent to MPs and not being investigated.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Non-story

    So, they made an appointment, asked for a letter and he gave it to them.

    Seems to me like he's now realised that his constituents won't be overly impressed with him handing over their correspondence and is now bleating "it wasn't really me, some other boys made me do it". Twat.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    what amazing legislators we have eh ?

    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 ?

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    How did they know the handwriting matched?

    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.

  13. Nick

    "Search"?

    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."

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Serjeant at Arms

    Serjeant at Arms? a spilling miss steak, did ewe knot cheque it width the spell chequer on your pea sea

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    DPA?

    No Warrant? then surely he just handed personal information to an unauthorised 3rd part?....

  16. Shakje

    Anyone actually care who the MP is?

    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.

  17. Sooty
    Black Helicopters

    demanding constituency correspondence

    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!

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Since when...

    is posting Flour ilegal?

    Flames because when airated just right flour is an explosive... (no smokin in t'mill!)

    Maybe thats why...

  19. James Pickett

    Justice

    Perhaps the DPP should consider having him arrested for handing over confidential data to the, er, police. In the meantime, perhaps a notice should be pinned to the main entrance, saying: "Have you got a warrant?". It might save some trouble...

  20. Secretgeek
    Coat

    Connections.

    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

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Many people still respect authority.

    Wehn confronted with authority many people go into panic mode and comply without really stopping to question why they are doing it. Remember that some people were brought up to respect authority and not to question it.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Warrant.

    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.

  23. Will

    it all seems a bit fishy to me

    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.

  24. Neoc

    Re: Serjeant at Arms

    Nope, that is the correct spelling for the position. For example:"serjeant-at-law: an English barrister of the highest rank".

    Not surprisingly, as soon as you cross to the USA, the spelling changes to "sergeant-at-arms".

  25. Graham Marsden
    Coat

    Haven't these people ever watched The Sweeney?

    So didn't the Police Officer snarl "Get yer trousers on, you're nicked!"

This topic is closed for new posts.