UK: Speaker and Serjeant 2

An apology to Damian Green: someone had told me that his name was spelled Damien, as in Hirst, so I didn't bother to check. I now learn the correct spelling and that we are the same age and were at University together.

There will be no shortage of lawyers, barrack room and other, on l'affaire Green, and indeed there has been some well-informed comment on my last post. I need not put my two penn'orth in, except to say that I have been told that the permission for the police to search without a warrant, I think S8 of the PACE, may not apply to a Royal Palace, only to you and me. I'd be interested to hear opinion on this.

What the law should be may be different. A whistleblower is stealing but of course there should be the defence of public interest. This would seem to me to apply to the 5,000 uncleared illegal immigrants including one cleaning the Commons and another guarding the PM's car, but not to a list of Labour defectors over a piece of legislation.

An MP may, I suppose, therefore be in the position of receiving stolen goods, but the public interest defence should apply even more, with the added caveat that he wouldn't know it was in the public interest until he had read it.

I am not impressed with this idea of 'grooming', that an MP might induce a whistleblower to get some information. An MP should be regarded like a taxi with its light on, available for the business of receiving information at all times. He doesn't need to say he will receive information enabling him to hold the government to account, of course he will.

I do not believe, as some commentators and MPs have said, that the police should under no circumstances be allowed to search an MP's office. We have had in the past MPs who were sympathisers with terrorist groups in N Ireland (Bobby Sands was of course an MP although never took up his seat) and we don't want them using the Palace of Westminster to store their data, right under the noses of the establishment.

Lastly it is not in the Tories' interest to get rid of Martin: another Labour speaker would be elected in his place. He should be allowed to go quietly at the general election.

UK: Speaker and Serjeant

The Speaker, Michael Martin, seems to have dropped the Serjeant at arms, Jill Pay, into the doodoo. He says he was informed by her that Damien Green's office was going to be searched, but only that. Questions still surround Mr Martin as to whether he raised a complaint or even showed any interest at the news but the spotlight will be on Mrs Pay. It would appear that she did not ask the police if they had a warrant (they didn't) but let them in anyway.

It will be remembered that the office of Serjeant at arms is in the gift of the Queen and has gone traditionally to a senior military officer. Martin got rid of the last one (Major General Peter Grant Peterkin) and appointed Mrs Pay.

Her Majesty was said to be outraged and refused to receive Mrs Pay, but I am afraid it is yet another example of her abrogating her powers, not to the people, but to the executive.

Pay's previous job was deputy director of the Technical and Vocational Education Initiative at the Department of Employment, and if that doesn't have a New Labour flavour to it I don't know what does.

I have written before about New Labour's ability to get their own people into senior positions in all walks of life (Andrew Marr is a prime example at the BBC). I am afraid MPs are going to have to ask themselves (pointless asking her) if she would have acted in this way if it had been a Labour MP under arrest.