Meanwhile, in an authoritarian state near here...

[BeautifulBurnout]

This really is a step too far on the way to totalitarianism as far as I am concerned. Note: I would sooner stab myself in the eye with a rusty fork than vote for the Tories, but enough is enough.

Tory shadow minister arrested and house searched by anti-terrorism police for involvement in whistle-blowing.

Now, it is important to note that the whistle-blower in question didn't pass on any state secrets or, indeed, any information that would have been risking the national security in any way. The only way in which the information was "sensitive" was that it showed New Labour up for being a bunch of hypocrites.

Nevertheless, somehow the Cabinet Office saw fit to lodge an unspecified complaint with the Metropolitan Police which resulted in the Shadow Minister, Damian Green, being arrested yesterday, detained for questioning for 9 hours while his properties and offices were searched and documents, computers and mobile phones seized.

The police acted perfectly within the law; he was arrested for conspiracy to and/or aiding and abetting the comission malfeasance in public office, which is a common law offence in this country, and one that is very rarely used. However, it is an indictable offence and, as such, triggers the power to search and seize.

Normally when a member of parliament is suspected of wrong-doing in any way, he is politely asked to pop along to the local police station for questioning, usually under caution. It is unheard of that he be arrested in this way. But then, if he had been invited for interview, that wouldn't have triggered the search powers, would it?

Government ministers, like a basket of crabs, are climbing over themselves to say they knew nothing of this until the arrest had happened, and it was a "matter for the police". The most senior Civil Servant at the Home Office has come out saying that he made the decision and no ministers were consulted. Yeah. Hmm... So how come David Cameron, the opposition leader, Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, and the Speaker of the House of Commons were all aware it was going to happen because they were told by the Met, but nobody in the Government was told?

This stinks to high heaven. In my opinion, the whole purpose of the exercise was to seize any documents Green had in his possession and prevent him blowing the whistle on anything else, and hang the constitutional implications.

The separation of Executive, Legislature and Judiciary exist for a good reason. I hope this story runs and runs....

[jOHN rODRIGUEZ]

"Strung out committee
The guards are itchy"

"100 year war"

I could go on, but just waiting for it to happen here.

[Strangelet]

in a word: fucked.

i think the western world has something of a crisis on its hands.

[jOHN rODRIGUEZ]

Originally Posted by Strangelet

in a word: fucked.

i think the western world has something of a crisis on its hands.

Ya don't say?

[//\/\/]

scary business, to be sure - i hope the speaker of the house, who knew of this, does the decent thing...

[Deckard]

I think it's fair to say I'm pretty disgusted by this, and not in the least bit surprised.

Labour, why do you keep making it so damn difficult for me to support you?

Fucked is the word. But here's another one: backlash.

I'm sensing a limit being reached. Strange alliances are being drawn. When knobheads like Jon Gaunt* are getting the backing of Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti, you know something is stirring.

(*Sacked from a radio station for referring to a councillor as "a health nazi")

It's coming to something when I find myself eager to defend front bench Conservative shadow ministers and right wing shock jocks. And I hate that so much ammunition is being handed to the "it's political correctness gone mad" crowd. But that's the way it is.

[BeautifulBurnout]

Deckard

I know. I am at the point where I would rather stab myself in the eye with a rusty fork than vote New Labour either. Lucky we have a 3rd option in the UK although a lot of people think it's a wasted vote.

I kind of feel like this is a watershed moment too, though. We have had the drip-drip-drip of erosion of liberties for so long now, and people keep saying "well, if you've done nothing wrong there's nothing to worry about" and allowing it to happen. I feel that this is the point where the masses, not just the chattering classes, are saying "Whoah! How the hell did that happen?"

Time to smell the coffee people. We let it happen.