Friday 1 October 2010

Police? I Would Like to Report A Breach of Trust


Putting to one side my inaccurate predictions over David Miliband, attention is turned to the real divsion in the cabinet over the scale and scope of the proposed defence cuts.
Dr Liam Fox, for it is he, made a robust and mostly persuasive case for maintaining levels of funding for troops and their support functions, especially as we are still engaged in our longest war since Napolean.
The media image of handing redundancy notices to heroes from Helmand is at least unedifying. Fox pointed to the "grave consequences" and "political damage" to the PM in a private and throughly leaked letter.
Fox's decision to call in the police to investigate the matter perhaps underlines his Department's guilt in wishing to publicise Treasury dominance on the country's strategic defence capability. But the police?
The Conservatives were suitably outraged when Home Office neurosis over a few leaks, led to an invasion of anti-terrorist police into Parliament and also the arrest of one of their frontbenchers, Damian Green. But now they are in power they can't resist but press the plod button at the first opportunity.
Sky News reported thirty (!) flatfoots pounding around MOD's Main Building pulling out hard-drives and drawing up mobile phone records. I am sure the leaker knows it only takes someone to photocopy a letter and post it to a newspaper to make it completely untraceable.
Let's just say they find it was young Toby from Liam's Private Office. What are the police actually going to do with him other than wag a finger? There is no criminal offence here unless they chose to proceed with the Official Secrets Act. The letter was about budgets not nuclear codes so that would be a dead end.
But what a dramtic loss of dignity. One day Fox looks a solid chap, standing up for his Department (unlike Hunt and Spellman) and the next he looks as mealy-mouthed and reactionary as Old New Labour.
And in the end, we all know the Treasury will win.

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