Police arrest critic of the Home Secretary

[Bubble99]

What's that all about, then?

I had to read the thread title twice. I thought the Home Secretary had been arrested!

'scuse typos - dodgey keyboard not poor education

I don't think the Government should have prior knowledge of anyone being arrested tbh. Why should they?

One of the newspapers pointed out that if anyone had been stupid enough to try this stunt in the 30s (and they did a lot of stupid things in that decade), Churchill would have been in prison.

Very scary from a so-called "left of centre" i.e Labour party.

Big brother and all that.

Sorry,haven't read thread and am probably repeating stuff.

I am appalled,actually,and this is from someone who lived in a mining village in the 80's and wouldn't vote Tory on principle.

Guess I'm left with the lib dems and that's VERY depressing,though I do have a sneaking admiration for Vince Cable but Clegg is a nonentity.

same here wrt the strike, wrinkly. This lot scare me more than the Tories atm although if the Tories ever got into power I'm sure they would find a way to be even worse.

Vince Cable seems to be the only person who has been right about the economic crisis all the way through. And possibly the only person who has understood it.

This is really frightening and there are so many questions that don't seem to have been answered:

• Who authorised it and on what actual grounds?

• At a time like this, with suspected British involvement in the unfolding tragedy in Mumbai, how can they justify using so many counter-terrorism officers in this way?

• If the labour government were really not given prior notice why on earth were David Cameron, Boris Johnson and Michael Martin all given prior notice?

As Andrew Rawnsley's pointed out in the Guardian, Brown made his own name while the last Tory government was in power with a whole spate of of Whitehall leaks. No-one arrested him...

Very frightening. Reason no 99 why I am trying to persuade DH to sell up his business and move out of this country.

JS and GB must have planned or at the very least authorised this.

So they are lying.

What are the chances of getting any answers?

I bet it's a right wing conspiracy to make the government look bad. Since when have the police ever been puppets of any labour government?

Yeah right, Spidermama. Are you having a laugh?

I give you Ian Blair, the minister's friend. Who spoke out in favour of 42 days, politicising his office. The police may well be traditionally right-wing but how on earth you would make this out to be a Tory plot I do not know.

FWIW my family has a long and proud history in the Labour movement, dating back to the origins of the fight for political representation for ordinary people. The days when coppers used to break up union meetings and beat people up for daring to attend.

And I'm still not prepared to see our democracy overturned because it's 'my' side who are doing it. That way lies all those idiots who supported Stalin because communism must be good.

Upwind -

freedom of the press no longer exists. be careful what you say everyobody

side-issue but Michael Martin has been a disaster as Speaker. Clearly NOT impartial at all (and I'm no Tory). And what on earth was he thinking allowing the police to search an MP's office? Overturning four centuries of parliamentary privilege that we bloody well had to behead a King to gain?

I've written to my MP, how DARE any copper snoop around and read my or anyone else's confidential, privileged correspondence.

Harriet Harman's come out against the coppers interfering in the business of an MP. Good for her!

Just awful, everytime you think they cant get worse they do, what next??

Diane Abbott has said that "they would never arrest an MP without getting some form of political cover. The question is who cleared it."

It will be interesting to see how this story unravells and how it affects the appointment of Ian Blair's replacement - with the timing of this it seems like someone might be playing games.

Timing VERY significant, they waited until the House was in recess to avoid shots of police marching into the Commons and it was Ian Blair's last day in office.

Also, headlines occupied by Mumbai at the moment.

True but I do hope that the cops don't do the sort of news planning that women got the sack for - remember 'today's a good day to bury bad news'?

He's my local MP and was helpful to me with my ds's school appeal. He's seen as the good guy by many people who are not traditional conservative voters.
JS was so irritating on Andrew Marr this morning. Glad HH is making a stand.

JS?

My MP's similar, swedish, v. good constituency MP despite being one of Thatcher's more barking ministers in his time.

Maybe you should complain to the Information Commissioner about the police snooping into your private correspondence with your MP?

Oh, it gets even better... the police apparently accused Green of 'grooming' the home office official who leaked the documents. As if he was some form of paedophile! The guy was an adult, FFS.

Clearly the police think they are above the law. And WTF were they doing taking a DNA sample? They don't need to link him to a crime scene. Pure bullying and intimidation.

And papers today are saying the review of the Baby P case won't be published - convenient that any whistleblowers will just have been scared off, isn't it?

anyone else think that a nanny state inevitably turns into a police state?