Comments on: Some questions for the Conservative Party about the Damian Green affair?

By: Brian B.

Brian B. — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:33:34 +0000

Paul, I spent nearly 40 years in the public service, and I don't believe that I ever let my private political views (as a life-long supporter of the Labour Party and a party member before and after I was a public servant) influence my actions or advice in my position as a loyal servant of elected governments of both parties. Nor do I know of anyone else in the same position acting any differently. Of course public servants whose jobs include tendering advice to ministers don't leave their values and views in the cloakroom with their raincoats, but they take account in giving their advice of the known views and commitments of their political masters, they try to warn them of the likely consequences, positive and negative, of what they want to do, and having given their advice, they loyally accept their ministers' decisions, however mistaken, and do their best to implement them honestly and effectively. This tradition is no more out of date now than any other democratic principle. It's true that the impartial civil service has been diluted by the addition to it of openly political appointees, but these are still mercifully in a small minority. If Mr Galley did what he is suspected of doing (and what his solicitor seems to have confirmed that he did), the problem was not that he was an active supporter of the Conservative party but that he seems on the face of it to have put his loyalty to that party before his loyalty to his employers and elected political masters, before his contract of employment, and before his duty of trust to the senior minister in whose Private Office he worked. Government can't work properly if ministers can't trust their officials. Ninety-nine per cent of the time, they can, thank goodness. Brian http://www.barder.com/ephems/

By: Paul Lettan

Paul Lettan — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:35:19 +0000

All good questions that the Conservatives won’t answer. Methinks, Iain Dale protesteth overmuch. Of course, the police were duty bound to investigate. The Speaker’s response today raises as many questions as it answers but that it was cock-up not conspiracy is clear.

I wish I could agree with Theo about the ‘impartiality’ of public servants but I fear that’s gone the way of the IBM golfball typewriter.

Welcome to the blogosphere Lord Harris. As a neo-phyte myself, learning to blog from a smart phone, my sympathies. Now if only I could figure out how to embed text……

By: Brian B.

Brian B. — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:22:02 +0000

Theo is absolutely spot on. It will be a disaster if the key question here, about what seems now to amount to a systematic espionage operation by the Opposition front bench using a Conservative Party activist as a clandestine source from within the private office of the home secretary herself, at the very heart of government and with access to the most sensitive documents imaginable, is overlooked and pushed into second-rank position by the issue which really excites the politicians and the journalists: the precise procedures to be followed if a police investigation requires a search of the computers and documents of a member of parliament. Brian http://www.barder.com/ephems/

By: Theo Blackwell

Theo Blackwell — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 12:54:18 +0000

A valid set of questions.

Another area of questioning, which goes to the heart of David Cameron’s judgement in this matter is whether he would be perfectly happy, were he ever to be Prime Minister, with political activists working in high offices of state, passing information that they thought was politically expedient to members of the opposition on a regular basis?

Isn’t it far more important, and in the public interest, to carry on with our country’s proud tradition of an impartial civil service?

By: Labour Lord attacked for questioning the Conservatives over Green’s actions

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 18:03:54 +0000

[...] Of course, as is so often the case, the blog article itself wasn’t linked to by the newspaper, so we’re linking to it instead so you can see whether it’s “extraordinary” or not. Lord Harris’ blog is also being added to our list of Labour blogs! Read the full article. [...]

By: Tim Ireland

Tim Ireland — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:19:55 +0000

Now now, let’s have none of your New Labour evasiveness. You only seek to distract attention from the fact that Iain is a very clear winner in the losing stakes.

By: Brian B.

Brian B. — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:19:24 +0000

Iain, I owe (and offer) you a grovelling apology: I misspelled your first name in my earlier post. I am kicking myself. As another person whose name -- surname, in my case -- is constantly misspelled, I should have known better. But I offer no apologies on matters of substance. I'm certain that if the party roles were reversed, I would be every bit as strongly in favour of putting Toby Harris's questions, unchanged, to a Labour front-bencher suspected of encouraging (let's use a more neutral word this time) a Labour Party activist working as a civil servant for a Conservative government (who had reportedly met the front-bencher in connection with an application for a job in his office) to supply him, and perhaps others?, clandestinely and illicitly with sensitive government information, without authority to disclose it, and with the sole purpose of enabling the opposition to make difficulties for the government (not to blow the whistle on any supposed wrong-doing, which might be a different matter). I can't quite believe that you (Iain, or indeed Chris) are seriously opposed to these questions being put, given the facts as so far revealed, regardless of the party affiliations of those involved. And I'm disappointed, to put it mildly, that anyone should suspect that I would take a different view if the party positions were reversed. We're all (presumably) grown-ups and we should all be capable of putting aside party loyalties or sentiments in making judgements about these rather serious constitutional and political issues. The knee-jerk tribal reactions of so many prominent Tories in recent days do them no credit at all. (I acknowledge that they have been joined by such Labour worthies as David Blunkett and Denis MacShane, who seem to be more concerned about any possible breach of their fundamental human right as MPs not to be liable to investigation if suspected of a crime or misdemeanour than about the duty of the police to investigate a possible crime and to follow the evidence wherever it leads.) Brian http://www.barder.com/ephems/

By: Toby

Toby — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:14:25 +0000

Of course, the ratio of elections won …….

By: Tim Ireland

Tim Ireland — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:50:15 +0000

In other words, you have lost twice as many elections as Iain has lost, and he has every right to look down his nose at you.

;o)

By: Toby

Toby — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:43:38 +0000

Just for the record on the “inconvenience of elections”: I have fought nine public elections – won seven; lost two.