Is Miss Smith telling the whole truth?
By
Daily Mail Comment
Last updated at 2:02 PM on 01st December 2008
It is extremely rare for a Cabinet minister to be accused of telling outright lies by a front bench opposition spokesman.
But that is effectively what Home Secretary Jacqui Smith was charged with yesterday, by her parliamentary 'shadow', Dominic Grieve.
Mr Grieve refuses to believe Miss Smith's claim that she had no prior knowledge of the monstrously disproportionate raids on the homes and offices of his Tory colleague Damian Green.
Defiant: Home Secretary Jacqui Smith defended the police arrest of senior Tory MP Damian Green
And the circumstantial evidence for his view is increasingly compelling.
Miss Smith admits she was informed at every other key point in the investigation, which began as an inquiry into leaks to the media from inside the Home Office.
She was told by her top civil servant, Sir David Normington, when the leak inquiry was instigated, she was told when the police were called in and she was told when the 'mole', a junior civil servant in her department, was about to be arrested.
But when it came to the constitutionally seismic matter of Mr Green's arrest, she asks us to believe she was suddenly excluded from the loop.
Sir Paul Stephenson, the acting Met Commissioner who sanctioned the operation, told London Mayor Boris Johnson in advance - albeit only an hour or so before the raids.
He also told Tory leader David Cameron, Commons Speaker Michael Martin and, of course, Sir David.
Miss Smith says she was not told because the police maintain operational independence from the Home Office. But this assertion is becoming increasingly hard to believe.
After all, Sir Paul has every reason to ingratiate himself with the Home Office.
In the next few months, the new Met Commissioner will be chosen and he wants the job.
The selection process starts with a shortlist compiled by a committee chaired by Sir David and ends with confirmation of the new chief by - you guessed it - the Home Secretary.
Miss Smith may not have known the timing of Mr Green's arrest but the idea that she had no inkling it was coming, stretches credulity beyond its limits.
All the leaked stories she complained about carried quotes from Mr Green, so it did not take much imagination to establish that he was the conduit and would be questioned by police.
If she didn't know the fine details of when and how, it can only be because she didn't want to know.
The independence of the Met was dangerously eroded by ex-Commissioner Sir Ian Blair's slavishness to new Labour.
By allowing the force to be complicit in the political intimidation of Mr Green, Sir Paul has proved that he is not the man to restore their reputation.
Scotland Yard desperately needs strong, independent leadership but how can that independence possibly be guaranteed, if the job of Commissioner remains in the gift of the Home Secretary?
This client state
After our report last week that more than half the jobs created under this government have been in the public sector, comes research showing there are ten towns and cities in Britain where more than 40 per cent of people are employed by the state.
At the same time, private business in these 'Sovietised' areas is shrinking fast.
Many public servants work hard for a living but their wages can only be paid by the wealth-creating private sector.
As we move deeper into recession, Labour's success in cynically turning large areas of the country into its client state, will lead us to the brink of bankruptcy.
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Wasn't she a teacher ? Enough said.
Mz Smith is a dangerous woman to be entrusted with high office.
She lacks basic common sense, has no regard for the people of UK. She must step down or be sacked. No move to the Lords or some other sideways promotion. Gordon must send her to the back benches and tell her to only speak on matters that affect the country or her constituents and only if she has something sensible to say!
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Stinking of sleaze and corruption this vermin tells 35 million adults she knows best???
nu labour nightmare..
God help us all.
- rick, NEWCASTLE UK, 01/12/2008 16:36