It’s Not Stalinism — It’s the Law
Posted on November 30, 2008
It appears that there is generalised and shocking ignorance of the constitution and the law as it applies to the Civil Service, judging by the gitstorm stirred up by the arrest and questioning of the Shadow Minister for Immigration, Damian Green.
- Parliamentary Privilege only applies to what is said in the Commons and Lords. Furthermore, while within the confines of the Palace of Westminster, members cannot be arrested for civil offences, there is no such immunity for a member suspected of criminal offences.
- It is illegal for members of the Civil Service — which is supposed to be politically neutral — to stand for parliament or other political office. Senior civil servants are barred from all political activity, while junior civil servants, if involved in political activity, must ensure that their duties are discharged completely impartially.
- All civil servants are bound by the Official Secrets Act and must not disclose sensitive government information.
Damian Green’s alleged Home Office informant stood as a Tory candidate for Sunderland Council in 2004 and previously applied for a job in Green’s office. If he has passed information to Green for political purposes, the informant is in breach of Civil Service neutrality regulations. He is in any case in breach of the Official Secrets Act. The Guardian reports the alleged informant
quickly implicated Green and told police that he had been “induced” to leak the Home Office documents to the MP.
In these circumstances, the police were acting according to the law and obliged to proceed accordingly. If politicians do not like the provisions of the Civil Service neutrality rules and the Official Secrets Act, they can change them. It seems unlikely that they will rush to do so.
Also from the Guardian:
The arrest of the Conservative immigration spokesman, Damian Green, and the obscure character of the offence - conspiracy to commit misconduct in public life - cited by the police indicates that this is no ordinary Whitehall leak inquiry … This provides a clue to the current police investigation into the Home Office leaks. It suggests they may not be looking for a conscience-stricken civil servant who leaks in order to discredit a government policy or actions.
The nature of the offence - conspiracy to commit misconduct in public life - may suggest police suspect the junior civil servant arrested last week deliberately accessed documents to leak them.
The police told Green that he was being questioned in connection with “aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring misconduct in public life”.
These men were not arrested to forestall government embarrassment, or because they are concerned that the government’s existing immigration policy is not racist enough and seek to whip up further anti-immigrant sentiment, but because they transgressed against the legal and constitutional provisions which are supposed to protect the bourgeois liberal order. If they need lessons from people dedicated to overturning this order, they are in deep trouble.
