Damian Green (shadow immigration minister) arrested

[afleitch]

According to the BBC:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

What? Isn't that the purpose of parliamentary politics?

Quite, indeed my first reaction was 'Phew, at least it's not our Treasury mole'

[afleitch]

Seems to be about leaking. Strange that that sort of thing has been taken so seriously; generally the police don't go around hunting for people involved in the leaking process. Someone, somewhere, is very upset at something.

According to the BBC:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

What? Isn't that the purpose of parliamentary politics?

lol

Well it is Sir Ian Blair's last day

[afleitch]

I've been following this since the rumour that something was happening began. It seemed to be our side that stoked the rumour. When it was announced, the Tories were quick to his defense.  It appears the police have had fun with their new counter terrorism powers and sent counter-terrorism police officers round to his home and office this lunchtime. He was arrested but not charged.

If you trawl through recent news stories; about the effects of the recession on community cohesion and immigration etc it's pretty obvious what's been leaked.

Now it could easily be argued that a) leaking is what people do and b) it was in the public interest (and for me ( c) arrest Robert Peston... ). I don't think this that this will be damaging as a result.

[afleitch]

The best insurance policy for Gordon Brown is to orchestrate for the Shadow Cabinet to be arrested one by one.  It's a great strategy, you have to admit.

I'm sure that will be met with approval from some folks over at LabourMoanDroneHome

EDIT: I take that back..some voices of dissaproval actually.

[afleitch]

Whether this pans out as something legit or not we know this much.

Damien Green was arrested at his home at 2pm. He was taken to London and detained. He has since been bailed until February. The police were granted permission to raid his Common's offices. Permission for this, traditionally would come from the Sarjeant at Arms and the Speaker.

Boris Johnson was told of the planned arrest and warned against it, Again, procedure allows us to deduce that if Boris was told, so too was the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith. Boris does not have the authority to pull the police back. If Smith was told, it would appear she okay-ed it.

And as for Gordon. His office were quick to deny knowledge of this, but Labour MP Diane Abbot a short while ago said it would be ''inconceivable'' for a PM not to have knowledge. She added that the police would not dare make an arrest of an MP without making sure they had political cover.

If Jacqui okayed the use of anti-terror legislation to arrest a sitting MP for leaking government information she is finished. I won't speculate about Brown.

Question is, if true, what would they want to do that?

[afleitch]

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=QIrweIqqsOc&eurl=http://www.order-order.com/

SEIZE HIM!!!11111

[afleitch]

This whole thing may be about to lurch ever closer to crossing the line into parody; the leaking civil servant at the centre of it all is apparently to hold a press conference in about an hour. 24hournews is eating itself, people...

Possibly, but this story isn't going to dissapear. It will keep rolling on, possibly in two waves - now and in again in February when Green's bail ends or further steps are taken.

If Galley had thrown Green into it today the story would have changed direction. He didn't and he hasn't.

We now know that leks were regular, they were not sensitive and there were bo  “inducements” by way of Green to persuade Galley to leak.

After yesterday, no one quite believes Jacqui Smith and no one quite trusts the Speaker. I expect one or both heads to roll. Some Labour bigwigs understand the potential severity of this affair (Blunkett and Harman for example) The best the government can hope for is for the Police to take most of the damage and to a lesser extent, the Speaker.