International Law

Conservative MP Daniel Kawczynski - parliamentary office searched and constituency correspondence handed over to the Police, without a warrant

The promises made by the Speaker of the House of Commons and the Home Secretary, about new procedures and protocols to supposedly protect the correspondence of between Members of Parliament and their constituents, following the still ongoing Damian Green scandal, appear to be utterly worthless:

[full Hansard link tomorrow] between 7.16 and 7:32pm, Wednesday 21st January 2009:

Daniel Kawczynski (Shrewsbury and Atcham) (Con): On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I am extremely shocked about what I am going to say. I was about to make my speech in the debate on savers when I received a note from my office saying that there was a police officer there, demanding to see correspondence. The police were already present in my office and I went to see them after making my speech. They said that they were investigating an important case with regard to correspondence that had been sent to Ministers and wanted to see handwriting samples from people who had written to me. I am appalled that officers can behave in that way--entering a Member of Parliament's office, with no warrant, and demanding constituency correspondence. To my great embarrassment and eternal shame, I was so weak that I handed over the letter from my constituent that they demanded. I will have to live with that, but I am extremely embarrassed about it. After everything that has happened to my hon. Friend the Member for Ashford (Damian Green), it is disgraceful that this is happening and I urge you to investigate.

What is going on ?

How can you trust that your supposedly legally privileged correspondence via post or email etc., with your elected Member of Parliament, is not regularly being rifled through by the Police or other Government officials ?

It is time to bring the Wilson Doctrine up to date and put it on a statutory footing, with criminal sanctions against officious Police or other bureaucrats who break the rules.

[hat tip to Not a Sheep: Damian Green MarkII]

Full post as published by Spy Blog on January 21, 2009 (boomark / email).