Free speech
The arrest of Damian Green (the Shadow Home Secretary) confirms that this government will do anything in its power to stop free speech. His arrest and imprisonment should rightly worry every free-thinking member of the public.
We need to be told who authorised this arrest, and who decided that 9 anti-terrorist officers were needed to make the arrest.
We need to know on what basis the police obtained an arrest warrant and from whom.
We need to know who authorised the police to enter the parliament. If the current speaker knew and allowed the police to enter he should resign immediately.
Did the Home Secretary and the Prime Minister know in advance the arrest was going to be made and if they did how long in advance did they know?
We need to know why the police needed to read love-letters that were written between Mr Green and his wife.
It is very unlikely this case will ever come to court; if it does then every government minister past and present will be subpoenaed to attend court. Can you imagine the defence barrister asking Gordon Brown or Alistair Darling whether they have ever leaked any information? Pretty well all of the pre-budget speech recently given by Darling had been leaked either in its entirety or partially.
Mr Green, quite properly, managed to bring into the public eye serious issues in respect of the government’s immigration policy. They were being very economical with the truth. If he had not had the courage to bring this matter out into the open the government would have got away with more fabrication.
With all the crime going on in London, almost non-stop knife crime it would appear, was this really the best use of London’s finest.
This is not exactly the first case of these new so called oppressive anti-terrorist laws being used to repel free speech. A case that Private Eye has been highlighting for many months has finally reached its conclusion, with a judge throwing the case out of court.
It would appear that the only people who are allowed to speak out against our country and what is happening are the Muslim Imans; who it would seem, can make any racist and inflammatory remark they like without any fear of having their collar felt.
A journalist on similar charges to those faced by Damian Green raised the prospect that she had been bugged by police as she walked free from court recently. Reporter Sally Murrer, charged with receiving sensitive information from a police officer, won a victory for Press freedom when the charges against her were thrown out.
The 50-year-old had been accused of encouraging a police officer to leak confidential information, but evidence against her was ruled inadmissible after a five-day legal battle.
A judge decided that her rights under Article Ten of the European Convention on Human Rights – the right to receive and impart information without interference by public authority – had been breached.
Her police contact, Det. Sgt Mark Kearney, also walked free from Kingston Crown Court in Surrey. During the investigation, Miss Murrer was the subject of police covert recordings via a bug placed in the car of her police contact.
After a judge ruled that the evidence could not be used in court, Miss Murrer questioned whether Mr Green had suffered similar treatment. Earlier this year it emerged that another MP, Sadiq Khan, had been bugged by the Metropolitan Police.
Miss Murrer, when questioned about the Damien Green situation stated the following:
'It's such a chilling parallel to this case and it's really frightening that police seem to be the judge and jury of what is in the public interest and what isn't. It will be very interesting to know whether surveillance was involved.'
The information that the Crown had accused Miss Murrer of encouraging Mr Kearney to leak to her was described by her outside the court as 'run-of-the-mill, local paper stories'. One was about a serving prisoner at a young offenders' institution who was telling staff that he intended to be a suicide bomber when he left prison.
Many will remember the peace activist and union official who were ejected from the Labour conference in 2005.
Walter Wolfgang, 82, became the centre of attention after he was unceremoniously taken out of the conference hall in Brighton when he shouted "nonsense" at Foreign Secretary Jack Straw when the minister mentioned the UK's involvement in Iraq.
Steve Forrest, a London official of the GMB union, was also ejected after he tried to stop stewards taking Mr. Wolfgang out of the hall, and the two men had their conference passes confiscated.
These are all examples of government or government forces denying us Freedom of Speech.
Many laws have been passed in the name of security, which are being used for anything but security.
The NDP would review all laws and the use of those laws, which potentially impact on Freedom of Speech.
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