Following the continued Damien Green arrest affair, the most surprising and worrying development has been the actions of the Home Secretary.
Jacqui Smith continues to defend what seems an undefendable position by rolling out her stock answers and avoiding Andrew Marr's somewhat generous questions (
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7757208.stm). Notice how she fails to clarify whether she actually signed the warrant for his arrest and the issue is skirted over. I think at best, she is being liberal with the truth and at worst is flat out lying.
Damien Green's arrest appears to have been an act of censorship by the government and it is an extremely worrying development for freedom of speech in this country. Freedom of speech appears to be something Smith holds in extremely low regard.
Most of my news-conscious life I have been ruled by a Labour government. While I understand that the veer to the right that New Labour made was a necessary evil for it to capture 'Middle England', I have never been a fan of its politics. Having said that I have never had much reason to hate New Labour in the way people hated Thatcherism. Now, however, as Labour struggle on through their poor third term, civil liberties and human rights are paid minimal lip service and are considered secondary to an ill-defined and unexplained threat. One that is so sensitive we cannot be told about it.
Whenever the government chips away at our liberties, there is Jacqui Smith with her pick axe swinging the hardest, directing operations. Whatever she says, Smith is no friend of freedom of expression and every measure she sponsors hacks away at our rights. Her obsessional promotion of ID cards and 48 days arrest without trial give an insight into her position on our liberties. The fact she could not even identify with the way Marr explained the trauma Green's arrest caused for his family must worry Gordon Brown.
I guess the best we can hope is that he finally loses patience with this dictatorial Home Secretary and gets rid of her once and for all.
