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Arrested MP was simply protecting our way of life
• THE abuse of time and expense in our democratic society, wherein counter-terrorism officers arrested an MP (for nine hours as well as having four addresses searched), is a travesty of justice.
The man was simply doing his job and protecting our democratic way of life. This is not a party political matter. Damian Green was delivering a message to the public regardless of whether the public or the government approve of that message. It is what he is elected to do.
Have we forgotten what it means to have freedom of speech and the liberties that, until recently, used to accompany it.
The number of people in high places who allegedly allowed the arrest to take place is also quite lengthy and thus astonishing, ranging from the Mayor of London to the House of Commons administrators, none of whom should be in a position to dictate the course of justice in such a groundbreaking fashion.
The charge laid against Mr Green “on suspicion of conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office and aiding and abetting, counselling or procuring misconduct in a public office” is the most warped interpretation I have heard yet of the work of an MP (of any party) and in this case a Shadow minister doing his job.
His job is to hold the government to account. We as politicians must defend our ability to act without fear or favour, and it is in the public interest that each one of us holds ministers and public servants to account. Any actions that fall short of that reflect a deliberate flouting of democratic convention.
A democratically elected Parliament must act in defence of our traditional liberties, and everything should be done to keep it that way.
Jeremy Corbyn
Labour MP Islington North
• THE raids by 20 police in which the home and House of Commons office of MP Damian Green were ransacked and loads of documents and his computers carted off are both a culmination and a harbinger.
The raid was a culmination of the 53 repressive law-and- order Acts of Parliament and 3,000 new criminal offences that authoritarian New Labour has brought in.
It is a harbinger of what may come if there is general unrest with mass unemployment. All the tools are in place for the swift imposition of the heavy hand of the state by Queen Jacqui Smith and her courtiers.
The denial by the Home Secretary that she knew about the raid may be true. She did not have to give orders. Her Permanent Secretary, Sir David Normington, Sir Ian Blair, Metropolitan Police Commissioner, and colleagues knew what she wanted and unleashed their anti-terrorist police.
The Labour Party has many strands and the New Labour faction in power is a cabal of professional politicians whose Big Business agenda has distanced their government from Labour’s working-class roots.
They are a Modernist Tendency, the opposite of the Militant Tendency, the most important difference between the two being that the Modernist Tendency actually attained power but with its reign ending in the current economic cataclysm.
No demagogue will be needed if there is an economic collapse. New Labour could just implement its raft of repressive legislation to bring in a one-party state. It is better placed than Hitler in 1933.
LEO CHAPMAN
Dufferin Street EC1
• I was shocked to hear of the arrest of Damian Green, Shadow immigration minister.
It seems unbelievable that more than nine anti-terrorist officers were involved in the raid at his homes in Acton and Ashford as well as his offices in Parliament and in his constituency.
As someone who also lives in Ashford, I know that Damian is an extremely hard-working constituency MP, and in the role of Shadow immigration minister has highlighted government incompetence and cover-ups in the Home Office. He has been simply doing his job in holding the Labour government to account.
The actions of the police have to be questioned. Was this response proportionate to the alleged “crime”? What was the role of the Labour government in this affair? Jacqui Smith seems not to have an issue with the arrest of a political opponent.
In 2008, after 11 years of a Labour government, we seem to be sleepwalking into a society where our liberties are being constantly eroded, be it the right to a trial by jury, 42 days detention without charge, expensive, intrusive ID cards, CCTV and anti-terror legislation being used as a “catch-all” mechanism by the police to question and intimidate ordinary citizens.
Unfortunately, history shows us this is the path all left-wing governments follow.
Richard Bunting
Deputy chairman, Islington Conservatives |
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