open Democracy News Analysis - I take Damian Green’s arrest personally, Laura Sandys - Comments

AdamKeir on "I take Damian Green’s arrest personally"

AdamKeir — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 02:37:18 +0000

On New Labour and Parliament, it is often overlooked that two important new practices have been established that strengthen Parliament: that Parliament vote on the decision to go to war, and the PM's regular appearance before a select committee. A written constitution may be one way of firmly establishing these. But a new constitution may equally decide to do away with these.

Second, the 'Green affair' has strayed and is straying into a number of areas linking parliament, the civil service, cabinet, police and now the London Mayoralty. On the specific question of politicisation of the civil service raised in the article and comments, if it should emerge that a relationship had been established that resembles corporate spying, then that would look like political use of the civil service (more than the appearance of senior advisers since the 1980s (and earlier)). Presumably the Home Office would prefer to be able to formulate policy without fear that its work is being leaked for party political purposes.

In any case, that particular aspect is still to be cleared up, but the prospect takes us to a difficult area of the law, as indeed many aspects of this case constitute 'grey areas'.

MartinR on "I take Damian Green’s arrest personally"

MartinR — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:18:07 +0000

Contempt for Parliament and the Civil Service is not new but it is growing. Laura Sandys shows that it existed before the 39 - 45 war. I thought it started when Mrs Thatcher started to bring perssonal advisers into the Civil Service. Blair openly despised Parliament, absented himself, lied to us and his party about the risk Iraq represented, connived with Campbell at the 'accidental' death of Kelly.
At the time of his election I feared that chosing Michael Martin as Speaker was essentially contemptuous of Parliament. He is described as a likeable man, no one claims he has the character to defend Parliament. I should like to know who ssupported him and why they did so. Similarly flabby arguments are made for the first female sergeant at arms. Ruritanian they may dress, but ruritanian they have no riight to act.
It is hard to knw what can be done to reverse this bad situation. Perhaps a written constitution might stem the trend. I can think of nothing else.

r.thomas on "I take Damian Green’s arrest personally"

r.thomas — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:44:33 +0000

I would like to know exactly what information the Home Secretary gave to the Police to support her suggestion that that there had been criminal leaks.

It appears that she is using the Police to support a political position.

Ray Thomas

JFox on "I take Damian Green’s arrest personally"

JFox — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 13:39:17 +0000

We should not gloss over - as the media have done - the fact that Damien Green was arrested by the anti-terror squad. Two omnibus pieces of legislation - the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Bill (2001) and the Serious Organized Crime and Police Act (2005) - essentially afford the police and/or the government a licence to do anything they want whenever they want regardless of the protections afforded to the British people by precedent, by parliamentary privilege, and by the Police and Criminal Evidence Act. The same legislation was used for such improbable initiatives as the freezing of Icelandic bank assets, and the arrest of a young woman for reciting - in the vicinity of Downing Street - the names of soldiers killed in Iraq. One suspects that the obscure law cited in the Damien Green case was simply a post hoc justification. A number of other laws could have served just as well to provide cover. Britain's anti-terrorism legislation lies at the heart of this case and should be seen for what it is: a tool of authoritarian government and of a police force increasingly inclined to interpret its role as protection of the executive against the people. Our cherished democracy is being eroded precisely by those whom we have elected to stand in its defence. We, the people, will have to take it back.

I take Damian Green’s arrest personally, Laura Sandys

Laura Sandys — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 13:22:05 +0000

Editor's introduction: Laura Sandys is the Chair of the openDemocracy Board as well as a contributor and a Conservative candidate preparing to fight the coming election. This post is taken from her regular emails to her constituents. Readers outside Britain especially may need to know that her father was Duncan Sandys a leading ally of Churchill and later a senior minister in the post-war Conservative governments. They may also need to know that the parliamentary offices of Damien Green MP, a distinguished Conservative opposition spokesman, were raided by the police and his computor files taken from there as well as from his home.

Laura Sandys ( Conservative Party Candidate for South Thanet): I take this personally. My father was subjected to the "Damian" treatment just before the outbreak of the Second World War. When your father tells you that he was almost charged with espionage and could have faced years in prison you sit up and listen! When he tells you that he was within minutes of being court marshalled for treason you take a sideways look into his eyes and consider whether you truly know this person who you have lived with all your life.

Extraordinary circumstances demand courage, putting your beliefs before your fears and taking action that is guided by your conscience and not by the possible repercussions. Could the Government before the Second World War have gagged those standing up against appeasement, warning of our lack of preparations for war? Very possibly if my father had not “won” his argument in Parliament. By intimidation, by threats and by distortion of legislation on the statute book, all dissent to the emerging Nazi power might well have been suppressed.

For me it is not just what has happened to Damian Green that heralds the explicit emergence of an authoritarian state, but the message it sends out to the rest of the government’s machine.

"We will root you out, we will arrest you, we know where you live!" This must be echoing around the corridors of Whitehall intimidating every civil servant who is concerned about the spin that is demanded of them, or unhappy with the statistical presentation of their work by Ministers. The arrest of Damian Green heralds a new era of Government paranoia and one that has severe implications if not challenged.

Civil servants may be regarded as employees of the Government but they are also people of integrity and the servants of the people. The politicisation of statistics used by Ministers has undermined the reporting of information to the public. The statisticians regard that as unprofessional and unprincipled. That is why the National Office of Statistics has been begging opposition politicians to commit to their total independence when the Conservatives take office - a demand that a Cameron government is committed to meet.

The David Kelly affair represented the most extreme example of demanding complicity from public servants and the demonising of dissent – or even hint of dissent. "Sexing up" and reporting by omission, still plagues the integrity of our intelligence services.

The force by which this Government demands complicit obedience has totally changed the nature and role of our civil service, turning them into servants of the Government rather than the public.

For MPs and their constituents a fundamental right of Parliament has been breached. Confidentiality of communications between an MP and their electorate, the privilege that allowed my father and Winston Churchill to voice concerns that threatened our national safety has again come into question. This Government does not have any respect for the crucial underpinnings of democracy or Parliament. New Labour’s disdain for Parliament is not new but the move to arrest an MP and raid his office takes it beyond implicit contempt.

This action is unlikely to deter any MP, from any side of the House, who is determined to do the job to which he or she was elected. It should make them stronger and more determined to exercise their rights and responsibilities to public and I hope that this will stir even more MPs to root out discrepancies in Ministerial statements and question the integrity of information that appears politicised. I also hope and expect that an incoming Conservative Government will place the independence of the civil service at the heart of its reforms.

But it might intimidate members of the public with important concerns who wish to share them with their MP.

I was not around in 1938 so didn’t have the experience that Damian Green’s daughter suffered seeing the police entering their home and, more importantly, neither did his office containing his constituency papers get searched. While the charges that faced my father appear more severe than those that might be facing Green, there was at least a civilised meeting to which he was called to discuss the situation with the Attorney General. He was given the courtesy of being allowed to reflect on his position, and at no time were the police called to our home. It was a political matter, as is Damian Green’s, and as a result it was, in 1938, handled by politicians.

The suggestion that no Government politician knew that this week’s action against Damian Green was going to be taken reveals to us that either the police have taken up the role of servants of Government or that the Metropolitan Police now regards itself as no longer answerable to its senior authority, the Home Secretary.

If Government Ministers, having implicitly asked to be “rid of this turbulent Shadow Immigration Minister”, have turned a blind eye to the actions that followed from their wishes then those Ministers must, in the interests of parliamentary democracy, now be called upon to take the political consequences.

In 1938 this buck would have stopped at the door of Number 10 Downing Street.

Average rating

(5 votes)