Row over Green 'grooming' claims

[emad]

Senior Tories are furious that police who arrested MP Damian Green accused him of "grooming" a Home Office mole to leak him information.

This latest revelation comes amid reports angry MPs may disrupt the state opening of Parliament on Wednesday.

On the same day, Commons Speaker Michael Martin will address Parliament about the raid on Mr Green's offices.

Meanwhile, many MPs are reported to be dissatisfied with Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's response so far to the arrest.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7757876.stm


INTERESTING choice of the word 'grooming'......commonly used in recent years in relation to internet paedos and their prey.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

1. The police didn't have a warrant

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7762005.stm

I wonder who in the police is going to take the fall for this one.

[fedsron2us]

2. Under PACE it is not technically required in all cases

In this instance plod was plain stupid not to get one form a judge before acting. At least they would have had some cover. Worse they seem not to have cleared their actions with the DPP, who by all accounts is livid.

The burning you can smell is various police, civil service and the Parliamentary Officials careers going up in flames

On edit - Apparently a warrant is required if the search is carried out at a place which the arrested person neither occupies or controls. Since the House of Commons satisfies nether criteria (Green neither owns or controls it) then the police should have sought a warrant.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/03/damian-green-law

Now the blame storming has started it looks as though the Serjeant At Arms has been penciled in to take the fall. Martin's statement in the Commons today was one of the most odious exercise is buck passing that you will ever see. He is responsible for this fiasco and he should be fired.

[mrfrapp]

3. I know who won't

I find it amazing that Ian Blair has already been written out of history despite that this arrest happened under his watch. Acting commissioner Paul Stephenson seems to be getting a lot attention though so I'll make a wager that he'll be the scapegoat this time around.

[Albus]

8. Police chief accuses Speaker in explosive letter to Jacqui Smith

http://wikileaks.org/leak/smith.pdf


An unprecedented challenge to the authority of Michael Martin, the Speaker of the Commons, has emerged in a letter from Bob Quick, Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, over the police raid without a warrant on Damian Green's private office at the Commons

In the communication to Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, Quick flatly contradicts the version of events given to MPs by the Speaker on Wednesday. Quick's letter has been placed in the library of the Commons and a copy has been handed to the Mole: it makes explosive reading.

The letter, delivered to Smith on Wednesday night, may explain why two senior ministers - Leader of the House Harriet Harman and Housing Minister Margaret Beckett - refused to give their unqualified support to Martin in interviews with the media.

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/themole,,police-chief-accuses-speaker-in-letter-to-jacqui-smith,60452

[Albus]

9. Meanwhile, the kiss of death!

Brown puts his 'full confidence' in Martin

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23597345-details/Brown+puts+his+'full+confidence'+in+Martin/article.do

[Albus]

4. perhaps they tried to get a warrant, were refused, and decided to try their luck?

Apparently they had warrants for the other three addresses they raided.

[emad]

5. Search warrant not necessarily needed.

Palace of Westminster security matters are subject to bylaws that permit the Serjeant at Arms to use discretion regarding any potential breach of security matters.

EG, purely for the sake of an argument:

Anti-terror cops arrive at Palace of Westminster and say "we think the place may have been bugged, maybe by an illicit wiretap by the commander in chief of a foreign (even friendly!) state. We want to check out a potential link connected to an earlier, connected arrest" then it might be expedient for current Serjeant at Arms to say "go ahead".
-------------------

Today's Times story:


Serjeant at Arms Jill Pay: Parliament’s woman in tights

The last Serjeant at Arms, Peter Grant Peterkin, left his job after finding it impossible to work with the Speaker, Michael Martin. Last night Jill Pay was heading the same way after Mr Martin blamed her for sanctioning a police raid on Parliament. The Speaker made clear to MPs he was shocked that Mrs Pay had consented to the raid without a warrant.

Mrs Pay made history in January when she became the first woman to become one of Parliament’s “men in tights”, by taking on the 593-year-old post. Mrs Pay, who is married with two daughters, oversees Commons security and supervises 40 staff, working alongside Black Rod in the Lords.

The Serjeant’s responsibilities were downgraded by Mr Martin before she was appointed and while Mrs Pay has a grace and favour house in Parliament Street, she is believed to earn about half the £105,000 salary enjoyed by Mr Peterkin. His remit included building projects and redevelopment across the Commons estate, but his tenure came to an abrupt end in December after a protest by Greenpeace activists earlier in the year, when they scaled a crane next to Parliament.

Mrs Pay’s duties are focused on Commons security and passes. She runs Parliament’s army of cleaners and allocates offices to MPs. Her appointment was seen as a victory for “modernisers”, who wanted to end the tradition of giving the job to retired military figures. The post is a Crown appointment, and was agreed by the Queen in January, but there have been reports that Buckingham Palace was unhappy with the way the role has been diminished, and in an unusual act decided not to grant Mrs Pay “approbation” — an audience

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5282699.ece

[Nihil]

6. FWIW

> The last Serjeant at Arms, Peter Grant Peterkin, left his job after
> finding it impossible to work with the Speaker, Michael Martin.
> Last night Jill Pay was heading the same way after Mr Martin blamed her ...

This is a consistent criticism of Michael Martin: he is not only a truly
useless bastard in his own right (not unique in that building!) but is
a grade 1 shifty, sneaky coward who brown-noses and back-stabs whenever
he thinks he can get away with it. This isn't anything from the newspapers,
it was a comment from another person (who I trust) who found it impossible
to work with him so had to leave what had been a good job with excellent
prospects under the previous Speaker.

[emad]

7. re:

This is a consistent criticism of Michael Martin: he is not only a truly
useless bastard in his own right (not unique in that building!) but is
a grade 1 shifty, sneaky coward who brown-noses and back-stabs whenever
he thinks he can get away with it. This isn't anything from the newspapers,
it was a comment from another person (who I trust) who found it impossible
to work with him so had to leave what had been a good job with excellent
prospects under the previous Speaker.

Yep. Ugly bastard to boot.

Just how far did that 'Bush illicit wiretap program' really go?