Blogging from the Highlands of Scotland
'From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step' - Diderot

Friday 28 November 2008

Police State Britain - Even MPs are not immune from Labour's 'Big Brother' politics

Conservative immigration spokesman Damian Green MP has been arrested; according to the Metropolitan Police:



"The man has been arrested on suspicion of conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office and aiding and abetting, counselling or procuring misconduct in a public office."

According to reports, Mr Green was arrested this afternoon at his constituency home and 'counter-terrorism officers were involved in searches of his home and offices'. Even supposing such an arrest was justified (which I strongly suspect it was not), why is it being dealt with under 'anti-terrorism' legislation?

Is it that the person that was arrested last week (a Home Office official appparently believed to be the source of the material passed on to Mr Green) proving more difficult to 'break' than anticipated? The real question is why the government thought it wise to conceal from the public factual information which it has every right to know and which Mr Green made known? For example:
- The November 2007 revelation that the home secretary knew the Security Industry Authority had granted licences to 5,000 illegal workers, but decided not to publicise it;
- The February 2008 news that an illegal immigrant had been employed as a cleaner in the House of Commons;
- A whips' list of potential Labour rebels in the vote on plans to increase the pre-charge terror detention limit to 42 days;
- A letter from the home secretary warning that a recession could lead to a rise in crime.

The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown MP, denies being complicit in the arrest, or aware of it before it happened. One assumes this is true and indeed that no other member of the government was aware either, for if they were they have a great deal of explaining to do. If the police acted solely on their own initiative, quite difficult to believe when a senior politician is involved, then they will certainly have their actions scrutinised closely. It almost seems as if they have confused the interests of the country as being the same as the undoubted embarrassment to the Labour government of having concealed information from the public (which they had no right to conceal), only for it to be 'leaked'. Is it now going to become an anti-terrorism matter to reveal the incompetence (or duplcicity, take your pick) of our Labour government?

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