I’m glad Damian Green has been released on bail: this affair is quite worrying, and David Cameron is entitled to be angry and ask questions, I think. Home Office ministers in particular need to explain what if anything they knew about the arrest, and we need an explanation of why this happened on Sir Ian Blair’s last day in post. Is this simply a coincidence?

A sidelight, though. Politicians sink in the eyes of the public every time they appear to want special, different treatment from the rest of us; and there’s a nasty tendency of politicians, especially those in office, to want to protect politicians from legal sanctions while being quite content to see officials carry the can.

If what Damian Green did is all right in the public interest (and I’m instinctively sympathetic to him) then it must follow, mustn’t it, that what the Home Office official did is all right – the one who it seems may be accused of having passed papers to him? Yet we hear no complaints about his arrest and treatment. I expect to see Conservatives who back Damian Green also backing the civil servant – and telling us what they plan to do in office to reform the law on “leaks”.

2008-11-28T09:48:00+00:00Tags: , , , , |