Something rather funny and ominous happened yesterday.
The right-wing British opposition Conservative Party's immigration spokesman, Damian Green, was arrested and questioned by Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism officers on suspicion of "conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office" and "aiding and abetting, counselling or procuring misconduct in a public office" – an obscure and little-used offence under common law.
According to a BBC report, Mr Green's detention is believed to be connected to the arrest of a 26-year-old man suspected of being a Home Office whistleblower.
Whistleblowers are protected under British law if they reveal to those in positions of authority suspected malpractice at work.
My initial reaction upon hearing of Mr Green's arrest on the radio this morning was to laugh loudly. The British Conservative Party is a nasty den of reactionary bigots. The party is also a fanatical supporter of the racist, Zionist entity known as "Israel". Conservative Friends of Israel, for example, claims 80 per cent of Conservative MPs and provides a programme of weekly briefings, events with speakers and delegations to Israel. It also operates a “fast track” for parliamentary candidates fighting target marginal seats. So, the news that one of the leaders of this den had been arrested could only give me joy.
However, I also felt sorry for the British people, for the arrest of Mr Green marks the crossing of a dangerous new threshold on the road to a police state.
Ever since the Labour Party was elected in 1997, the British people have been steadily losing their civil liberties under various false pretexts. The extension of detention without trial first to 28 and then to 42 days, plans to extend this period further to 90 days and other plans to introduce identity cards and abolish the right to a trial with a jury are just some cases in point. And now comes the arrest of a serving Member of Parliament for receiving information from a whistleblower, highly amusing and joyous though this is.
There is also another aspect to Mr Green's arrest which casts suspicion on the intentions and integrity of the British government. According to Downing Street, Prime Minister Gordon Brown "had no prior knowledge of the arrest of Mr Green and was only informed after the event". This is either a lie or the British government is more disjointed and dysfunctional than I suspect. The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, who also belongs to the Conservative Party, has said he was informed in advance of the police's plan to arrest Mr Green. It is inconceivable, or incredible, that the police would give advance warning to the mayor but not to the government.
Some months ago I warned in one of my posts that if the British people did not take care to protect their civil and human rights, they may soon find these rights lost, as we Arabs have lost ours in our own countries. I said that the native Britons were especially at risk of losing their rights because of their unhealthy fondness of their police, security services and armed forces, and their tolerance of incessant attempts by the police and security establishment to erode their rights.
It would seem that this may happen sooner rather than later.
