The news that Tory Immigration spokesman Damian Green has been arrested by the Metropolian Police and held on suspicion of "conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office" shows that the Metropolitan Police have lost all sense of both their own role, and the role of politicians.
I've been saying for years now that the police are more interested in protecting the state than protecting the individual. And the Big Mac agrees:
Machiavelli finds it absolutely astonishing that the police should have acted is such a cavalier, heavy-handed, high-handed, partisan manner. Sell peerages for party donations? Be my guest. Take over £100,000 in illegal donations during the Labour deputy leadership campaign? Well... maybe we won't prosecute. Invade other peoples' countries on a false prospectus? What can we do to help?
It seems that, under the leadership of Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police have lost all sense of their proper responsibilities and of their impartial, non-partisan role. They have become the law enforcement wing of the Labour Party.
Update: News reaches Machiavelli that yesterday evening a 67 year old woman in Essex Road, Hackney, was arrested by police and held on suspicion of obstructing a public highway. It is understood that the woman was a Lollypop Lady.
Scrap the whole fucking lot and start again, please!
Update: From the Telegraph:
Tory sources angrily pointed out that the police move came after Parliament rose for a five-day holiday.
Had the Commons been sitting, they said, MPs could have immediately raised the matter with the Speaker.
The police search of Mr Green's office had to be authorised by the Serjeant at Arms, who answers to the Speaker.
Happy coincidence, huh? No way that this wasn't coordinated by the spawn of Mandelsnake.
Update 2: Carswell and Blaney are outraged. Guido thinks Gorgon is behaving just like Syphilis Bob. Personally, I detect the heavy hand of "Tits" in this.
Update 3: Dizzy doesn't believe the government line. Mrs Dale has a detailed analysis. RedBox talks about the pernicious laws used for this egregious attack on the body politic.
9 comments:
"Tory sources angrily pointed out that the police move came after Parliament rose for a five-day holiday."
And don't forget the ongoing terrorist action in Bombay that's dominating the headlines.
Another 'good day to bury bad news', I guess...
And, strangely, the Al-Beebra propaganda site headline this morning is "Cameron condems Tory leak arrest", and there's no place to leave comments ("Have your say") at the end of the article.
WV: browli
I'm afraid the Stasi have shown their hand too soon and in too obvious a way.
Despite their protestations of ignorance and innocence this has McBroon's snot stained finger prints all over it.
The Penguin
Not just the Beeb revelling in the story. Check out that smug cunt Jon Craig on Sky, he's creaming his pants 'breaking' the story:
"As a shdow Home Office minister, well he is in deep trouble. Can he remain in his position? Looks unlikely. Tory party not being terribly upfront at the moment. (Oh I'm sorry, I've just come)"
I am not a practising lawyer but do have a very dated academic training in the subject and after a whole 15 minutes researching this crime, I feel moved to shoot out a few random comments. Not, repeat not, authoritative analysis.
Misconduct in a public office seems to have crystallised out of case law in the early part of the decade. One or two slightly older precedents seem to have been developed by analogy, which is quite something for a crime with a maximum tariff of life.
Its boundaries seem to be so nebulous as to defy sensible delineation (details below). It has no predictable scope. The victim is not specified, if indeed the crime requires one. The quality of harm (to person or property) is not specified. If ever I saw a law whose content the authorities could make up as they went along then this is it.
1. It applies to individuals performing a public function. Public law historically applies to an organ of the executive to curtail activities beyond jurisdiction or beyond the scope of its powers. (Green as an opposition MP is a member of the legislature, not the executive. His job is for the most part to oppose government legislation.)
2. It can include allowing someone to die while in one's custody, ie a breach of the duty of care under the law of negligence (tort law). No application to Green.
3. It can include making a secret profit from one's office, historically a breach of a fiduciary duty (trusts and company law). No application to Green.
(Also the idea of "public trust" is basically incoherent. Fiduciary duties can only be owed to a definable class so that their execution can be monitored. Owing a fiduciary duty to the world is a contradiction in terms. There has to be an inverse proportion between the content of the duty and the breadth of the class to which it is owed. No time to expand on this , but hope you get the general idea…)
4. I plead ignorance about the fast developing area of information law but if this crime is as broad as it looks the Official Secrets Act is almost certainly redundant. Immigration matters are also outside the scope of the OSA.
5. The mental element is intentional abuse of public trust with knowledge of the consequences. [All of them? For everybody?] (crime)
6. It is enforceable by anti-terrorist police (public order).
In other words the crime draws on elements from every major branch of the law with the possible exception of contract. There seem to be no principles of limitation, which means that the authorities have carte blanche to prosecute anything that is not explicitly permitted and pick'n'mix the pretexts on which they do so.
Repeat: This law has no predictable scope. Laws without predictable scope are arbitrary. A more arbitrary exercise of power is difficult to imagine.
There may not have been violent intimidation (let's hang a big YET on that though) - but this regime are still truly evil.
Over the last eleven years they have committed murder. They have murdered the civil liberties and freedoms this country has traditionally enjoyed.
ID Cards. A Database State. 1 CCTV Camera per 15 Citizens. Communications Monitoring. Terror laws to catch those who overfill their bins.
And now - nine Anti-Terror Political Police 'officers' to arrest an Opposition Minister for making public information which deserved to be in the public domain. For doing something that this regime do daily and with great effect (leaks to Peston affecting the stock market, and the recent leaks of the PBR for example).
The Brown Regime is shabby, dishonest and frankly abhorrent, and I believe they will use any method - up to and including the imposition of the Civil Contingencies Act - to hold onto the power and control that is all they covet.
I honestly believe that with this first political arrest, we can safely say that British Freedom (1215-2008) has now died.
RIP. Obituary at http://tinyurl.com/6z2eeh.
Dungeekin
He has to fall though, otherwise they'll find out someone bigger up the food chain is in deeper. Then what the ruskies have been saying for years will become proven fact, after all David Cameron is their man in England.
TuesdayKid,
You are delusional. Perhaps the strain of GCSE's is too much for you?
The Penguin
Just watch Pengueng it'll all come out in the end. Then I'll make you eat those words.
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