Saturday 29 November 2008

British Democracy at Risk

When I heard the News yesterday that an MP had been arrested, I was in the kitchen. I had to stop what I was doing to listen to the news. Beyond some scant details, the news was shocking and it made me wonder what the real story was. As surely an opposition Member of Parliament had not been arrested over a political issue? This is Britain after all and not Zimbabwe.

It has not been until this evening that I have been able to look into the matter and I am shocked. There have been a series of leaks from the Home Office, the British Interior Ministry, that have been politically embarrassing So the police were called in to investigate. That part is understandable to a point, as the Home Office deals with the Police, Prisons, and of course Anti Terrorism However, the leaks were politically embarrassing and not a threat to our security. And lets face it it was the government that lost folders of Terrorist Intelligence, they were left on a train.

But a senior opposition MP was arrested using Anti Terrorist powers.

Now I will not comment on anything the MP Damien Green may or may not have done wrong. At this point I just do not know. However using Anti Terrorist laws in this matter is a serious nail in the coffin of democracy. That is the sort of behaviour that is supposed to only happen in failed states, in places where there is no democracy.

This Labour Government has form on this, it was first used to silence a heckler at the labour conference some years back. Also when one of the Icelandic banks went bust, the Government used

Anti Terrorist Laws to freeze its assets. Well we all know that Iceland is a hot bed of Terrorism, I nearly posted a comment at the time on that.

We must guard our democracy from power hungry politicians, no matter what their political hue.


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