Serious issues in the Damian Green affair

There was nothing good about the arrest of Damian Green, but some good may come of it. Claptrap about the supremacy of parliament is laughable, but in our poor excuse for a democracy it is one of the few defences we have against over-mighty governments. Matthew Parris calls the arrest "an outrage that brings shame on Britain".

Strange how the police told Boris Johnson and David Cameron before the arrest but didn't tell any ministers at all. Michael Howard says the Home Secretary should have known. Maybe they didn't speak directly to any minister. Maybe the notice was too short for any minister to know personally beforehand.

Sir David Norrington is quoted as saying that the leaks were preventing the effective running of the department. This doesn't justify arresting an MP. First, Jackboot Norrington lied. The Home Office was probably running more effectively than before. Nothing putting the nation's security was leaked. Second, all the leaks were of information which should have been available in a democracy. The government suppressed it for its own political convenience.

The leaks were no more dangerous than those Gordon Brown obtained when he was in Opposition. Thet were less dangerous than Robert Peston's reports. Have Peston or Brown been arrested?

The Speaker had plenty of opportunity to stop this outrageous raid on Commons premises. He was probably too busy adding up his expenses to try to understand any of the big, simple issues involved. He must surely lose the confidence of the House.

The FT puts this disgrace in a wider context.

Mr Green's experience has also highlighted part of the common law that needs reform. Charges of the same offence were dropped only this week against a local journalist in Milton Keynes. Her offence had been to find out from a helpful policeman whether a local footballer would be charged with an offence. She escaped only because of protections offered by the European Human Rights Act.

Governments must be jealous of giving the police too much power and of vague, open-ended offences. Unaccountable police forces with such loosely defined prerogatives are a menace to liberty. But there is little reason to hope that this administration will recognise this. The draconian anti-terror legislation it has introduced alone has given the police so much power that it has been used to detain an elderly heckler at the Labour party conference, stop protests and, last month, to freeze the assets of Icelandic banks. The government must stop making free with civil liberties.

And, as the FT remarks, "there must be genuine accountability for police forces". If no one is above the law, the police cannot be above the people.

Update - the Sally Murrer case was stopped in its tracks. This was even more heavy handed jackboot policing.

The police should have a lot to answer for.