An Assault On Democracy In Britain

In a story that has received very little attention here in the United States, but has been front page news for days in Britain, a leak inquiry has led to anti-terror police arresting an opposition politician and raiding his home and, in a shocking break with historical tradition, his office in the Houses of Parliament.

The story broke last Thursday when the Conservative shadow Immigration Minister Damian Green, was arrested by nine counter-terrorism officers from London's Metropolitan Police in a dawn raid that saw his homes and private office ransacked by authorities.

His alleged crime was that of procuring leaked information from a civil servant working in the Home Office (the British Interior Ministry responsible for policing within the nation) - information on Government incompetence that they would rather not see in the public domain.

There are several issues with the actions of the police, not least of which is why Britain's ever more sinister anti-terror laws were used in this case when there was no suggestion that national security issues were involved (otherwise Mr Green would have been charged under the official Secrets Act rather than an archaic 18th Century piece of common law relating to 'conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office'.

The reaction to this overreach by the authorities has been swift and fierce.

Newspapers on both sides of the political divide have covered this story for days with thousands of outraged words in front-page stories, editorials and opinion pieces, almost all condemning the decision to arrest Mr Green and, worse, to cast aside hundreds of years of Parliamentary privilege by entering Parliament and searching his office.

Politicans have also been surprisingly united in their condemnation of this latest assault on civil liberties in Britain.

Members of Parliament in Britain are expected to pursue leaks and information, so long as it does not fall under the auspices of national security and the Official Secrets Act, and the leader of the opposition Conservative Party, David Cameron rhetorically asked the Prime Minister Gordon Brown whether he thought "it is right for an MP who has apparently done nothing to breach our national security - and everything to inform the public of information they're entitled to know - to have his home and office searched by a dozen counter-terrorist police officers, his phone, blackberry and computers confiscated, and to be arrested and held for nine hours?"

A former Conservative Home Secretary under John Major expressed his strong feelings, telling reporters that the police had acted in an "outrageous" manner: "There is no crime, this is an abuse of police powers, this is President Nixon's America - harassing a political opponent of the government. It should stop.

Meanwhile the leader of the minority Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg insisted that, "This is breaking with centuries of tradition about the independence of Parliament, the confidentiality of information kept by MPs.

"And to do that on the nod, because the police say they want to, without telling your political masters? It's either implausible or its extraordinarily incompetent," he concluded, alluding to the claims by both the Home Secretary and Prime Minister that they had not been informed that the arrest or search was going to be conducted.

Also worrying was the utter lack of sense shown by Parliamentary authorities when told by the police that they were going to search Mr Green's private offices and seize computers with confidential correspondance between the MP and his constituents.

In this case the Michael Martin, MP, the Speaker seems to have allowed the police free rein, a fact that has not passed unnoticed by both politicians and the media who remind the public of Speaker Lenthall who, in 1642, confronted King Charles I, who was in Parliament to seize MPs who had been causing him trouble.

The Speaker, when asked for the whereabouts of the men simply responded that, "May it please your Majesty, I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place but as the House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am here."

A few days later the English Civil War began and the King eventually lost his head.

While such an outcome is unlikely in this case, expect this story to run and run - and, while Ministers and officials - the the police and civil service - will keep their heads, many will certainly lose their jobs. C