Tom Griffin (London, OK): I spoke to a civil servant yesterday who was very bullish in support of the police's decision to arrest Damian Green. According to their version of events, documents were being leaked systematically by a woman with links to the Conservative Party who was employed as cover for another member of staff. It looks as if Mick Fealty has heard a similar account.
If, for instance, Mr Green had someone in the Home Office who seemed to be less motivated by a desire to expose corruption, and more by a determination to run an anti-government campaign from within a government department, it would be a different matter - particularly if Mr Green knew this to be the case.
If, for instance, this person was leaking other material to other senior Conservative spokesmen, for example - or worse still, if this person had some sort of record of Conservative activism - then it really would be a problem.
Such partisan leaking is no doubt wrong, but it wouldn't nullify the concerns raised by Anthony Barnett below. The prospect of the police rifling through Green's files and hard drives is bound to have a chilling effect not just on potential future whistleblowers, but on MPs themselves and their constituents.
Further to my blog round-up below here are a few more reactions:
- FT Economist Willem Buiter thinks the arrest is 'a further reminder of just how assiduously the British government has been chipping away at our freedom.'
- Sunder Katwala points to the parallels with the case of Mark Kearney and Sally Murrer, acquitted yesterday of the same offence that Green is accused of.
- Roy Greenslade blogs the uniformly negative press reaction to the decision to arrest Green.
Comments
Looks to me like any information obtained from the office of Green or his phone records without his approval and without a warrant will be inadmissible as evidence of anything, since such information has been obtained illegally and in breach of Green's privacy!
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