Comments on Obsolete: Green and a very suddenly established police state.

I have to say I doubt this is so much about the Go...

2008-11-30T13:08:00.000+00:00

I have to say I doubt this is so much about the Government as about the State. It is well known that the top civil service has an obsession with leaks and a highly machiavellian attitude to chasing them down. It was, if you recall, the MoD permanent secretary and the JIC chair who wanted to subject David Kelly to a "robust security-style interview".

"The government might be stupid, venal and corrupt...

2008-11-29T20:23:00.000+00:00

"The government might be stupid, venal and corrupt, but is it really that stupid, venal and corrupt?"

Yes. And inept. This, of course, is a classic case of clumsily "putting on the frighteners".

The PM - so he says - knew nothing about it in advance. In Mandy Rice-Davies's immortal phrase "He wouldn't, would he?"

He mocks the Tories for being a "do nothing Opposition". He is a "know nothing prime minister". Like Pooh-Bah, whenever anything occurs which requires top-level explanation, he wasn't there.

Let's hope he soon won't be.

Sally Murrer and the others were not only aquitted...

2008-11-29T10:17:00.000+00:00

Sally Murrer and the others were not only aquitted, but the judge ruled that the prosecution was fundamentally wrong in law and in breach of their article 10 rights.

Seeing as Mr Green has not been charged, I expect the matter will now quietly be dropped, which in a way is unfortunate timing, as it will allow those at fault to withdraw and save face when they should be held properly to account instead. If he had already been charged it wouldn't be so easy to do that.

Sorry - forgot to say:In your comparison I don't s...

2008-11-29T10:03:00.000+00:00

Sorry - forgot to say:

In your comparison I don't see any violation of Commons' privilege.

>The one case which is very similar was coincid...

2008-11-29T10:02:00.000+00:00

>The one case which is very similar was coincidentally settled today: that involving Sally Murrer of the Milton Keynes Citizen and Mark Kearney, a police officer who was a local source of Murrer's, as well as also for a time being her lover. Kearney and Murrer were charged with aiding and abetting misconduct in a public office, the same charge on which Green was arrested on suspicion of.

I'd suggest that the crucial aspects here are process issues:

1 - The violation of Commons privilege. I've no idea whether a "more serious" offence would justify it.

2 - The facts taken behind the "the police have operational control and have not overstepped the mark" position taken by the Cabinet Ministers. The question: just who moved the mark, Mr Brown?

I'm seeing posturing on both sides of this politically: my own is that I don't believe the word of Jacqui Smith etc without concrete evidence.

The positive outcome I'm looking for is for Mr Cameron to be radicalised on the need to turn back all the long list of illiberal measures you refer to.

Realistically, that is only going to happen in 2 scenarions:

1 - A Tory majority.
2 - A hung Parliament as a condition of Lib Dem cooperation with a minority administration.

For me, this is more important than the economy.